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The following clipping from an old newspaper will prove of interest to many of our old-time readers. The article was furnished by The Beaver Falls Review through the courtesy of 0. K. Nye, well known resident of Franklin Township.
How the Old Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church Was Founded.
Paper Found at Beaver Which Contains Many of the Names of the First Settlers Along Brush Creek- The Church Has Since Disappeared.
While searching through the old papers at the Court House at Beaver this week, Joseph A. Sutherland, deputy prothontary, discovered an ancient document which bears the names of many of the early settlers of Marion, New Sewickley and North Sewickley Townships. The paper contains the original subscription list of what was to be Ruthville Church, but in later years known as Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. There is nothing on the paper to denote its age, but as it was found among a number of others of 1826, it is supposed to have been signed as early as 1822.
Mr. Sutherland called County Commissioner Coleman's attention to the document and the latter was of course, at once deeply interested in it. Among those who subscribed to the fund was Mr. Coleman's mother, who was then a very young woman and whose maiden name was Elizabeth Hind. Nearly all the names are now familiar to everybody in Beaver County.
Of the history of the church we know little, save that it was the first erected in that section. We hope, however, that some of our readers will supply us with an account of this old meeting house and the facts which led up to the suit which caused this document to be filed in the Court House.
This we do know: the old church, like its original congregation, has long since passed away. The church yard is there yet with its sacred ashes, neglected and almost forgotten.
In this enclosure are the remains of one or two Revolutionary soldiers and of the later American wars. Let us hope that this and other burying grounds throughout the country will be reclaimed as it were, and that ancestral pride may inspire every interested person to help in the matter.
We herewith reproduce the old document above referred to. It will be seen that money was scarce in those days but the people gave liberally of whatever they possessed, as the amount named is likely only a trifle to what they afterwards contributed.
A subscription for building a meeting house at the graveyard on Peirsol's land. We, the undersigned, subscribers, do promise to pay the sums annexed to our names, that is to say, wheat at 75 per bushel; oats, rye and corn at forty-five cents per bushel; nails at fifteen cents per pound if paid when required; boards at one dollar per hundred feet when delivered on the ground above mentioned if delivered when required. The grain one-half to be delivered when the work is half done, the other half when the work is done, to be delivered at Samuel Piersol's and Jacob Piersol's. When- a sufficient quantity is subscribed to undertake with, there must be a day set and public notice given to the subscribers to attend and choose trustees to give out the building of the above mentioned house and the lowest bidder is to be the builder of said house by giving security sufficient for the performance of the same.