The First Methodist preacher in Lawrence County was the Rev. Mr. SHINN from Baltimore. He was in charge of the chapel near the mouth of Federal Creek – the first chapel built in Burlington – in 1820. I have no record of any trouble in this church until 1872 when Dan Rice, one of the great showmen, came up the Ohio River with his show boat loaded on two model barges in tow of the packet boat "Granite State." He stopped at Burlington and raised his tents on the school grounds. The town people believed it a great honor to have this showman stop there and most of the citizens went to the show.

My father took us children to the show, but mother did not go. The Rev. Mr. LAKIN picked out twenty families and turned them out of the church. E. V. MACE gave a lot and a double door church was built on Lower Jefferson Street and we got a Protestant preacher. He was a good one – his name was WELLS – and 30 more families left the old church and joined the Protestant church. Rev. Wells was friendly with all; he invited the Baptists to join us and work together, and they did. The old M. E. Church would not work with the Baptists in church work.

I left Burlington and went on the river, and never knew what became of the Protestant Church; I believe that the Burlington Woman's Club used it. Today the Methodists have their new church nearly completed. It will cost $60,000 and it pleases me to see this beautiful new church located in my old town of Burlington, which was never incorporated.

When I left Burlington I really believed that the best people on earth lived there. Every one that lived in the town was good to me, and I will always love old Burlington.

CAPTAIN ELLIS C. MACE
Proctorville, Ohio