Lower Lost River Church

(Lost River)

(1836?-1954)

The Gospel Messenger April 6, 1901 page 222 Vol. 39 No. 40

Some old time Meetings.

 For the interest of those at Lost river, Hardy County, West Virginia, and elsewhere, I will give a little history of the first church and membership on the west side of the mountain on Lost River.  About 1835 there was an Annual Meeting at Linville Creek, Rockingham County, Virginia.  My father and mother, Benjamin and Mary Bashor, went to the meeting and there united with the church and were baptized.  I was then a boy about fifteen years old.  In about 1836 there was a meeting at my father’s house. Old Bro. John Wampler and Bro. Samuel Wampler preached on Sunday, and I suppose there were two hundred people at the meeting. They were all invited to remain for dinner, and nearly all of them did so. I remember well some of the boys and I carried hay to all the horses as they were bitched round about the fences. This was the second time that any of the Brethren at preached on the west side of the mountain.

  Brother Peter Nead preached my grandfather’s funeral. My grandfather was a Mennonite. I well remember old Brother Peter’s beard and low-crowned hat.  Some time after the meeting at my father’s house, Jerry Whetsel and wife and Betsey Mathias were baptized, and some time afterward Barney Kuon and wife put in Christ in baptism. From that time on there were members uniting with the church.  Then the Rockingham Brethren came and held meeting every eight weeks, one time at my father’s, nest at Jerry Whetsel’s, then at Jacob Mather’s house.  Brethren John Kline, Samuel Wampler, Benjamin Bowman and George Shaver were our preachers.  They all lived twenty-five miles off. In time we were able to build a large log churchhouse. I help hew the white pine longs.  We could get them any length we wanted. I hauled the longs and my father sawed the flooring. That house was used for preaching more than forty years.  The congregation now has a new and large frame house on the same ground. There are not less than six or eight organized churches where there was mirror two fifty years ago.

 Wife and I united with the church in 1852, moved to Tennessee, and some time after I moved to this county. I was elected to the deacons’ office and served there awhile, then to the ministry, and I have served in the elder’s office for nearly twenty years.  I am now in my eightieth year, and fairly strong for my age.    Conrad Bashor.   Jonesboro, Tenn.