Plain Congregational Church (Bowling Green, Ohio) records

The records of the Plain Congregational Church contain weekly, monthly, and annual accounts of church activities from 1835-1973 (1846-1850 missing) and consist of eleven volumes: nine bound and two post bound. The nine bound volumes are the original records and the two post bound are typed transcripts from 1835 to 1909. The volumes include all the important records of the church: minutes of the annual, monthly, and weekly meetings, baptisms, marriages, memberships, dismissals, funerals, officers, communion services, and financial statistics. The last four volumes (1934-1973) have the vital statistics (baptisms, marriages, funerals) listed separately at the back of the books as well as within the weekly accounts. Additional information within the records includes: incorporation papers, news articles, confessions of faith, miscellaneous correspondence, and a written compact to become a corporate entity.

The records of the Plain Congregational Church are generally complete and reflect the activities of a major focus of community social activity in a small northwestern Ohio town. Attitudes expressed in church related records also reflect those of the community in which the church exists. The completeness of these records is a major strength in their use as data sources for research. The major weakness that arises in the use of these records rests in the disorderly mixture of other records within the minutes. Use of the rolls is facilitated if one refers to the compilation of the scattered material that follow that minutes.

The microfilming of these volumes did not include all of the church records. A series of Pastoral sermons for 1977-1978, a pictorial directory for 1976, Sunday School attendance records for 1970, 1974-1976, and statistics on Sunday School activities for 1961-1978 were not filmed.