RELIGIOUS MEETINGS. .

Many of the . early settlers here were church members, and religious meetings date from 1836. At the request of Mr. Daniel Noble, the first was held at his son's (D. F. Noble) house which, at the time, was the largest house in the neighborhood ; and afterward at David Shaunce's and other places in the township, until the first log cabin was built on the bluff, which was then used for all meetings, public and religious.

The Methodists were the most numerous at that time, but the meetings were of a union character, and were participated in by members of all other religious sects. The Methodists afterward became a regular organized body here, which has since been broken up owing to many of its members having joined churches located elsewhere outside of the township. They, however, as well as the Baptists and Christians, still continue to hold meetings at the several school-houses in various parts of the town.

Neither denomination being strong enough to support a regular minister, the services are conducted by transient preachers. Asa McMerter and Samuel Pinkly were the first preachers, who were at that time termed exhorters. Soon after the first log cabin on the bluff was built, a regular camp-meeting ground was established near the site of it, where the people of the whole neighborhood congregated to worship and talk to familiar friends and acquaintances.

History of Mercer and Henderson County

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