Defender Chapel

Defender Chapel Named for Riverboat to Mark Anniversary

18 Sept. 1955 (no newspaper named)

Defender Chapel, named after a riverboat that suffered a disaster at a point on the Ohio [River] overlooked by the church, will celebrate its 50th anniversary next Sunday.

Services commemorating the beginnings of the little Methodist Church at Bradrick, Ohio, whose congregation has grown from 14 to 65 members over the half-century, will be conducted at 2:00 PM under the direction of the present pastor, the Reverend Keith Powers. The Reverend Paul D. C–, Superintendent of the Portsmouth district of the Methodist Church, will bring the anniversary message.

Of the four charter members still living, all are planning to attend. They are Mrs. A. W. Hogerman [Hagerman] of Carryville [Coryville], Ohio, Dr. Earl Gerlach, Ralph Blake, and Tom Hicks, all of Huntington.

Trolling the congregation to the happy celebration will be the ship’s bell of the Defender Chapel, which found its way to the Chapel Belfry after being salvaged from the wreckage in the depths of the [Ohio] River.

The bell tolled for a grimmer purpose on that memorial New Year’s night in 1904. The coal tugboat was proceeding toward its home port of Pittsburgh, PA, through a cold river fog when around 10:00 PM the boat rocked with a mighty explosion. Within minutes nine crewmen lay dead; many others lay helpless and injured on the fog-shrouded decks.

Providentially, it seemed, help for the suffering men waited but a short distance away. A red brick house perched on the Ohio bank of the river was the residence of Doctor H. P. Gerlach and his family.

Hearing the explosion, Doctor Gerlach and his son Earl, now a Huntington physician, put out in a Johnboat to rescue the victims. The injured crewman substantially was removed to the Gerlach home, where the doctor worked the night long, administrating the urgent needs.

When Doctor Gerlach donated land adjourning the East side of his home the following year for the building of a church, the Pittsburgh Coal Company, which had only Defender, donated this ship’s bell to the church in gratitude for the physician’s heroic efforts in behalf of the crewmen.

The frame church was constructed of lumber brought down the River by steamboat, and members themselves carried the lumber up the steep bank to the building site. The church was built facing the Ohio River, and a belfry was constructed to specifications to house the prized bell.

When the time came, members laboriously hoisted the massive bell into position, and amid a great expectation, it was rung. A groan of disappointment mingled with the toll. The bell’s tone was fat flat, and unbeautiful.

After anxious consultations, it was determined that the extreme alternate heat and cold the bell had experienced during the explosion had injured the metal. Undaunted, the churchmen lowered the bell and shipped it downriver to Cincinnati to be recast.

The Defender Chapel bell was reinstalled upon its return with an appropriate ceremony. This time it rang clear and true. Members say its tone has continued to mellow over the years.