SUGAR TREE WESLEYAN CHURCH AND CEMETERY

The Sugar Tree Wesleyan Church, founded by anti-slavery Methodists in 1845, was one of the first Wesleyan churches organized in Ohio. The first pastor of the church was Rev. Silas Chase, MD, a prominent member of the Bethel Underground Railroad Network. A 35 by 45-foot chapel was built in 1848 at this site, on land donated by Isaac Holmes Brown. Brown, a well-known conductor, assisted by transporting fugitives in wagons from Felicity to Bethel and harboring them at his house near Bethel. Then he arranged transportation to either C.B. Huber in Williamsburg or to White Oak station in Brown County. Brown’s burial site is located in the church cemetery. The church was also the site of numerous anti-slavery meetings held by Rev. Gerrard P. Riley, a later pastor of the church. Riley’s Church was attended by many individuals involved in the Underground Railroad including James Bunton, Benjamin Rice, Richard Mace, and O.W. Vandosol. Cemetery is open to the public.