CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

 The origin of the Disciples or Christian church at Sharon is involved in the account of the Baptist church of this place. The event indicates that in the original propaganda carried on by Alexander Campbell and his followers, there existed considerable sympathy and fellowship between the advocates of the new doctrine and the older adherents of the Baptist faith. In the spring of 1828 two missionaries of the new faith came to Sharon and held a series of meetings under the auspices of the Baptist society, and presumably with a view to strengthening the latter church. But when the thirteen converts were about to enter the church, some dispute arose as to the method of their reception, and the outcome was that the converts and twenty members of the Baptist church formed a separate organization on the first Monday of June, 1828. This was the nucleus of the present Central Christian Church of Sharon. The leading names connected with the original organization were McCleery (Joseph, George and others), Hull, Morford and Bentley. Later several members of the Hoagland family joined.

As to the first places of worship, a barn was prepared, then a cabinet shop was used, and private houses and school buildings, until 1840, when a frame church was erected outside the village and used till 1852, when a small brick church was built on Railroad street, being dedicated in December of that year. In October, 1881, the congregation purchased the building that had been erected by the Second Presbyterians at Vine and Pitt streets in 1874-75.

Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, 1909, pages 285-286.