Burlington Presbyterian Church

Burlington Presbyterian Church was the home of local Underground Railroad conductor Rev Gamaliel Beaman In 1838, Rev Gamaliel Beaman and his wife Amelia moved to Burlington, Ohio. Abolitionism was then spreading rapidly and the church at Burlington had thirty-four members, of whom 17 were slave owners, residents of Kentucky and (West) Virginia, just across the Ohio River. Rev. Beaman was an ardent abolitionist, and under his influence the church session dismissed the slave holding members, and the remaining seventeen adopted an article excluding slave holders from the church and the pulpit.

Before the church was organized in Cabell County, the Presbyterian farmers of Cabell County went in boats with their families across the river to Burlington to worship.

In 1837, Presbyterians on the Virginia shore began to consider the establishment of a church of their own. In that same year a movement was launched in Guyandotte, a town two miles above Huntington, to establish an academy for the education of their youth. The Presbyterians indicated they would subscribe generously to the enterprise if they would be permitted the regular use of the chapel for their religious services. In 1838 the building was erected and the original log house used by the church and school was called Mount Hebron.

On June 30, 1838 James Holderby and Lucy Holderby deeded to Marshall Academy, which had been named for Chief Justice John Marshall, an acre and a quarter of land. Chief Justice Marshall was a personal friend of John Laidley, a prominent lawyer and one of the moving spirits of the project. (see First Presbyterian Church in Huntington, WV)

(Founding of Presbyterian Church Tied with City’s Early History, Herald Advertiser Jan 21, 1951 )

Founding of Presbyterian Church Tied with City’s Early History, Herald Advertiser Jan 21, 1951 http://www.kmitch.com/Pueblo/bios0002.html