West Berne Reformed Church

West Berne Reformed Church around 1930

Predecessors

• The “Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the Beaverdam” was organized in 1765.
• In 1786 the old log church was replaced with a frame building that served for the next 44 years. It was located on the hill where the Beaverdam Cemetery is now located.

Organization of the West Berne Reformed Chruch

In 1829 the congregation had again outgrown its building. It was decided to build two new buildings, one to the east in Corporation, also called Bernville, now the Hamlet of Berne and the other to the west in Mechanicsville, (Beaverdam, later Peoria, now West Berne.

• 1830 the old building was razed and the salvage divided between the two churches. The Mechanicsville church was allotted the stove, the spire, “the iron dogs [Iron clamps that held the beams] and all the nails of said church,” plus 1600 feet of the ceiling. The church at West Berne retained the old name, the Beaver Dam Reformed Church.
• ~1880 the steeple was rebuilt.
• 1894-95 a church hall was added; about the same time the old clear-glass, small-paned windows were replaced by stained-glass memorial windows.
• 1982, after more than a hundred and fifty years of worshipping separately, the two congregations again became one. At that time the West Berne sanctuary was torn down and the property sold.

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West Berne Reformed Church Image:WBerneMECh web.jpg|West Berne Reformed Church Image:West Berne 1.JPG|West Berne Reformed Church, metal perpetual calender from the Willard Osterhout collection Image:West Berne 2.JPG|West Berne Reformed Church, rear of the metal perpetual calender from the Willard Osterhout collection Image:Church 1.JPG|West Berne Reformed Church Image:beaverdam.jpg|Young peoples class, courtesy of Willard Osterhout

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