Hill Cemetery and the Baptist Church, Highland Township

The declining population of some rural churches is not a new phenomena, nor is it a new worry.  The story of the demise of this Highland Township church is a sad one.  Thankfully, the existence of Hill Cemetery nearby keeps the history before us.  The cemetery is located on the north side of Bowman Road, just east of Hill road in Highland Township.

From The Rural Rambler (S. H. Green), Crescent-News -
November 16, 1932:

The Highland Baptist church has been abandoned.  The neat, white frame structure stands empty at the foot of the sand hill on which the graves of the pioneers lie.

Many things have entered the lives of the congregation to cause the forsaking of the church house.  Members have moved away.  Their children have married into other denominations.  More distant churches have attracted some.  The church is not centrally located and is on an out-of-the-way road.  Children have decided to go to Sunday school where their classmates attend.

So the whistling winds of winter will whirl about is eaves and chant a dreary monotone across the snow-covered markers of the dead.  No more will the light from its radiant windows sweep out against the evergreens that stand on God's acre.
No more will its doors swing open to admit the solemn procession of the dead as a hushed congregation awaits the reading of the last rites before committing a friend to the earth.

Somehow it always seems fitting to see a church nestled close against a rural graveyard as though it was a holy sentinel standing watch above the nerveless forms of those who have passed beyond.
And thus it cannot but cast a tragic air about the casual passerby who sees its vacant windows staring blankly as though it were now become as lifeless as the silent forms that rest beneath the earth near by.

Church Built in 1887

In 1856 John R. Myers and his brother-in-law, J. E. (Jerry) Wellman, came into Highland township with their families from Clermont county.  These folks, in company with other pioneers, established a Free-Will Baptist congregation which held regular meetings in the Wellman home until the school house, now vanished, called the Oak Grove School, was erected on the road to the east of where the Highland Chapel Presbyterian now stands.

Highland Chapel was erected about 1879 or 80 and the Free Will congregaton held services there as well as in the Ayersville Methodist and Mt. Calvary Evangelical churches until in the summer of 1887, under the pastorate of the Rev. M. M. Dodge of Latty, the church was erected to be dedicated in October by the Rev. Ransom Dunn of Hillsdale, Mich.

The site of the church was deeded to the congregation for as long a time as it would be used for this purpose by H. J. Hill, father of David Hill, who resides on the hill just above the church.

Early Pastors Listed

Rev. Mr. Dodge, in addition to his ministerial duties, operated a saw mill at Latty and sawed the timbers for his new charge without cost to his congregation.

Numbered among the pillars of this early church we find such names as John Rhamy, J. K. Andrews, John Wiler, Robert Scott and James Harper.

Some of the pastors who occupied the handsome new pulpit, handmade by father of E. B. Smith of Highland township, were Rev. J. J. Mawhorter, J. J. Rendell, S. H. Dull, J. W. Haggerty, David Tucker and M. S. Waller.

B. F. Myers of Highland has a feeling of especial sadness at the closing of this rural church which, though it has seen the funerals of many, many pioneers,never had the pleasure of seeing a bride before its altar in a wedding ceremony.

Order Bell on Honeymoon

For when Mr. and Mrs. Myers were on their honeymoon many years ago, they stopped at the Van Dusen foundry in Cincinnati and ordered the church bell cast and the Sunday ringing of the bell, as it called the worshipers in, had a double significance to this worthy couple...

Today the old church stands idle.  The equipment has all been donated to the First Baptist church in Defiance and a chapter in rural worship is closed.

First Burial

The church cemetery, commonly referred to as the Hill cemetery, was started 35 years before the church was erected.  The first grave in the wilderness graveyard was dug for Jane Hill, first wife of Harvey J. Hill, and mother of David Hill, who died on Jan. 27, 1852, aged 28 years, 1 day.

The second was dug for the infant daughter of H. J. and J. Hill, who died on July 27, 1852 aged six months.  The row of small headstones extending from the parents' tomb record grief in three decades: 1852, 1862, 1872.

The cemetery is a beautiful place occupying a ridge of nearly pure sand with a huge white oak along the road and clusters of native trees growing on either side of the quiet plot of the dead."