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Main > Church Info > History > The First Building The first building;The First Split... In 1840, under Mr. Kittridge's guidance and with much labor by the members, a small, 2-room brick building was built on the site of the present church. The timing was not propitious, however. Perhaps because of debt (0f the $874 cost of the new building, $431 had to be borrowed) or distance, several of the members living east of Bedford withdrew and built another Presbyterian church (the Bethlehem Presbyterian Church), in Pinhook. To help pay its debt, the Bedford congregation rented its building half-time to a Baptist congregation and used the front room as a school. The Second Split... Shortly afte,r the newly-chartered church had split for local reasons, the split in the national Presbyterian church into "New School" and "Old School" presbyteries reached Bedford. Most of the congregation remained with Mr. Kittridge in the "New School" church, but a number of dissenters built a two-story brick house (Bedford Presbyterian Church Old School) on the southwest corner of Church and Locust Sts. (now 14th and "K" Sts., present site of First United Methodist Church). The Bethlehem congregation also joined the Old School presbytery. The New School/Old School split lasted until 1858, when the three congregations united into the "Bedford Independent Presbyterian Church" at the present location. The "Old School" church building was sold to the Methodists. In the mid 1860's the church ended its independence and joined New Albany Presbytery. When, in 1869, the national denomination split into the "Northern" and "Southern" Presbyterian churches, the Bedford church became a Northern church. Previous 1 2 3 4 Next |