Muhlenberg County Kentucky
Church Records
Paradise Presbyterian Church
A Brief History of the Presbyterian Church at Paradise, Kentucky.
About the year 1851 and 1855 a number of families from Scotland emigrated to the United States and settled in the neighborhood of Paradise on Green River in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, for the purpose of working the coal and iron mines in that vicinity. These emigrants had been chiefly trained in the pale of the Presbyterian church of Scotland and some of the emigrants were communicants in the Free and Established churches of that county. After settling in Muhlenberg County the spiritual interests of this people were sadly neglected and without any regular ministry and pastoral care and without any Presbyterian church near them there was a gradual decay in the religious life of this community.
In accordance with the request of some the Rev. Howsley, a Presbyterian minister from Greenville, Kentucky, held an occasional service for the benefit of the miners. Owing to his numerous engagements and infirm health the services rendered by Rev. Howsley were very irregular and his appointments of long intervals. After his death there were no Presbyterian services at Paradise for a number of years. In the month of August, 1869, Rev. W.D. Morton, (the rustic) missionary for the Synod of Kentucky commenced preaching at Paradise and continued to hold occasional services in the village for several months. Having been ordained as an Evangelist by the Muhlenberg Presbytery, Mr. Morton, at the request of some of the citizens of Paradise, commenced a series of religious services at that place on the 13th day of April, 1870. God blessed them in answer to the prayers of his people, poured out the spirit to the reviving of saints and the conversion of sundry sinners on the 24th day of April. The following persons were examined and admitted by the session into the Presbyterian church at Mt. Zion.
Upon dismissal from the Presbyterian church at Greenville these persons were, at their own request, dismissed from Mt. Zion church to be organized into a Presbyterian church under the care of the Muhlenberg Presbytery, Synod of Kentucky, in connection with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United State of America. Then, in accordance with the request of the above persons they were on the 24th day of April, 1870, organized into a Presbyterian church to be known as the Paradise Church, the organization having been affected by the Rev. W.D. Morton, the Presbyterian Evangelist. An election of officers was held and resulted in the election of Robert Sneddon, ruling elder, and Walter Russell, deacon.
Paradise Church Membership
- Robert Sneddon,
- Walter Russell,
- William Torrance,
- Robert Kipling,
- Gilbert Muir,
- W. Duncan Penman,
- Robert Campbell,
- James Muir,
- William Keith,
- Robert Torrance,
- Margaret Torrance,
- Agnes Muir,
- Martha Denning,
- Sarah Denning,
- Sarah Thompson,
- James Smith,
- Joe Thompson,
- Peter Carnes,
- J. Torrance,
- James Gilmore,
- Gilbert Denning,
- James Williams,
- Alex Wilson,
- T. Torrance,
- Wm. Duncan,
- David Sneddon,
- Agnes Sneddon,
- Jane Murray,
- Janet Main,
- J.T. Torrance,
- John Muir,
- P. Sneddon,
- Martha Story,
- Rhoda Kipling,
- Jane Patterson,
- Jane Gilmore,
- Agnes Cavens,
- Annie Blackburn,
- Martha Griffith,
- Mary Campbell.
Copied by Beatrice Cotrrell Slaughter February 6, 1934
General Evans Shelby Chapter, D.A.R. Historian
Record copied from original session books, property of Dr. E.E. Smith, Pastor, Fourth Street Presbyterian Church, Owensboro, Kentucky
Updated November 17, 2015