History Of Grace Missionary Baptist Church of Ceredo, West Virginia

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Grace Missionary Baptist Church was given authority to establish a church in Ceredo, West Virginia in the spring of 1932.

The picture to the right, shows the original church building as it appeared while the new building was under construction. The old building had become termite infested and was being held together with chains which keep the rafters from falling in on the congregation. As can be seen by the old picture, the church building set left of B Street. The educational wing sat directly behind the church.

The congregation was established by the Pollard Baptist Church of Ashland, Kentucky (now closed) and was permitted to establish into a church because so many were interested in creating a new church.

In fact, 60 new members were organized from Pollard Baptist Church, bypassing the common practice of mission work. In 1933 the church voted to build a new building which remained along B Street until termites infested the structure, demanding a new building be built. The land was valued at $800.

The name of the congregation was first called Calvary Baptist Church.

Due to lost records, much of the history of the church was found at the Ceredo Museum.

We wish to thank the fine folks at the museum for allow us access to their records.

Here it was discovered that the church originally thought to have been started in 1939, was actually begun in Spring of 1932. Nine of the sixty men met in the home of Cecil Patterson to organize the church and then held their first service in the Odd Fellow Hall the following Sunday.

Before long the church looked for land which was purchased in 1933 for $800. There is still some speculation regarding the original church building, whether it was an existing building that was moved to the property or if a new building was built on the land. What we do know was that the old structure was used until it was riddled with termites and was replaced by the present structure in 1979.
 

According to the found church materials, the original name of the church was Calvary Baptist Church but changed its name to Grace Baptist Church on November 29, 1951.

At the first meeting the church had two pastors: John Billings and Carl McKinney.

The third pastor of the church was Cecil Patterson, who served the church for four years.

After that, the church ordained P.L. Craig in which he ministered to the church for a year.

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In late 1939 Neal Blankenbecker came as pastor. He served twice as pastor with Nelson Webb serving in between. In September 1941, Henry Bryan was called as pastor and served for seven years.

(Brother Bryan later went to Walnut Hills Baptist Church.) In September 1951 Henry Jones was called to pastor the church. He served until 1957. It was under his leadership that the church began to grow. He was pastor when the church changed its name to Grace Baptist Church.

On September 19, 1954, Charles Stewart came to Grace Baptist to serve as song leader.

He served in this role until November 1957, when the membership called him as pastor.
Under Brother Stewart the church continued to grow in number and in 1958 purchased the parking lot next door to the church to accommodate the growing number.

Then December 1958, the church joined the Southern Baptist Convention. In January 1959, the church began to have Training Union and in March they had their first mission.

Around February 1961 the church joined the Ohio Convention and also remodeled the sanctuary adding a baptistry. It was the spring of 1962 that the church began building the new Educational Building.

This building sat to the rear of the church building.