This is about activities of the Association, which maintains and preserves North Bend Church, built in 1861, and maintains its cemetery.
Historic North Bend Church, on North Bend Rd. near Jarrettsville, was recently transferred from the Baltimore Presbytery to the new North Bend Church & Cemetery Association. The church is currently used by the New Life Church of God, which has been maintaining the church and grounds since the 1980s.
In 1860, Isaac Rogers, owner of La Grange Ironworks at the Rocks of Deer Creek, gave an acre of ground on a hill above the creek to a group of men who intended to build a church there. These men, William Glenn, J. Vernay St. Clair, John Jenkins, Thomas Streett, and Rodger Streett, were the first trustees of the “North Bend Old School Presbyterian Church,” according to the deed. The first boundary marker was a stone set up on the “easterly side of the public road represented as the ‘Road leading from Dublin District to George Cairnes’ --.”
By the next year, a red brick one-room church with two doors in the gable end had been built on the hillside. Pews were installed and oil lamps were hung in cast iron holders upon the walls and a wood stove was set in place. The congregation used the building for 90 years, until the early 1950s when it disbanded and members joined other churches, notably Highland and Bethel Presbyterian. Members from these two churches formed a committee to document, maintain and protect the building and cemetery. The interior has remained largely unchanged and the New Life congregation has worked to retain the historic appearance.
Families in the North Bend cemetery include: Baird, Beall, Billingsley, Blaney, Burkins, Calder, Coe, Glenn, Jones, Neeper, Reed, Rutledge, St. Clair, Slade, Stansbury, Stearns, Stokes, Streett, Tracey, Wagner, and Watkins.
The Association carries on the work of the former committee. Its founding board is made up of members of Highland Presbyterian Church and the New Life Church of God. For information, call Association President Deborah Bowers at 410 692-2708, or email her at [email protected].
To maintain and preserve the historic structure, cemetery grounds and markers.
