civil war minutes

Like I think I've said before, I like history. In the record of Minutes of the Session at First Presbyterian Chruch of Somerset, Kentucky, there is the following entry from the 1860s. At the top of the page, you can see that they're just talking about the basic church stuff: baptisms, etc. That's what the whole book's about. But after that, in the middle section, is what's interesting to me. I don't know if you can see it in the scan, but it says that there were two year without an entry because the church didn't have services during that time. That's because the Civil War was raging nearby, and the church was opened up as a hospital.

One church member said that she remembered, as a child, looking at the back wall of a closet in her Sunday School room. In there was a lot of writing - writing written by a soldier in the Civil War who was staying at the hospital. She doesn't remember what it said, and no one can see it now. The wall was painted over shortly after, and since then the church has been renovated extensively - and this wall was probably covered with paint again, or perhaps torn down in the construction.

The church reopened two years after it closed, and they began joint worship services with another area church, Pisgah Presbyterian. There are countless books of these church records. That's why I love old books. You never know what you'll find.

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Thanks to Carol for getting me a copy of the above page.

For more info on the Civil War, go to: www.civilwar.com