Bethel Methodist Church is a historic

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

church building in rural Clermont County,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Built in the 1810s under the leadership of one of Ohio's earliest Methodist preachers, it has survived the death of its congregation, and it remains in use for community activities. Together with its cemetery, the building continues to be used occasionally, and it has been named a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been re ...

History

East Fork State Park Bethel Methodist Church 2021b

The pioneer minister at Bethel was New Jersey native John Collins, who migrated to the

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from part of the unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established ...

in 1802. Local legend asserts that he was the first

Methodist Episcopal 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 nationally. In 1939, th ...

preacher in what has since become the

Cincinnati metropolitan area The Cincinnati metropolitan area (also known as the Cincinnati Tri-State area or Greater Cincinnati) is a metropolitan area with its Urban area, core in Ohio and Kentucky. Its largest city is Cincinnati and includes surrounding counties in the U. ...

,Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 138. although Ohio's oldest Methodist church was formed in a preacher's house at

Milford Milford may refer to: Place names Canada * Milford (Annapolis), Nova Scotia * Milford (Halifax), Nova Scotia * Milford, Ontario England * Milford, Derbyshire * Milford, Devon, a place in Devon * Milford on Sea, Hampshire * Milford, Shro ...

in 1797. Collins started Methodist classes throughout much of southern Ohio, including Bantam, Chillicothe,

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

, Hillsboro, and

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. When the congregation at Bantam was founded in 1805, the members named it "Bethel" and built a log church building, but the original structure remained for only a short time; the present church building replaced it in 1818. Substantial changes were made in 1867, although the core of the 1818 structure still stands. The congregation closed in 1968: when the Corps of Engineers bought large amounts of land to create

East Fork State Park East Fork State Park is public recreation area located around the East Fork of the Little Miami River in Clermont County, southeast of central Cincinnati, Ohio, in the United States. It maintains the 33-mile "Steve Newman World-Walker" perime ...

, all area residents were forced out, and no members remained to continue worshiping at Bethel. Today, the building is used just twice annually: a

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

service is held in conjunction with an

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post, and a homecoming event each fall includes a service.Puckett, Jordan.
Memorial Day Services To Be Held at the Old Bethel Methodist Church
, ''Clermont Sun'', 2013-05-17. Accessed 2014-02-10.

Architecture

Bethel is a simple

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

building, a

frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

rectangular gable-front structure. Sitting atop the eastern end of the church is a square

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

. Built with weatherboarded walls, the church rests on a stone foundation. Its southern side is divided into four

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

with twelve-over-twelve

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s. Surrounding the building is the church graveyard;,

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 ...

, 2007. Accessed 2014-02-10. among its hundreds of burials are dozens of unknown soldiers and the grandparents of U.S. President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

, a Clermont County native.

Historic site

In 1978, the former Bethel Methodist Church was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, qualifying both because of its architecture and because of its connection to John Collins. Nearby lies another National Register-listed location, the Elk Lick Road Mound, an

Indian mound Many pre-Columbian cultures in North America were collectively termed "Mound Builders", but the term has no formal meaning. It does not refer to specific people or archaeological culture but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks that in ...

constructed by peoples of the

Adena culture The Adena culture was a pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 500 BCE to 100 CE, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. The Adena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharin ...

References

{{NRHP in Clermont County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Clermont County, Ohio Churches completed in 1818 19th-century Methodist church buildings Buildings and structures in Clermont County, Ohio Former Methodist church buildings in the United States Methodist churches in Ohio Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Vernacular architecture in Ohio