Historical Society Dedicates Darby Creek Roadside Marker | Originally published in the Bellefontaine Examiner | Undated; estimated to be early 1940’s.

With perfect weather and an interested audience Sunday afternoon, the Logan county Archeological and Historical Society erected a large roadside marker at the site of the first church in the county. It was the Darby Creek Friends meetin, about a mile out of Middleburg on the road to East Liberty.

President H. C. Mormon, of Bellefontaine, opened up the roadside meeting, honoring the memory of the pioneers that brought God’s worship with them. The Goshen-Pickerelltown male quartet, consisting of Lloyd Lockwood, Sam Lovett, Walter Stanley and Alton Hughes sang “My Anchor Holds.” Secretary G. W. Furbay of Zanesfield then gave a brief history of the honored church.

“When the pioneer settlers first came into this part of the country,” he said, “they worshipped in their log cabin homes. Along the Indian trail leading to what is now Middleburg to East Liberty, a typical two-room Friends Church was built where the men could worship in one room while the women met in the other.”

In 1806, Job Sharp, Moses Ewings, Thomas Antrim and Carlisle Haines organized the meeting and in 1808 petitioned the Miami Friends Meeting to set them up as a Monthly Meeting.

“As other Friends came in, they settled ever westward in the Marmon Valley where Goshen Meeting was established by Darby Friends. And Goshen became the main Quaker center, while Darby deceased. By October 1832, it had dwindled until Goshed asked that Darby Meeting be ‘laid down.’ The church building was moved across the road and incorporated into the Hatcher home, and later the Zane Township trustees took over the care of the burial ground.”

Elmer Heath, who lives on a portion of the farm where the church was built, added some personal history of these pioneers and introduced the great-great-great-great grandaughters of the first minister of the Darby meeting (Thomas Antrim). They are Janey and Geri Heath, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Homer (Thora Bazzle) Heath of Columbus. Homer is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Heath of Middleburg. O. K. Reames of Zanesfield then erected and dedicated the marker to the sacred memory of the godly colonists who built this first church.

The ceremony closed with a prayer offered by the Friends minister at Goshen, Rev. H. H. Mosher.

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