MOUNT LIBERTY — Liberty Township was settled in 1805 by pioneers from Pennsylvania, was established as a township in 1822, and was reported to be a wild and dangerous place by some. Hill’s “History of Knox County, Ohio,” written in 1881, mentions one Lewis Bricker Sr. of Green County, Pa., who wanted to establish farms in Liberty Township for himself and his entire family. He purchased 1,600 acres, and in 1810 sent relatives on ahead.
“They came out to this wild region, camped one night, and the next day by noon were on their way back,” wrote N.N. Hill Jr. “They saw many Indians, heard the owls hooting, and the wolves howling all night; and unaccustomed to these things they agreed with their wives to let their land go, rather than risk their own and their children’s lives in the Dry Creek region.”
The village of Mount Liberty was comparatively safer. Founded in 1835, it became a bustling place when the Cleveland, Mount Vernon and Columbus railroad went through. The village boasted hotels, taverns and public houses, sawmills and grist mills, a railroad station, schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, doctors and shoemakers, stores and a church.
One house that still stands, notable for its tall pillars, must have had a reputation.
Sylvia Shutt Chrisman, who was born in 1919 in Mount Liberty, said her father, Fred Shutt, a deputy sheriff, purchased the house, which at one time had a tavern in the basement.
“My father tore out the stairs that went from the tavern in the basement up to the bedroom,” she said.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, on Thatcher Road in the middle of Mount Liberty, was the spiritual anchor of the village. For years before it was built, the Rev. Thomas Carr and the Rev. John Raymond, both circuit riders, visited to preach as often as they could, and an official congregation was founded in 1837.
Denny Allen, the teaching elder of the Community Bible Church, which has occupied it since 2004, said the building was constructed in 1857. A hand-dug basement was added in 1914.
“It’s in a constant state of remodeling,” said Allen, pointing out the hand-hewn timbers and mortise and tenon joints. Allen said the building has a Greek Revival look but the open bell tower, with its elegant architectural details, is Italianate.
“I presume the bell is original,” Allen said, who was visiting the bell tower for the first time, although the rope that dangles into the entryway of the church comes off fairly regularly, so others must climb up to reattach it. The bell is rung on Sunday mornings.
The climb begins in the entryway, up Allen’s aluminum ladder and through a trap door into the base of the tower. From there, it’s a contortionist’s scramble up, over and around wooden boards nailed to the wall at various leg-stretching heights. Once the upper trap door is removed, more tricky negotiating is required to stand up beside the bell and look out over Mount Liberty.
The view looks down on all the houses around, and over them to U.S. 36 running west to Centerburg and east to Mount Vernon. The bell is operated by a pulley, painted red, instead of a bell crank. “Troy Bell Foundry, Troy, New York 1871” is cast into the bell.
It’s an even trickier climb back down the tower and ladder to the church’s entryway.
Allen said that Community Bible Church’s sister church is Speranti Baptist in Sibiu, Romania, in Transylvania. “Speranti” means hope in Romanian, and Allen, who has visited there, said the congregation is composed of wonderful, friendly people. The Speranti folks have never seen their sister church in Mount Liberty, but thanks to the wonders of video and the Internet, they’ll be able to see not only the church building but the little village in which it stands, at www.mountvernonnews.com.