Church's History
Nathan Hill was born near Ellicott's Mill in Fredrick County, Maryland on March 15th, 1788. He was the son of Thomas Hill, whose father Joseph Hill had emigrated from England. In 1804, Thomas Hill emigrated with his family from Maryland to the territory north-west of the Ohio River, from which they eventually made their way to Butler County, Ohio and settled in a place called Rossville.
On August 29th, 1805, Thomas Hill purchased 160 acres of land in Newton Township within Miami County, Ohio. He had kept their residence still in Butler County during this time until July 17th, 1813 when he finally claimed Miami County their place of residence. There they had lived, facing many tragedies such as the loss of their son Henry Hill.
After the death of his parents, Nathan Hill (already married to Frances Williams) built a house of hand-hewn logs. This home had a large second floor which was used as an organized meeting place for the Hopewell Christian Church (formerly known as Newlight Christian Church). This was located on 10 acres of land donated by Thomas and Sarah Hill on the Stillwater River.
In 1846, as the congregation grew so did the new for a larger building, and so a large frame church was built on the same site as the log home. However, after a destructive windstorm a year later, the church had become irreparably damaged. Realizing the need to move the location of the church, it was taken under much consideration to move to Pleasant Hill. This move was realized on September 2nd, 1868 when J. H. Williams had donated the deed of land for the church to be built on what is now 10 West Church Street, Pleasant Hill, Ohio.
One year later, in 1869, a brick church was dedicated on the site, and that in December 2nd, 1905 the church dropped the name of Hopewell and simply became Pleasant Hill Christian Church. On June 9th, 1909, the services of Alva M. Keer were accepted as pastor.
After a long history, the Pleasant Hill Christian Church merged with the Congregational Churches in 1931, and later merged again in 1957 with the Evangelical and Reformed Churches to inherit the name that it bears today....
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Pleasant Hill United Church of Christ