The beginning….
The first permanent settler in Medina Township, Medina County was Zenas Hamilton of Connecticut who arrived in 1814. His family was followed by others, primarily from Connecticut, who desired to establish a permanent settlement by early 1817. One of their primary goals was to establish an Episcopal church. Rev Roger Searle, who had been serving as rector of St Peter’s Plymouth, Connecticut, asked for a leave to become a missionary to the Western Reserve “from January 30th to May 31st 1817 to visit the New West and perhaps live there”. He organized several churches in the Reserve over the next few months, including St Peter’s Ashtabula, Trinity Cleveland, St Mark’s Columbia, St James’ Boardman and St Luke’s Ravenna.
Rev Searle arrived at the Hamilton cabin on the evening of March 10, 1817. The next morning, on March 11, 1817, Rev Searle preached the first religious service in Medina County, based upon I Thess. 5:9. Immediately after that first service the church was organized: “We the subscribers do hereby declare that we are attached and belong to the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America, and hereby do on this eleventh day of March 1817, unite ourselves into a congregation by the name of St Paul’s Church of Medina, in the State of Ohio, for the purpose of worshipping Almighty God according to the forms and regulations of said Church. Signed: Rufus Ferris, Miles Seymore, Benjamin Hull, Harvey Hickox, David D. Warner, William Painter, George Warner, Micah B. Welton, Zenas Hamilton.”
On Thursday the 10th of April 1817, the community cleared the land for a church on Chauncey Blakeslee’s land near the village of Weymouth. Work began felling the trees in the morning and the service was held in the completed cabin at 4:00 pm that day. The log cabin also served as the school, taught by Miss Eliza Northrop. The Congregationalists also worshipped there.
Citizens of the county seat at the village of Medina agitated to have the church moved there.At a parish meeting on February 18, 1832, it was agreed to build a church in Medina. Miss Cornelia Boardman gave the land.The new building was consecrated on July 11, 1837.
When the white frame church was outgrown, a new building in
the Gothic Revival style was design by Gordon W. Lloyd of Detroit, a noted
church architect. The church was completed in the fall of 1887 at
a cost of $16,000.The first service was held on Friday December
19, 1884.Church historian GF Smythe called it “incomparably the
finest Episcopal church in any country town at the time” and
thanks to the care and regard of subsequent congregations, it remains so today.
Written by Susan McKiernan