Cornerstone members tour Fordyce
FORDYCE – The Cornerstone Genealogical Society members and friends traveled to the little community of Fordyce in Greene Township to tour the Fordyce United Methodist Church and the old general store and post office owned by Wayne Kapp.
The original log school house at Fordyce was deeded to the community by John Morris and John Moredock in 1838: “…there on a house for a public school to be taught in for the benefit of the neighborhood thereabout and also for a meeting house for a place of public worship to be equally free for all regularly organized denominations, or Christian ministers to preach and expound God’s Holy Word, therein provided that such meeting or meetings do not interfere with the regular hours of the school.”
Thus the first school was started, said Bill Miller of Fordyce, and it is where the first church service was held in Fordyce.
The first church building was probably a log building built to the west of the now-standing Fordyce Methodist Church. The original church was a nondenominational church but became a Methodist denomination in 1856, probably around the time a wooden frame building was built as the church.
It wasn’t until 1923 that the current brick church was built at a cost $18,000.
The congregation raised about half of that and then had three special services and raised the additional money at those services.
In 1876, Fordyce had a blacksmith, shoe shop and store, along with the church and school.
The original school was located behind the general store, and the Murdock School was not built until around 1900.
The Fordyce general store was probably built around 1848 and the post office was added to the store in 1856. The store is a three-story building, with the store on the first floor, living quarters on the second floor and blacksmith forge in the basement.
Following the tour, a reception was held at the Morris Bicentennial Farm, home of Kathy Morris Miller and Bill Miller.
This Morris farm has been in the family for more than 200 years and it was founded by Kathy Miller’s great-great-great-grandfather, Jonathan Morris.
Cornerstone Genealogical Society’s next meeting will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 9 at the log courthouse on Greene Street in Waynesburg. Judge Farley Toothman will speak on Chautauqua.