Los Jovenes ~ Moses Trader Heritage Room Dedication Video
On Sunday, October 18, the Las Jovenes †Rev. Moses W. Trader Heritage Room in our church was dedicated.
The Heritage Room was the brainchild of Lillie Reynolds and Becky Carson, who had undertaken a project to organize historical items collected during our Bicentennial Celebration. Some items were scrapbooked, others put into decorative boxes, and items to be framed were identified. The question was “now what?â€. It had been a few years since the Las Jovenes classroom had been used, so it was suggested that the room be converted to a heritage room †a place to display all that had been collected and organized. Pastor Steve identified items of historical significance throughout the church to
add to the collection.
The room is dedicated to the memory of the Las Jovenes Sunday School class founded in 1933 by Minerva Smith Johnson, Mary Koger Sponsler and Mildred Snyder. They wanted a class just for young women. They reached out to Mrs B. M. Beatty who agreed to teach their class. Las Jovenes is Spanish for Young Women. Their motto was: “A short life of service for Christ is better than a long life of idlenessâ€.
In 1954 the class vendors license for the church kitchen and began catering events. They were responsible for the Baked Steak and Pork Tenderloin Dinners we have today.
On Sundays they studied the bible. They met during the week to do good works within the church and the community. For over 80 years, the Las Jovenes class was an important part of our church, and for that reason, we remember them with a special corner in the Heritage Room.
Reverend Moses W. Trader is remembered in the Heritage Room as the Circuit Rider who “planted†our church in 1813 †London’s first church. As was the Methodist way, Circuit Riders were assigned a territory in which to plant churches by meeting with people in their homes until the congregation grew large enough to build a church, and to warrant their own pastor. It was a difficult life. Circuit Riders were confronted by bad weather, wild animals, and hostile idividuals. They provided their own horse and bible and set off on a circuit that often took weeks to complete...then started the circuit all over again. They recorded births, deaths and weddings. Baptisms and weddings were scheduled when the pastor’s circuit would bring them to town. You can read more about Rev. Trader in a special scrapbook in the Heritage Room.
We were blessed, at the dedication, by the presence of Sam Waters †the great, great, great grandson of Rev. Trader! Sam is very interested in his family heritage, and struck up an online relationship with Gail Baker following our Bicentennial. He and his wife, Jill, planned their trip to include visiting the Trader family plots in a Xenia cemetery (with Howard and Lillie Reynolds) where many of his ancestors are buried, downtown Xenia where Rev. Trader once had a general store across the street from the court house, and Caesar’s Creek where Rev. Trader is credited with clearing the first farmland in the area.
When it was learned that they would be in our area, the date for the dedication of the Heritage Room was set to allow them to be present.
A wonderful photographer, Sam donated a lovely framed photo of a cross for inclusion in the Heritage Room.
The Heritage Room was the brainchild of Lillie Reynolds and Becky Carson, who had undertaken a project to organize historical items collected during our Bicentennial Celebration. Some items were scrapbooked, others put into decorative boxes, and items to be framed were identified. The question was “now what?â€. It had been a few years since the Las Jovenes classroom had been used, so it was suggested that the room be converted to a heritage room †a place to display all that had been collected and organized. Pastor Steve identified items of historical significance throughout the church to
add to the collection.
The room is dedicated to the memory of the Las Jovenes Sunday School class founded in 1933 by Minerva Smith Johnson, Mary Koger Sponsler and Mildred Snyder. They wanted a class just for young women. They reached out to Mrs B. M. Beatty who agreed to teach their class. Las Jovenes is Spanish for Young Women. Their motto was: “A short life of service for Christ is better than a long life of idlenessâ€.
In 1954 the class vendors license for the church kitchen and began catering events. They were responsible for the Baked Steak and Pork Tenderloin Dinners we have today.
On Sundays they studied the bible. They met during the week to do good works within the church and the community. For over 80 years, the Las Jovenes class was an important part of our church, and for that reason, we remember them with a special corner in the Heritage Room.
Reverend Moses W. Trader is remembered in the Heritage Room as the Circuit Rider who “planted†our church in 1813 †London’s first church. As was the Methodist way, Circuit Riders were assigned a territory in which to plant churches by meeting with people in their homes until the congregation grew large enough to build a church, and to warrant their own pastor. It was a difficult life. Circuit Riders were confronted by bad weather, wild animals, and hostile idividuals. They provided their own horse and bible and set off on a circuit that often took weeks to complete...then started the circuit all over again. They recorded births, deaths and weddings. Baptisms and weddings were scheduled when the pastor’s circuit would bring them to town. You can read more about Rev. Trader in a special scrapbook in the Heritage Room.
We were blessed, at the dedication, by the presence of Sam Waters †the great, great, great grandson of Rev. Trader! Sam is very interested in his family heritage, and struck up an online relationship with Gail Baker following our Bicentennial. He and his wife, Jill, planned their trip to include visiting the Trader family plots in a Xenia cemetery (with Howard and Lillie Reynolds) where many of his ancestors are buried, downtown Xenia where Rev. Trader once had a general store across the street from the court house, and Caesar’s Creek where Rev. Trader is credited with clearing the first farmland in the area.
When it was learned that they would be in our area, the date for the dedication of the Heritage Room was set to allow them to be present.
A wonderful photographer, Sam donated a lovely framed photo of a cross for inclusion in the Heritage Room.
Photo of a cross in the ocean taken by our founder's great, great, great grandson, Sam Waters
Left to right, Jill Waters, Pastor Steve and Sam Waters
