Ohio history

Ohio

Information about the earliest assemblies in Ohio is scant. The Scots evangelist John Smith, who worked with Donald Munro and others in Canada, made Cleveland his home in his later days, and was no doubt associated with an assembly in the early part of the twentieth century.

In 1930, T.B. Nottage began the assembly at Elim Gospel Chapel in Cleveland. Though he was an itinerant worker, he and his wife Josephine and children moved to that city in 1936 to be closer to the work. When World War II broke out and traveling became difficult, he curtailed his itinerant evangelism and concentrated his efforts in Cleveland, preaching, doing visitation, and radio programming. The Christians at Elim Gospel Chapel purchased a substantial building at 10522 Amor Avenue in the 1950s, where they still meet. Faith Gospel Chapel in Cleveland is an offshoot of Elim Gospel Chapel.

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In 1936, Central Gospel Hall met in a dilapidated theater building on Central Avenue in Cleveland. B.M. Nottage and Theodore Williams were associated with that assembly.

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The Addison Road Gospel Hall at 1447 Addison Road in downtown Cleveland had about 150 adults and children in attendance at the Breaking of Bread in 1945. Probably the largest assembly in Ohio at the time, the origins of this assembly have not been identified.

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A hive-off from Addison Road Gospel Hall occurred in 1950, when a group purchased land in Cleveland Heights, east of central Cleveland. While awaiting completion of construction of a new chapel, the group met in a Junior High School building. Gracemount Gospel Chapel in Cleveland Heights was occupied in the fall of 1951. It was a vibrant assembly in the 1950s and 1960s, under the leadership of Ken and Robby Pile, the Beattie family, the Baxter family, and others. When the demographics of the area changed, many people began to fellowship elsewhere. With dwindling numbers, Gracemount Chapel was sold to a different evangelical group in 1994.

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An assembly in the Willoughby suburb northeast of Cleveland, was established in the late 1950s. The Christians built the Willo Gospel Chapel on Johnny Cake Ridge Road with an auditorium seating capacity of 186. Its name was changed later to Willo Bible Chapel. The assembly disbanded in the early 1980s.

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Believers Bible Chapel in Painesville, a town northeast of Cleveland on the shore of Lake Erie, was an outgrowth of a local Wednesday night Bible study in the home of Rob and Jane Main on the far east side of Cleveland in the 1970s. Many in the Bible study were in fellowship at Gracemount Gospel Chapel at the time. The group desired to start an assembly, and the elders at Gracemount gave their blessing.

The new assembly was initiated primarily by the Mains, Tice and Evelyn Ozinga, Arthur E. and Susie Auld, Arthur H. and Debbie Auld, Walter and Kathy Lord, and John and Jill Ozinga. Tice Ozinga had been an elder at Willo Bible Chapel, before that work dissolved. Arthur E. Auld had also been in the Willo fellowship and had been an elder at Gracemount. Taking the name Concord Bible Chapel, hoping someday to be located in Concord Township, the Christians began Breaking Bread in 1978 at the Painesville YMCA. Tice Ozinga and Arthur E. Auld were recognized as the two elders of the new assembly.

After a year or two, the group began meeting in the Concord Township Fire Station. After another two years, they moved to a store front in Perry, where they took the name South Ridge Bible Chapel. By 1989, they had purchased and renovated an old Baptist church building in Painesville and moved in as Believers Bible Chapel. Elders now include Arthur H. Auld and Rob Main. The assembly has commended workers to ministries within the U.S.

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Westlake Bible Fellowship began in 1968, a hive-off from Gracemount Gospel Chapel. Located first in Birch School in North Olmsted, a western suburb of Cleveland, the assembly moved to Cahoon Road in Westlake, and now has its own chapel on Hilliard Boulevard in Westlake. Those starting the assembly include Karl and Lois Reader, David and Sandy Bingham, Len and Cherry Dick, and Guy and Betty Meehling. These and Roger Meng and Donald Morris have shared the leadership of Westlake Bible Fellowship. About 110 adults and youngsters attend the assembly.

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In north-central Ohio is the city of Mansfield where assembly testimony has long existed. The assembly at Lincoln Heights Gospel Chapel was active in the 1940s and 1950s, continuing into the middle 1980s. The Chapel was newly constructed in 1948.

