Blog
Blog posts tagged with "history"
Remembrances From WWI Veterans
On Veterans Day this year marked the 100th anniversary of the Armistice Day for WW1. Pastor Delbert Kettering shared remembrances that had been shared with him by Veterans of the Great War. Listen to these voices ...
Church of the Brethren Gifts to the World
Heifer Project, the sharing of animals, the first-born - which is then passed on - involved UNRRA (United Nationals Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) and a large number of volunteer seagoing "cowboys" who cared for the cattle and
When We Do Hard Things
One beautiful warm afternoon in June, Grandmother and Jane were shelling peas on the back porch. “All these peas should make a lot...
You, Too, Can Be Set Free!
Samuel Weir, born a Virginia slave in 1812, was the first African-American minister and ordained Elder in the German Baptist (Dunkard) Brethren (later Church of the Brethren) church. He was sold at age twelve (1824) for two hundred eighty dollars to...
Samuel Weir Part 2
Of his work and life as a minister, he said little, but that little expressed much in the life of a minister, and especially so with one placed as he was; for his public life was at that time, and in his situation, well calculated to bring out all the variety found in the brief period of one man’s life. He said: “I then preached just wherever...
Samuel Weir Part 1
If Elder George Wolfe was most of his life masterful in the best sense, Elder Samuel Weir began his life as a slave in the worst sense. Both were courageous, but circumstances called for a different kind of courage from Elder Weir. Where Elder Wolfe always had the freedom...
Agape Acres:Part 3
A Word About the Donor: Mr. Leon A Beeghly is a leading churchman, philanthropist, and industrialist. He was born in Bloomville...
Agape Acres:Part 2
As Dedication and Open House approaches we look back on a busy eighteen months of preparation. The schedule was...
Agape Acres:Part 1
This is the story of two people, a church and their pastor, an idea and a wonderfully generous man. How they all got together and what they did is our story. In the scriptures, we read that the effectual fervent prayers...
Coincidence? Or God?
This story predates the time of credit cards, gas cards, cell phones, or gadgets like that. My twin brother, Merlyn, decided to delay his final year at Manchester College in ....
Paying It Forward
One recent discovery occurred when, as historian, I submitted copies of two old letters to Maple Grove Church found by Annamae Rush Swaisgood in her parents "stuff." (Cloyd and Alice Rush). I sent copies to...
Special Needs at Maple Grove
I was very young when I learned that God does not make us all alike, but he loves us as we are. As a Japanese teacher friend once noticed, people in the US are like a “flower garden” with many shapes of faces, eyes, noses, bodies, many...
A Plan for a Peaceful, Loving Invasion of Church Worship as planned by Rev. Sheets
In the 1960's there was a group of Oberlin College students who would come to (frequently) rural churches on Sunday mornings with plans to create a disruption to the morning services to "test" the churches. What their purpose was is...
Lessons From A Bookmark
The information on this old bookmark was found in an old Bible found in the library books at Maple Grove Church of the Brethren in 2016...
Sunday School at Maple Grove
Maple Grove had one of the first organized Sunday School programs in Northern Ohio. The date is not officially preserved (since written records did not start until 1876), but in an account written in 1874 for the Young Disciple, the church public...
Baccalaureate
A definition of baccalaureate is “a sermon to a graduation class or a service before graduation at which a sermon is delivered”. Today some schools call it a “Day of Remembrance” instead, to avoid any religious connotations and...
On Time - Coming Late
More than one tour leader and/or bus driver has made an announcement similar to this: “If you come early, you are on time; If you come on time, you are late...
Maple Grove Goes to the Ashland County Fair
The Ashland County Fair is usually the third week of September. Maple Grove has been actively involved in the Fair for many years. We have many church people who participate each year in the showing of animals for 4-H and displays for FFA. Some people...
Interesting Facts about the Re-Building Project
DID YOU KNOW? 1.-that before the “old” building was razed, church people worked to remove cement blocks, sandstones, wiring, plumbing, heating ducts, windows, doors, etc. for...
Steps and Stepladders
May 2003/4, it was time to prepare ourselves for BIG CHANGE at Maple Grove Church. We had reached a goal we had met for money for the new building. We had decided to raze the old building and replace It with a new educational, office, kitchen,...
The Dunkers and the UNRRA
It was 1945 and, according to Time magazine, the Baltimore stockyards were full of livestock, and an empty ship waited in the harbor, but there was no one to herd the animals on to the ship and overseas to the hungry...
Heifer Project
Our preacher, Fred Bernhard, told us that some weeks earlier he had awakened in the night with an idea. He woke his wife and shared his idea with her, gained her approval
Called to Serve
Called to Serve – Serving as God’s Hands and Feet – Doing His Work -Their pay is the reward of doing for others...
Our Sanctuary Clock
Once, a student of mine, during a discussion about the problems many their sixth grade age face, listened and then raised his hand. His maturity was far beyond...
Heifer Project International #2
Here are several letters of thanks sent from the recipients of the heifers donated by Maple Grove...
Heifer Project International #1
In October 1946 Maple Grove Church of the Brethren gave a heifer to Heifer Project to go to China through the efforts of the Cross Bearer’s Adult Class. Two more heifers...
Pioneer Life in Ashland County
By(Aunt) Kate Shopbell Shidler (written in 1890) As today, Feb. 22, 1890, is my fifty-sixth birthday, I thought I would like to have a talk with the boys and girls of Maple Grove (Church) and vicinity; to tell them of the old pioneers...
Serving the Church in Other Ways
Maple Grove people who have served in special ways and in special places as servants of our Lord...
Thankfulness
How can we show thankfulness to God and to others? What do we say? What do we do? There is so much to be thankful for but so often we just never mention that because...
Reading and Transcribing Maple Grove History
In working on the church history, I soon found that some of it was becoming unreadable because the writing utensil used was fading into oblivion. So one of my first task...
