Genealogies of the Earliest Free Will Baptist Ministers in Ohio - Alton E. Loveless - Bog

As a church historian I'll always enjoy the time I spend on ministers or churches when I am doing research on them. One of my neighbors, has a name that in with Haning, and in our discussion I learned he was from Southeast Ohio where much of the early Free Will Baptist work was established. In our conversation I told him that a minister whose name was Ira Haning encouraged to one of his deacons by the name of Nehemiah Atwood to fund the beginning of Rio Grande College in 1876.I began to research his name and found out that he was actually kin to the minister and two other early Free Will Baptist standouts, namely David Dudley an early church planter, and Joseph Mauck who became president of Hillsdale College in Michigan. This was at the beginning of what would be days and weeks researching other early Free Will Baptist ministers in Ohio. What an interesting work this was as I began to get more acquainted with those who established the foundation of the work in Ohio. May I remind you the state of Ohio was a wilderness when these churches were being built and hardship was ever present. Thus a book of genealogies and information was born. I could not take what I have absorbed without sharing this information so others will know what I have learned. Please enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed learning about so many that are contained herein.