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An assembly in the city of Norwood on the east side of Cincinnati was begun in 1938 in a small rented building, which the Christians called the Norwood Gospel Hall and later the Norwood Gospel Chapel. A Mr. Powers is remembered as initiating the assembly. Failing to find suitable property to purchase, the assembly moved to the home of John J. McGehee.

In early 1958, the little assembly purchased a half-acre site at Galbraith Road and Kirkland Avenue in the Finneytown area of Cincinnati. On the property was a large old house, which they remodeled. There the testimony had grown to about 80 in fellowship in 1961, with a Sunday school of 120, limited only by space.

In 1961, they built the Northern Hills Bible Chapel on Galbraith Road in Cincinnati, where they still meet. The chapel has an auditorium seating 210. Leaders in the assembly over the years include Gus Jacobs, Israel Martin, John McGehee, Thomas Parks, Bill Wilson, Jim Adams, and Phil Miekley. Today about 150 adults and children attend Northern Hills Bible Chapel.

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Ross Bible Chapel in Hamilton, north of Cincinnati, began in 1974 in the home of Brack and Donna Strong. Wayne and Betty Schlichter had contacted the elders of Northern Hills Bible Chapel for help in establishing a new assembly. Brack Strong responded, along with Ralph and Ruth Merritt, Jim and Sue Slay, and Jim and Jan McGuire. After about two months, the group moved to the Elda Elementary School, and in another two years to 2846 Hamilton-Cleves Road, the present location of Ross Bible Chapel.

Elders have been Wayne Schlichter, Brack Strong, Fred Patton, Ralph Merritt, and Mike Smith. With a large children’s work, Ross Bible Chapel has about 100 adults and children in attendance. The assembly has commended several to the work of the Lord.

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An assembly was formed in Toledo in 1950, a breakoff from a United Presbyterian Church. The assembly was originally located at 15th and Monroe Streets and called Christian Fellowship of Toledo. Waldo Yeager, Harold Vernier, and Herb Houck were among the principal people in the start-up.

In the 1980s, the assembly moved to Auburn and N. Cove, where it grew. From there, a group hived off in 1985, the remaining Christians taking a name similar to their old one: Toledo Christian Fellowship. That assembly continued to the late 1990s, when it disbanded, most of the Christians at that time joining with the group that had hived off.

The assembly that had hived off in 1985 moved into Southwest YMCA and took the name Christian Fellowship of Toledo South. In 1988 these Christians moved to their present location at 6711 Pilliod Road in Holland on the southwest side of Toledo. The assembly has commended several workers to the field at home and abroad. About 300 adults and youngsters are in Christian Fellowship of Toledo South. Leaders over the years in the two assemblies include, besides those mentioned, Ben Smith, Bill Wood, Gil Elliott, Dean Pilton, Paul Carter, Wally Yeager, Paul Delamater, Bill Webb, Don Bickford, and Lou Vasaturo.

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Believers Assembly in Bellbrook, just south of Dayton, began its birth process in July of 1975 with five believers meeting in the home of Rennes Bowers in Enon, a small town northeast of Dayton. Rennes Bowers III had been a hippie who was saved in 1974 and discipled by Don Welborn in Iowa. He came to Ohio in 1975 to witness to his parents and others and decided to stay and lead Bible studies. He was commended by assemblies in Iowa and began the work which is now called Believers Assembly.

In 1977, the Christians meeting in Bowers’ home moved to Beaver Valley Road in Fairborn to accommodate growth and took the name Believers in Christ Jesus. The growing assembly moved through several locations in the Dayton area over the following 15 years: the Dayton City Mission, the Dayton Christian High School, a city recreation center, and the Fairborn Senior Citizens Center. From 1992 to the present, they have occupied their own chapel at 3821 Upper Bellbrook Road.

The first elders were recognized in 1979, and have included Rennes Bowers III, Rodney Geiger, Mike Gaynier, and Dwight McMahan. Believers Assembly has commended several to the Lord’s work abroad. About 35 adults and children are now in the assembly, though at one time more than 100 were in Believers Assembly.

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Sources

• Questionnaire Responses
• Letters of Interest, August 1945, pp. 11; June 1948, p. 18; November 1953, p. 3; January 1956, p. 19; June 1959, p. 11; July 1961, p. 8
• Random & Reminiscence, by Theodore Williams, Sr.; self-published, undated