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.