Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/481

 ��niSTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

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��1826, when the Methodists felt strong enough to have one of their own. The Presbyter- ian school was continued without interrup- tion in tlie old frame church, on the corner where the present church stands, until 1857. when the frame building was taken awa^' to make room for building the new church, and the Sabbath school was held for awhile in the P]piscopal Church and in the old Baptist Church, on East Third street. About this time, there being some division in the church, the school was discontinued for a short time. In October, 1857, it was again organized, and a Mr. Furgeson elected Superintendent, followed shortly l)y a Mr. King. It was held in Melo- deon Hall, ])ut soon removed to Sturges Hall. Here it continued until the lecture-room of the pres6nt church was completed. In 1861. Hon. William Johnson was Superintendent. He was followed by Mr. Vance ; the Pastor. Thomas K. Davis, and Mr. Crawford Spear. Mr. Vance was re-elected in 1865. and served until some time in 1866, when L. J. Bonar. the present Superintendent, was elected. Mr. Bonar has filled the important position long and laithfully, and the school has greatly prospered and grown under his judicious management. He entered upon the work with great zeal, which has not flagged for a moment. Not only has the school been kept in a prosperous condition. Init other schools have grown out. and are considered part, of it. In 1869, a school was started at Canton, China, through Miss Hattie Noyes. ^ The collections of this school were sent out to Canton, and were used in sustaining the branch Sunday' school, with a membership of twenty- five girls. In the summer of 1865. the Union Colored Sunclaj' School, of Mansfield, was organized, mainly through Mr. Bonars efforts. Its meetings were held on Sabliath afternoons, and Mr. Bonar was for some time its Superin- tendent. This was an undertaking of much difficult}', as many of the members, having been recently freed from slavery, were unable

��to read. A night school was established, in which these people were first taught the rudi- ments of the English language. ^Ir. Isaac Pleasants, a colored man, was afterward elected Superintendent, and the school was continued some years under his charge, when it was placed under the care of the Young Men's Christian Association. In the fall of 1869, a Sunda}' school was organized in John's Addi- tion, under the auspices of the Presbj'terian Sunday School. Its first meeting wai^ at the house of Mr. A. W. Lobach, there being no church in that part of the city. By permission of the Board of Education, it was held for some time at the schoolhouse. Mr. Bonar was Super- intendent of this Sunday school until 1870, when Mr. Hamsher was elected.

The organization of the Congregational Church of Mansfield was first agitated in 1833. In the autumn of that year, James B. Walker, then a layman, happened in 3Ians- field on business, and was requested, by Ma- thias Day, Sr., and others, to draft a paper, containing the reasons for and articles to the organization of a new ecclesiastical societj^. This paper contained, in part, the following : '•ResoJced, That we will form ourselves into a new ecclesiastical societ}', whose oliject shall be to employ an evangelical minister, of the Pres- byterian or Congregational denomination, and to use all other means to promote the influence of the Grospel in the town and county of which we are residents."

To the articles of association were appended the following names : Thomas Smith, Thomas Taylor, Daniel Cook, Williamson Carothers, Samuel Smith. William Maxwell, Thomas Smith, A. Sutherland, Luther Cook. Robert Bowland, Robert 3IcComb, E. P. Sturges, Jedediah Smith, Edward Sturges. J. ^I. May, Jacob Parker, M. Douglas, Jr., Edwin Grant, Davitl AVise. John Walker and Robert Lowry.

This association procured, temporarily, for a place of worship, the upper room of the

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