The Mount Tabor Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic

church building A church, church building or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 and 256. From the 11th thro ...

located along State Route 245 near West Liberty in Salem Township, Champaign County,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Built in 1881 in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style of architecture, it served a congregation formed in the 1810s. This congregation of the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

worshipped in at least three different buildings before its closure.

Organic history

Methodism was established in Salem Township in 1814, and the congregation's first church building, a log structure, was constructed in 1816.Ogden, John W. ''The History of Champaign County, Ohio''.

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: Beers, 1881. Beginning in that year and continuing for several more years, significant

camp meeting The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in England and Scotland as an evangelical event in association with the communion season. It was held for worship, preaching and communion on the American frontier d ...

s were held at the church. Among those who attended these meetings was

Simon Kenton Simon Kenton (aka "Simon Butler") (April 3, 1755 – April 29, 1836) was an American frontiersman and soldier in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. He was a friend of Daniel Boone, Simon Girty, Spencer Records, Thomas S. Hinde, Thomas Hinde, and ...

, who seems to have been present for a meeting in 1820. In attendance for an 1818 meeting was John W. Ogden, then a six-year-old boy; reminiscing sixty years later, he wrote:

Architectural history

Among the leading members of Mount Tabor church in its earliest years was the family of Nathaniel and Ann Hunter; natives of Greenbrier County, Virginia, they relocated to Salem Township in 1814. When the first church building was erected in 1816, Nathaniel and his four sons contributed greatly to the construction effort, and they were equally generous in the later construction of two successive brick structures at the site. Built in 1881, the final structure was a

church built primarily of brick on a stone

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

, topped with a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof, and ornamented with wooden elements. Like many other committed members of the church, this family — parents, all four sons, and all five daughters — is all buried at the adjacent cemetery.

Cemetery

From the Mount Tabor society's earliest years, members buried their dead near the site of the present church. The earliest recorded burial on the site of the church's

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

is that of a child who died in 1811; at that time, there were no plans to use the ground for religious purposes. Individuals from many generations since have been buried in the cemetery: among the graves are those of veterans of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

through

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Among the grave markers are three fashioned from cast

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

; these are highly distinctive, for zinc markers were only manufactured for a few years near the end of the nineteenth century.Mt. Tabor Church / Mt. Tabor Cemetery
historical marker,

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

, 2004. Accessed 2010-05-06.

Recognition

In 1995, the Mount Tabor Methodist Episcopal Church, its cemetery, and an associated

hitching lot Hitching could refer to: * Hitching (short story), a short story by Orson Scott Card * Hitching tie, a knot * Ringbolt hitching, a knot * Hitchhiking, * ''Hitching'', a synonym for lag-related overclocking In computing, overclocking is the ...

were listed together on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, due primarily to their architectural significance. This designation is unusual, for both religious properties and cemeteries must pass higher standards than most other properties to be eligible for inclusion on the National Register.National Register Criteria for Evaluation

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. Accessed 2010-05-06.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Religious organizations established in 1814 Churches completed in 1881 1880s architecture in the United States 19th-century Methodist church buildings 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Cemeteries in Champaign County, Ohio Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Churches in Champaign County, Ohio Former Methodist church buildings in the United States Gothic Revival church buildings in Ohio Methodist churches in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Champaign County, Ohio Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Unused buildings in Ohio 1814 establishments in Ohio