August Update

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Update about our new pastor

I thought it might be nice to post the news that I am now pastoring Jonah's Run Baptist Church, Clinton Baptist Association as of June 21,2026. 

This is now the 6th ABC/Ohio church that I have pastored, and the 4th in the Clinton Baptist Association.

This is now my 55th year in the ministry, an alumni of Georgetown College and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Both in Kentucky). I have also served as Chaplain to Warren County Juvenile Detention Center and Destiny Hospice of Cincinnati,Ohio.

Linda and I have made our home in Lebanon, Ohio since 1982.

Thank you, Pastor R.Steve Tufts

JRBC

Our Church is located at:

9614 St.Rt. 73 W

Wilmington,Ohio 

45177

If you travel to be with us, your GPS may say “Waynesville “ but you will still end up in our driveway.  

Upcoming events

8/12/26 Wednesday evening (6:30 pm)  Bible study topic: “Does God lead us into temptation?”

8/23/26 Sunday 6:00 pm, Baptisms at the Swimming Beach, Caesar’s Creek 

8/30/26 Sunday , 11:00, Communion Service 

Thanks a bunch

 

Fall Colors at Jonah's Run

INTRODUCTION - HISTORIC MARKER UNVEILING

INTRODUCTION - HISTORIC MARKER UNVEILING 

Jonah’s Run Baptist Church, September 28, 2019

D. Howard Doster, Historic Marker Unveiling Chairman

To most of the thousands of persons driving west today on their way to the Renaissance Festival, adjacent on the west to the Underwood Farms Historic District, nothing great ever happened here.  That’s been true since pioneers and early settlers walked and drove their few livestock by here on their way west. 

But some settlers, including Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) and Black persons (African Americans), stopped and lived out their lives here, in ways meaningful to them.  Some of their history is now our history.

What a fun time I’m having, collecting stories describing the persons who live or used to live around the Underwood Farms Historic District!  I accepted the unveiling job partly because I felt guilty about getting Jonah’s Run Baptist Church (JRBC) involved.  Now, I continue to enjoy meeting new neighbors to here and getting new stories from old neighbors to here. 

Our kids are putting our JRBC histories, the clerk’s records which include names of all JRBC members, starting with the first persons baptized in little Jonah’s Run stream in 1837, and other stories on www.JonahsRunBaptistChurch.org , a website they say you can even access by pointing your smartphone at a QR code we’ll put somewhere, maybe in the church bulletin?

As you will soon realize, my religious and other family memories of persons living out their lives here are so meaningful to me; perhaps you will share memories of around here.  Perhaps you will improve your memories and meaning of other places.  Perhaps others will read our marker & eventually choose to join us here!

In 2015, before they could put up a nearby cell tower, the company had to gift $9500 to a nearby Historic Entity; in our case the Underwood Farms Historic District.  It includes the three former Underwood houses and 280 acres of land, plus Jonah’s Run Baptist Church.  

As a condition for the funds to go to JR, we agreed to use $3800 to put up a Historic Marker, and we’ve already used most of the remaining money to improve the inside of the church. Today, we are here to unveil the Historic Marker in the grass area just east of the church parking lot.

On September 15, 2019, after looking for an appropriate place to set up chairs outside near the Marker site, the JR Moderator, the Head Trustee, and the Unveiling Chairman decided to come outside for the unveiling after starting the program inside.  Thus, you are sitting in our near air-conditioned Sunday School room, and not suffering from outside heat, rain or automobile noise.  Thank you, Trustee Raymond Roberts, for your wise suggestion.

You might rightly ask how JRBC got involved.   It’s because Wilhelmina Braddock Branson, my Quaker Underwood first cousin, wanted an Underwood Farms Historic District, and she wanted JRBC included.   She’ll tell more in a few minutes. I just remember, in 2003, Wilhelmina shared her vision; and Mom and I, and another Underwood or two, helped her get, maybe $1,000 or $2,000, so she could hire a professional writer to create the application to the National Register of Historic Places entity.  Wilhelmina helped that writer make a successful application.

But that was only if JRBC was included in the District. Wilhelmina did the rest.  And, thanks to the later cell tower funds, JRBC now has repaired walls and a newly painted church sanctuary, as well as a story on a marker!

