Liberty Presbyterian Church / Nathan Carpenter

Liberty Presbyterian Church, also, Nathan Carpenter. American Presbyterian and Reformed Historical Site. Liberty Presbyterian Church Founded in 1810. The first religious society organized in Liberty Township was formed in 1810 by Elders Thomas Cellar, Josiah McKinnie, and Leonard Monroe. Cellar and McKinnie came to Delaware in 1802. In 1820, The Elders and others built Liberty Church and laid out a cemetery on land provided by Thomas Cellar. Along with the Cellar and McKinnie families, early settlers, church and community leaders are buried here. In 1855, John F. Cellar deeded the three acres on which the church was located to Liberty for one dollar. The land was to be used only for the Church, burying ground, and schoolhouse. In the 1990s, the congregation outgrew the old meeting house. A Barn Church was constructed by builder John Redding, assisted by Amish men Josie and son, Junior Miller and their crew. It was constructed in 1996 near the old Liberty Church., Nathan Carpenter The First Colonial Settler in Delaware County . Nathan Carpenter was born on April 12, 1757 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. During the Revolutionary War, he joined the Connecticut Militia as a private and fought at Bunker Hill, where he was wounded. He married Irene Reid in 1781 and in 1785 they moved to New York State. In 1800, Carpenter purchased 520 acres in the Ohio Territory for $1,500. The Carpenters left New York in February 1801 and traveled to Pittsburgh, floated down the Ohio River, and used keel boats to go up the Scioto River. On May 1, 1801, he arrived at his new homestead in Liberty Township, just north of this church. Carpenter built a stone springhouse on his farm and in 1804 built the first mill in Delaware County used for sawing wood and grinding grain. He died in 1814 and is buried at Marycrest, the Carpenter family farm.