Mechanicsburg Baptist Church

The first settlers in Goshen Township arrived circa 1805,[2]^: 586 and Mechanicsburg was platted on 6 August 1814.[2]^: 596 Organized religion was rare in the earliest years; the first churches were established by circuit-riding preachers from the Methodist Episcopal Church, who founded small religious classes that met in settlers' log cabins.[2]^: 591 Mechanicsburg's first church was a Methodist congregation organized in 1814,[2]^: 598 and by the 1880s the village boasted four additional churches: Baptist, black Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, and Methodist Protestant.[2]^: 600

Mechanicsburg's Methodist Protestant church was organized on February 13, 1853, following a directive by the denomination's Ohio Conference from the previous September. Under the initial leadership of S.P. Kezerta, the fledgling church had a charter membership of ninety-two individuals.[2]^: 600 The national Methodist Protestant Church had been formed by those who dissented from the church government of the Methodist Episcopal Church, objecting to the powers of the church's bishops.[3] Matters were radically different in Mechanicsburg,[4]^: 473 which had developed a reputation as a "black abolition hole" among those pursuing the many runaway slaves who passed through the town on the Underground Railroad.[5]^: 4 Turmoil in the national church disturbed many members of the Mechanicsburg Methodist Episcopal Church, and Kazerta gathered a congregation of abolitionist families into a new congregation. The members purchased a lot on West Sandusky Street, upon which a two-story brick church was constructed in 1858.[4]^: 474 Mechanicsburg's Masonic lodge assisted in construction, and in return they were sold rights to the second story. In its early years, the congregation was weakened by members' departures to other communities or by death, and it was attached to another young congregation in Catawba until 1865.[2]^: 600 As the years passed, the church grew stronger; membership reached 308 in 1879, at which time the building was remodelled and refurbished, and by 1890 a new building was needed. After concluding the lease with the Masons, the congregation destroyed the old building and erected a new structure on the same lot, and all debts were paid by the end of 1891. It was further strengthened by donations from two members: one gave his home for use as a parsonage, and the other endowed the church's Sunday school. By 1917, the membership had surpassed five hundred.[2]^: 474 In 1939, the Methodist Protestant Church merged back into the Methodist Episcopal Church, producing The Methodist Church,[6] and the two local congregations subsequently rejoined as well. After the merger, the property was sold to a local Baptist congregation.[7]

Baptists settled in Champaign County very early in its history; many of the county's leading citizens followed the faith,[4]^: 485 and Kingscreek Baptist Church in Salem Township, founded in 1805, was the third Baptist church to be established anywhere in the state. In the county's early years, all of its numerous Baptist churches were found in the countryside, so in 1840 the Ohio Baptist Convention began to make efforts to plant churches in the villages.[4]^: 476 One such society arose in Mechanicsburg in the same year; known as Goshen Baptist Church for its first seven years,[4]^: 484 the church constructed its first church building on Locust Street in 1846.[2]^: 599 Resources were scarce in the early years, and the resulting building was small, but subsequent growth saw the membership rise to 106 by 1864. From this time forward, the congregation again declined;[4]^: 484 soon after the death of a prominent member in 1872, the building was sold with the goal of building a better one, but a better one was not built,[2]^: 600 and membership dropped to 38 by 1883. Most of the members left to form another Baptist church in that year, and the five remaining members deeded the congregation's property to the Ohio Baptist Convention when the congregation closed.[4]^: 484 The current occupants of the property are unrelated to the previous Baptist churches.[7]