Jonah's Run Baptist Church Map

Ohio Historic Marker Text

JONAH’S RUN BAPTIST CHURCH

The comingling of faiths in an area settled predominantly by Quakers helps explain the origins of Jonah’s Run Baptist Church.^[1] Ministered to by a Baptist preacher, the children and neighbors of Daniel Collett (1752-1835),^[2] an Episcopalian and private in the Revolutionary War^[3], and his wife Mary Haines Collett (1753-1826), a Quaker^[4] from Virginia, became Baptists and started the church in 1838.^[5] Levi Lukens (1767-1860), a Quaker from Pennsylvania by way of Virginia,^[6] purchased the land[7] where the church stands in 1812 and sold it in 1839 to a founder[8] of the congregation. Like local Quaker meetinghouses,[9] the church had separate entrances for men and women and a partition between the two that divided the sanctuary. The congregation’s sons and daughters lived their faith. Howard McCune (1852-1923)[10] was the Clinton Baptist Association’s moderator[11] and president of the Ohio Baptist Convention’s state board.[12] Anne Cossum (1894-1977)[13] was a missionary in China from 1920-1927.[14]

UNDERWOOD FARMS RURAL HISTORIC DISTRICT

The District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, preserves 280 acres of landscapes and buildings depicting rural life in Clinton County from about 1838 to 1955.[15]  The District encompasses the Amos-Elihu-Daniel Underwood (“west brick”) and Zephaniah Underwood (“east brick”) farms, the Zephaniah and Matilda Underwood house (the “Tower House,” c. 1884) and Jonah’s Run Baptist Church (side 1).[16]  The Underwoods were famous for their commercial apple orchards, although like other farmers raised a variety of crops and livestock.[17] The Zephaniah and Matilda Underwood farm includes a c. 1900 brick fruit storage building, insulated by sawdust[18].  The Underwoods were leaders in other areas.  Matilda Downing Underwood (1851-1932)[19] was a Quaker minister and active in the temperance and women’s suffrage movements.[20]  Matilda’s sister, Maria Downing Romine (1848-1922), was a medical doctor, a pioneering career for women of her time.[21] 

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[1] Karen Campbell, QUAKER GENEALOGY IN SOUTHWEST OHIO, The Underwood Farms Rural Historical District ~ National Register of Historic Places at http://qugenswohio.blogspot.com/2005/08/underwood-farms-rural-historical.html, accessed 12May2016

[2] Daniel Collett, the elder, at Find a Grave, at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59190253/daniel-collett (accessed 5/8/2019)

[3] See Daniel Collett the elder’s tombstone at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59190253/daniel-collett (accessed 6/10/2019).

[4] Mary Harries Collett’s name is from the inscription on her son’s grave, Daniel Collett, at Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43159395/daniel-collett (accessed 5/7/2019). According to John W. Haines, Richard Haines and His Descendants: A Quaker Family of Burlington County, New Jersey since 1682 (Boyce, VA: Carr Publishing Co., Inc. 1961), the correct spelling is HAINES and pp. 181-183 #43 notes relationships between Mary and husband Daniel the elder and son Daniel: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89062876875;view=1up;seq=197 (accessed 5/13/2019)

[5] Rev. B. Bedell, “A History of the Jonas [sic] Run Baptist Church,” [1866] typescript transcription received from Howard Doster, 3/22/2019 and in the marker file. Rev. Bedell was the congregation’s minister from October 1860-September 1868 (per Howard Collett’s History of Jonah’s Run, p. 6, cited below).; Nathalie Wright and Judy Williams, Underwood Farms Rural Historic District, National Register of Historical Places Registration Form, May/June 2005, NR reference #05001519, Section 8, Page 5

[6] The History of Warren County, Ohio (Chicago: W.H. Beers & Company, 1882) p. 651 https://archive.org/details/oh-warren-1882-beers/page/n657 and p. 1006 https://archive.org/details/oh-warren-1882-beers/page/n1011. Levi Lukens, The Pencocks of Primitive Hall / Rash’s Surname Index, at http://www.pennock.ws/surnames/fam/fam23370.html (all accessed 5/14/2019).

[7] All of Clinton County, including Lukens land, was in the Virginia Military District. See http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Planning/Environment/Cultural_Resources/Context_Studies/Virginia%20Military%20District.pdf and http://geosurvey.ohiodnr.gov/portals/geosurvey/PDFs/Misc_State_Maps&Pubs/mg2_8x11.pdf  (both accessed 5/13/2019)

[8] Copy of indenture in marker file, dated 1/21/1839, from in Deed Book M, pp. 381-382 in Clinton County Recorder’s Office.

