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The First Methodist preacher in Lawrence County, Ohio, 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 showboat 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 townspeople believed it a great honor to have this showman stop there, and most citizens went to the show.
My father took us, the children, to the show, but my 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; 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, went on the river, and never knew what became of the Protestant Church; I believe 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 in my old town of Burlington, which was never incorporated. When I left Burlington, I believed that the best people lived there. Everyone that lived in the town was good to me, and I will always love old Burlington. CAPTAIN ELLIS C. MACE |
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