First (Freeman Ave.) Reformed Church (Cincinnati, OH)

First Reformed Church was organized by the Board of Home Missions of the German Reformed Church (U.S.) as the Erste Deutsche Reformirte Gemeinde in the late summer of 1845 with seven charter members. The congregation built four buildings in four different places in Cincinnati: 1) Vine St. steween 4th and 5th Streets (1845); 2) Betts St. (1846-1852); 3) Elm and 15th Sts. (1852-1888); 4) 1809 Freeman Ave. (1888-2000). In 1969 the church changed its name to Freeman Avenue United Church of Christ. The congregation has been active in ministering to its neighborhood, persons from Appalachia, the poor during the Depression, and African Americans from the 1940's on. Active in ministering to the city, the congregation became involved in the civil rights movement, fair housing, fair employment, better schools, adequate medical services. The church was the first originally "White" congregation to call an African American pastor, Rev. Bennie E. Whiten, Jr. The church is last listed in the 2000 UCC Yearbook. In 1970, the church changed it's name to Freeman Avenue United Church of Christ. Pastors who served include: 1845-1849 Henry Kroh 1849-1851 Emanuel Vogel Gerhart 1851-1862 Herman Rust 1862-1966 John Leopold Lichtenstein 1867-1875 John Kuelling 1875-1898 John Bachmann 1899-1910 Dietrich Hagelskamp 1910-1915 Lawrence Selzer 1916-1921 Jacob O. Vitz 1921-1922 Harvey R. Burkett 1923-1944 Arthur Philip Schnatz 1944-1952 Oliver C. Hotz 1953-1959 Jacob B. Wagner 1960-1973 Robert P. Beck 1973-1974 Braxton Burgess 1975-1976 Isaiah P. Jenkins 1977-1983 Oceanus P. Bradley 1984-1984 John Lewis Gilmore 1985-1993 VACANT 1994-???? William Leroy Land