Carpenters Run Baptist Church

We saw in our last blog that Springfield Baptist Church was established when Henry and Mary Tucker left Carpenters Run Baptist Church "for the purpose of or to help establish Springfield Baptist Church." This record is also found in family genealogy of the Tucker family.
After Anthony Wayne's victory in 1794 the settlers in Columbia began to branch out up the Little Miami River and areas north of Columbia. The fear of Indian attack had diminished so in 1797 several families requested letters of dismissal to move and start a new church near the areas where they had purchased land and were going to make a new home for themselves. This was to be the beginning of Carpenters Run Baptist Church.  We are going to now look at the Carpenters Run Baptist Church in Blue Ash, OH. The city of Blue Ash  records this of the church under their history section of their website.  "Information and pictures gathered from descendants of five Blue Ash pioneer families, along with minutes of the historic Carpenter's Run Baptist Church dating back to 1791, provide a view of what life was like in the early settlement. Accounts in family histories tell the stories of bravery and courage exhibited by the pioneer families of John and Elizabeth Ferris, James and Mary Craig Carpenter, Price and Molly Denman Thompson, Abner and Hannah Ayres Denman, and Richard Ayres, many of which have descendants still living in the Blue Ash area today. The Carpenters Run Baptist Church served the earliest settlers of Blue Ash. Built of logs from the blue ash tree, the church gave the community its name. When the church disbanded around 1828 the building was used as the Plainfield School..."

According to the "History of the Miami Valley Association" circular letters and reports published in 1868, we know that in  the spring of 1797, several families were given letters of dismissal from the Columbia Baptist Church to form the Carpenters Run Baptist Church which was 10 miles north of Columbia.  Some of the names of these members were Richard and Mary Ayres, (We know the Ayres were members of Scotch Plains Baptist Church before moving to Columbia, Ohio in 1790) Morris and Esther Osborn and Sarah Brown. We believe the starting date of the church to be June 17, 1797, and the first service held was in the home of Richard and Mary Ayres. The group met on the third Sunday of each month. Elder John Smith and Elder Peter Smith of Columbia helped this church organize and ministered to them in their beginning until a pastor was called.  

The church was in existence from 1797 till 1828. The hand written church records are preserved at The Historical and Philosophical Society, located in Cincinnati, Ohio. From these record we have learned the following accounts.

Richard Ayres and his neighbor Price Thompson each gave an acre of ground to the church. One acre was to be used for a house of worship and the other acre was to be used as a church cemetery. Pictured on the left and on the right are the two sides of the cemetery that is now divided by Plainfield Rd  The cemetery is located at the intersection of Plainfield and Cooper Road in Blue Ash, Ohio. The exact placement of the church building remains uncertain as to which part of the cemetery it was located.
The clerks of the church were, John Ferriss, to keep records, Cyrus Crane , signing clerk and Israel Marsh as a reading clerk. In 1800, Morris Osborn and Richard Ayres became the first church deacons. The first minister to be ordained from the church was Cyrus Crane, ordained in 1816. We have a copy of the church membership list and we know that at some point Henry and Mary Tucker moved their membership from the Columbia Baptist Church to the Carpenters Run Baptist Church.  As the Church grew in number she also sent out families to other counties to form other Baptist churches. One historian comments about the church "faithfully carrying out its obligation of aiding and forming other Baptist churches in Hamilton and adjacent counties although it meant a diminishing of its own congregation."
The Pastors of the church were:  1800-1801 John Seward, 1803-1810 Elder Gard, 1811-1813 Cyrus Crane was licensed by the church and then pastored the church, 1814 Abraham Griffiths, 1815-1826 Cyrus Crane returned and continued as pastor up until the day he died then the church began to fade away. Within two years of the death of Cyrus Crane and some of the founding families it is believed the remainder of the church moved to the Mount Carmel Baptist Church which was but a short distance south of the site of the Carpenters Run Baptist Church.