In 1881, there died a seventy-five-year-old Lyme Township widow, Julia Ann Woodward McCurdy, whose husband, Richard L. McCurdy, had come to Lyme, Ohio, from Lyme, Connecticut, in 1823. Her obituary in the Bellevue Gazette says in part,

Her funeral� at the Lyme Episcopal Church, of which she was a member and so large a patron, was attended by almost the total population of the neighborhood who thus tearfully bore testimony to the love she so generously merited�

THE SECOND CHURCH IN THE TOWNSHIP

    To tell the story of Trinity Episcopal Church we must go back before the days with which this book supposedly begins, for this church was organized as early as 1836, the same year that the meeting house of the Lyme Presbyterian Church at Strongs Ridge was completed. We must look back earlier than that, however, to the very early pioneer days when there arrived in Lyme people, from Connecticut or England, who were already Episcopalians or members of the Church of England. These included Amos, Guerdon, and William Woodward, George and Jeremiah Sheffield from Connecticut and Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Sawyer and James Sawyer (whose story is told in Book I of this series) and Joseph Wood, all from England. Later English settlers who would be active in the Episcopal church were the Sherman family, the Stowers, and John Clarke.

    As early as 1822, when Julia Ann was 16 years old, services of the Church of England were held in the home of her father, Amos Woodward, who led the worship by reading from the official prayer book. Records also show that in February, 1823, a Rev. John J. Bosman conducted a service at the home of R. L. McCurdy, who had recently settled in Lyme on what is now Route 20. (See Book I)

    Finally, in 1836, a church was organized at a meeting in the McCurdy school. Charter members were Mr. and Mrs. James Sawyer, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wood, Mr. and Mrs. Amos Woodward, Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Marvin, Jonathan Prentiss, Julia Ann McCurdy, Mary Arlington, and �possible others.� Amos Woodward was chosen

(p. 48)

senior warden; Stephen Sawyer, junior warden; and vestryman, Guerdon Woodward, Matthew Marvin, Jonathan Prentiss, George Frith and James Sawyer. Rev. E. Penderson took charge of the new parish in January, 1836, and came to preach every third Sunday in the �McCurdy school� (probably later �Lyme School�).

    In 1841, evidently as the result of �mission� activities of the rural church, the first Episcopal services in Bellevue were held in the room in an upper floor of the building now owned and used by the A. Ruffing Store. Later, for some time beginning in 1847, the Bellevue communicants were served also by the Rector of Trinity Church in Lyme. At that time the rural Episcopal church had the larger membership of the two.

    Trinity Episcopal member had begun talking about a church building shortly after organization and Richard McCurdy offered to give the site, a plot of land on what is now Route 20. Finally late in 1846, a one-story frame building, costing $1200, was completed in a grove of trees on this land. This was just in time for the first service in it to be held on Christmas Day. One can imagine with what joy the small group of members and friends worshipped that day in the building which they had been anticipating for some ten years! They must have looked about with satisfaction at the neat pews, the sturdy oak pulpit, and the small-paned window. Little did they know what was in store!

FIRE!

    Only a few weeks later, in February, 1847, their new church burned to the ground! According to one source, ladies while working in the church put ashes which they thought were �cold� into a �wooden pail, with disastrous results.� The dismay with which the parishioners gazed at the smouldering [sic] ruin must have seemed overwhelming!

    However, they were undaunted. Plans were made to rebuild at once, even though to do so would now require $400 more, or $1600. However Richard McCurdy, who had given so generously for the first building, offered to contribute the same amount again, and other members made up the balance necessary. There was evidently no insurance.

    Although not completed, the second building was used for the very next Christmas service, ie., in 1847, with Rev. J. Rice Taylor officiating. It is said that some of the settlers who attended that day came in ox-drawn wagons in which chairs, fastened by chains, had been placed for the comfort of the women of the family. Thanks that morning for their second �new� church edifice must have been especially heart felt! Worshippers saw a �very high old-fashioned walnut pulpit,� no doubt made from native trees. Steps on either side led up to the pulpit. Also on either side near the pulpit were two pews set perpendicular to the main group of pews. All pews were fitted with doors to protect feet from drafts. At the back was a small choir balcony in one corner of which was stored a devise called a �coffin carrier� which was brought down during funerals.

    The first communion set was sent to the church from Lyme, Connecticut, by the relatives of Richard McCurdy, Julia Ann�s husband. Book I of this series explains that the McCurdys and the Griswolds, (the family of Richard McCurdy�s mother) were prominent in affairs of their state. The new church in the Firelands of the Connecticut Western Reserve would interest them because the elder McCurdy had received land in Lyme Township as

(p. 49)

reparations for his losses in the American Revolutionary War. His son Richard lived on some of this land and had acted as agent for his father in selling the rest of it to others, some of whom were also members of the little Ohio church.

    Trinity Church at Lyme grew in numbers. One active member was John Clarke, a native of England, who settled next to the Drury farm on the Strongs Ridge Road in 1844. He is said to have been one of the first lay readers at Trinity and was senior warden for many years before his death in 1877. It is said that Mr. Clarke was responsible for the planting of evergreens around the church cemetery. One of his daughters married a Prentiss, also a family active in the same church. Among other members were Thomas Stower, the Sheffield family Sherman family, and Sylvanus Mallet, listed as junior warden in 1878. A photograph taken of a group of men, women and children in front of Trinity Episcopal Church in Lyme, May 30, 1891, adds a few more names of members. Besides eight Prentisses, four Clarkes, and one Sawyer, there are also four Rushtons, three Lathams, one Young, and one Pierce.

DIFFICULT DAYS

    At the time of this writing, that second Trinity Episcopal church building is still standing after 128 years. We are told that it once had a steeple which was not replaced after it was blown down in a heavy wind. The interior has also been greatly changed. Actually, difficulties began soon after Julia Ann McCurdy�s death. Her generous financial aid was missed. As members moved in to Bellevue (which by the 1880�s had grown to be the largest town between the two county seats, Fremont and Norwalk), they transferred their membership to the town church. This group included Woodwards and Sheffields, and members of the James Wood family. Other Trinity members moved on to other areas.

    Finally, came a sad day when it became necessary for the little church organization to disband. The records of the church and the deeds to the building and adjoining cemetery were turned over to the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio and to its offices in Cleveland. Soon it became apparent that it was impossible to protect the abandoned building. Doors and windows were broken. Vagrants slept inside its walls, and chickens and field mice went in and out at will. One by one black walnut pews and other furnishings disappeared.

    It was to be 25 years after the period covered by this book before good days would come again for the old, white-framed building. Since 1925 it has been rented by the Lyme Grange for a nominal fee on condition that it be kept in repair and in use as grange headquarters. One provision in the lease is that a church service be held there once a year under the auspices of the Diocese, with members of the Bellevue Episcopal church attending. The bell in the church tower escaped the vandals and is still rung once a year to summon worshippers to the annual church service.

    When the annual service was held in the building in 1975, among the sixty-two worshippers were five people who had been confirmed in the old Trinity Episcopal church in their youth: Mrs. Roy Fitch, (Mabel Sherman); Mrs. Paul Beiler (Laura Sherman); Donald Farr; Clement Sherman; and Mrs. Walter Horn (Blanche Sherman). The service that morning must have been especially meaningful to them!

<--Lyme Congregational German Evangelical Reformed-->
Return to Main Page