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INFORMATION REGARDING THE FORK RIDGE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Please note that this information was retrieved from a blogger that resided near the Fork Ridge Christian Church and attended the church with her relatives.
As a young girl, Sunday meant going to church at the Fork Ridge Christian Church, located on Fork Ridge Road in Marshall County, West Virginia. We lived on Fork Ridge about eight miles from Moundsville, the church was about 1.5 miles further, at the intersection of Brushy Ridge and Fork Ridge.
According to a history of the church written by one of my aunts who is still living, “Beginning in 1896 the congregation met in the Terrill, Upper Bane and Harris schools for lack of a regular meeting place. In 1898, contractor Morgan Hicks erected the present building. The land was donated by John Pierce and deeded on Sept. 20, 1898. The stone for the foundation, was taken from the Joseph Parks farm and the stonemason was David Briggs.“
Fork Ridge Christian Church ~ 1938
Fork Ridge Christian Church
This photo Left Side, courtesy of C. P. Rulong, shows the Fork Ridge Christian Church in 1938. Above the door it reads: “Fork Ridge Christian Church, Built 1898.” Although it is hard to see, there is a small building at the left edge of the photo just behind the fence that was a coal shed.
The picture above shows the church after the vestibule addition. This photo, was found on the Marshall County Gen.Web site, was undated. This is what I remember the church looking like when I attended there as a child. I remember sitting on those steps in the summer for Christian Endeavor (CE) youth meetings.
Going back to the history written by my aunt … “Charter members included Mr. & Mrs. John Pierce, Mr. & Mrs. A. Muldrew, Mr. & Mrs. S. M. Stewart, Mr. & Mrs. Uriah Harris, Mr. & Mrs. O. H. Lydick, John Day, A. Lowe, Tom Richmond, Johnson family, and Cummins family among others.”
Uriah Harris is my second great-grandfather; his wife Mary Ann was a Lydick. The Stewart's had a son, Orrin Homer Stewart, who married Elizabeth Virginia “Bess” Harris, a granddaughter of Uriah & Mary Ann. Mary Bane Cummins married Oscar Leslie “Bones” Harris, a grandson of Uriah & Mary Ann.
My aunt also wrote that, “The church was closed in the mid 1920’s and reopened in June of ’29 or ’30. Only Sunday School was conducted for 2 or 3 years. Rev. Howearth held a revival in 1932 when more than forty people joined the church.” I found baptismal records for three ancestors that resulted from that revival:
Picture from 1938 approx.
Picture from 1938 approx.
Photo taken 9-4-2006.
As I am writing this post, I realize that I do not have a good photo of the wheelchair ramp which was later built. I do have this one taken from the back end of the cemetery in which only the rear portion of the ramp can be observed. My cousins participated in the construction of the ramp. They did a beautiful job if I must say so.
Photo taken 9-4-2006.
