Ellwood City Historical Society Collecting Church History

Everett Bleakney, President of the Ellwood City Historical Society, announced Monday night at the monthly board meeting a new effort to collect local church histories.

“It is important and vital to enlarge the collected information because it paints a picture of families that settled and lived in the community of Ellwood City,” said Bleakney.

This will greatly help individuals who are interested in locating relatives and friends, gather dates and places in the search of there genealogy

Everett told the board members the new effort will be chaired by Andrew Kindle, 1st Vice President of the Historical Society. He also said the previous effort was chaired by Dorothy Buquo about 10 years ago. Dorothy had prepared a listing of 35 churches in our area. She had prepared packets for the churches that still need updating and left room for new church groups.

Kindle indicated he hopes to have a committee formed from volunteers of the churches and members of the Society.

The Society is interested in the years that the churches were organized and by whom.

“A lot of the churches in Ellwood City were formed within 5 to 10 years of when Ellwood City was incorporated,” said Bleakney.

Churches keep memberships list, have special events, anniversaries, dedications of buildings, and pictorials of members. This collection of information creates a pathway from birth to death.

The Society hopes to work the coming months with contacting and encouraging the church’s to loan historical data.

The Society will copy and return any and all precious material.