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Thus
is recorded the first meeting of the Church of Liberty, now known
150 years later as Graham Baptist Church, located in Bigger
Township, Jennings County, state of Indiana. The first meeting was
held at the home of Lawson Stephenson on Little
Graham Creek some three miles east and south of the present
building.
It is not recorded, just what
prompted the Church to be organized. Three of the founders,
namely, Lawson and Elizabeth Stephenson and Jane Merrill were
among the seventeen persons founding the Bethel Baptist Church,
one year previously, in nearby Ripley County. Perhaps they wished
a Church closer to home, or maybe the population was growing, and
they wanted a Baptist Church in Bigger Township. In researching
the history of the Church, there is reason to believe there was a
Church building, as such, on the original site. In the abstract of
the farm which was owned by Stephenson, and is now owned by the
present Church Clerk, his will states that his son is to receive
"15 acres on the east side of the meeting house."2
At first the new Church of "Jesus Christ at Liberty"
was without a regular minister. Brother James Alexander of
Middlefork preached occasionally. Lawson Stephenson had been
licensed to preach by the Bethel Church in August 1828, and in
fact was recorded as the first Pastor at Bethel. It was the
practice that a brother feeling the call to preach would preach to
a council, and if the council felt he truly had the gift, would
deem him worthy to be licensed to preach in his own Church.
However, there is no record of him being the Preacher in the
Church at Liberty until his Ordination on the third Saturday in
March, 1831. From the original Church minutes it is recorded,
"Brother Lawson Stephenson served as both Pastor and Moderator
until his death, being August 25, 1835, without receiving any
compensation for his labors."l
From December 1835 until April 1836, Jessy Miles served. Then
it is recorded in a history compiled in 1867 and recorded in the
Association Minutes of that year that "Graham was without a
Minister until 1840 "3 However, in the minutes of the Church
for April 1832, a Council was setting of Association members, and
the brethren was to entreat them "that Brother Az. Merrill be
licensed to exercise his gift in public"l
As he was a prominent leader in the early Church it is assumed
he did exercise his "gift" but no mention is made of his
preaching A newspaper article appearing in the Plain Dealer and
Republican, dated February 2, 1929, was written by U. E. Smith, a
former member of Graham and long time member of Bethel, and at the
time, Clerk of the Madison Association. The article was on the
History of Churches in Bigger Township, and listed Azariah Merrill
as Pastor of Graham in 1836- 1837. He also listed James Spaulding
and A. C. Bowyer as Pastors. Perhaps these men did preach at
Graham, but Graham's Minutes and other histories do not record it.
Mean-while the Church was experiencing many changes. Again, from
the
Church
Minutes we find,
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