Bisel Church

ghbors together for worship in his log bam. It was soon apparent that a more appropriate building was needed, so on September 2, 1842, Bisel donated one acre of his property, in the Northwest corner of his farm, to be used for a "Meeting House and Burial Grounds". The deed was made out to the trustees; namely, John Andreas, Reuben Finton, and Valentine Smith. it was recorded in the Deeds Record No. 18 and was signed by Joseph and Amelia before John A. Reilly, Justice of the Peace and was witnessed by Joseph Will and Timothy Harbaugh on Oct. 15th, 1842. Joseph Bisel died on 26 October 1852 and is buried in Bisel Church cemetery. After his death, Amelia and at least some of the children moved on to Jay country, Indiana where Amelia died on Sept. 20, 1861 and she is buried in Bluff Point Cemetery there. In 1896 a new building was constructed about 500 feet west of the original structure on a 1/4 acre lot deeded to the church for the sum of $25 by Davis and Ollie Heminger on August 14th. 1896. John Rennecker to supervise construction. the timber for the building was donated by the members of the church who cut trees from heir farms and brought the logs to the sawmill which was set on the corner of the church lot. the members of the church all donated their time and labor and built the church in a short time. With the exception of the wages paid to the head carpenter, there was no money spent to build the church. in 1949 the church was raised and a basement was built underneath which provided additional classrooms and kitchen facilities. Under the direction of Rev. Melvin Hollinsworth, a building "Improvement Fund" was started and under Rev. P. E. Wright, the improvements began in January 1960. In 1960 the sanctuary was remodeled, stained glass windows were installed, the walls refinished, a divided chancel was built, ne pulpit furniture, new floor and new pews were installed in the sanctuary and a new oil furnace was added. Early in 1965, Rev. Howard Knittle appointed a "Building Committee" consisting of the church trustees and Wanda Tomblin, Betty Schnittke and Luther Limbaugh to make plans and recommendations to provide modem restroom facilities ad the present restrooms and vestibule were built in 1966. With the help of our church family, we have been able to do many things since our last five years. Some of our accomplishements are having our basement painted in 2009 by students from T.V.H.S who were working on their diplomas. we had our vestibule painted, also. in July of 2010 we had a new well put in by Burgess Drilling. A new alter clot and accessories were donated by Will and Marsha Handrich in memory of their daughter, Alicia. In January of 2011 w had aluminum flashing applied to the outside windows. June of 2011 the outside of the church and the foundation were painted. October of 2011 we had new steps and a landing installed. In June of 2012 we purchased ne tables and chairs for our social hall.