[9] See list provide by Howard Doster in marker file. Cites Miami meeting house, c. 1803; Caesar Creek c. 1805; Grove, c. 1837, and Dover (19^th century, year unknown).

[10] Howard McCune Biography, at http://www.robertmackayclan.com/rmc/rmcmem/mackay/214312/clinton_county_1915.html (accessed 6/6/2019) and Howard McCune, Find a Grave, at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/83352951/howard-mccune (accessed 6/6/2019)

[11] “Baptists Honor Howard M’Cune,” Dayton Daily News, 8/27/1921, p. 9, at https://newscomoh.newspapers.com/image/397693941/?terms=howard%2Bm%27cune&pqsid=yOZ40Yf4CqwZGEK7wei2Nw%3A2881000%3A383473669 (accessed 6/10/2019)

[12] Howard McCune Biography, at http://www.robertmackayclan.com/rmc/rmcmem/mackay/214312/clinton_county_1915.html (accessed 6/6/2019); “Hold Service in Memory of Howard M’Cune,” Wilmington News-Journal, March 26, 1923, p. 6, at  https://newscomoh.newspapers.com/image/62619281/?terms=howard%2Bm%27cune&pqsid=yOZ40Yf4CqwZGEK7wei2Nw%3A2301000%3A26839890; J.H. Hollingsworth, “Howard McCune: An Appreciation” Wilmington News-Journal, March 24, 1923, p. 8, at  https://newscomoh.newspapers.com/image/62619269/?terms=howard%2Bmccune&pqsid=Mhkr6M6oX5_BnbtKDB__Kg%3A76000%3A502444061

[13] Letter from Howard Doster to Andy Verhoff, 6/2/2019 (in marker file) and Anne Doster Cossum, Find a Grave, at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/search?firstname=anne&middlename=&lastname=cossum&birthyear=&birthyearfilter=&deathyear=&deathyearfilter=&location=&locationId=&memorialid=&datefilter=&orderby= (accessed 6/6/2019)

[14] Anne D. Cossum, “Dear Mother,” a collection of 300 letters from Mrs. Cossum to her mother, private printed, December 1954, table of contents documents date span of 1920-1927. In marker file. “Mr. Doster Better, Mrs. Cossum Home,” Wilmington News-Journal, April 16, 1927, p. 8.  Baptists Invited to Jonah’s Run, Wilmington News-Journal, August 16, 1927, p. 5.

[15] Wright and Williams, Underwood Farms Rural Historic District, NRHP Registration Form

[16] Wright and Williams, Underwood Farms Rural Historic District, NRHP Registration Form, Sec. 7, p. 7

[17] Karen Campbell, QUAKER GENEALOGY IN SOUTHWEST OHIO, The Underwood Farms Rural Historical District ~ National Register of Historic Places at http://qugenswohio.blogspot.com/2005/08/underwood-farms-rural-historical.html, accessed 12May2016

[18] Wright and Williams, Underwood Farms Rural Historic District, NRHP Registration Form, Sec. 7, p. 5

[19] Matilda Downing Underwood (1851-1932) at http://sites.rootsmagic.com/robbhaas2/individual.php?p=5547

[20] Wright and Williams, Underwood Farms Rural Historic District, NRHP Registration Form, Sec. 8, p. 2

[21] Karen Campbell, “Dr. Marie Romine ~ Quaker Physician,” accessed 31May2016 http://harveysburg.blogspot.com/2005/08/marie-jesse-romine-homedr.html.  Romine’s death date from record if Stubbs-Corner Funeral Home in Waynesville, researched by Howard Doster and Dr. Maria M Downing Romine at Find a Grave, at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17639700/maria-m-romine (accessed 6/11/2019)  Myra K. Merrick is credited as being the first female doctor in Ohio, see http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Myra_K._Merrick (accessed 31May2016).  According to the Changing Face of Medicine online exhibit of the U.S. National Library of Medicine at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_35.html “When she graduated from New York's Geneva Medical College, in 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to earn the M.D. degree.”  Ruth J. Abram, Send Us a Lady Physician: Women Doctors in America, 1835-1920 (New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 1985)p. 77ff. makes no mention of Maria Romine, but does describe Quakers’ enlightened attitudes toward female doctors in the 19^th century.