Mud Meetinghouse, Dry Branch Road, Harrodsburg

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS KY,84-HARBU.V,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

On Dry Branch Road, three miles from Harrodsburg, Kentucky Owner or Pioneer Memorial Association custodian Address: Harrodsburg, Kentucky Date "built: (approx) Architect or "builder: Members of the colony. Present bad. How being restored by the condition; Pioneer Memorial Association, Harrod sburg, Kentucky. Number of stories: One Material used Foundation: Native stone, in constructuon: Exterior wails: Weatherboarded (not original. Interior walls: Plastered (not original), B'loor: Heavy joists, covered with random width tongue and groove flooring. Roof: Frame construction, covered with wood shingles. Description; The construction of u u6. Meeting House" architectural is probably one of the most unusual of and historical the early pioneer buildings.

On top of the stone foundation a heavy log sill was laid, on top of which were erected square timbers extend Ing up to the height of the main roof plate. These timbers were spaced at intervals of several feet and were mortised and tenoned into the main sill. The space between the timbers, for their full thickness, was filled in with a composition of mud and straw held in place by hand-split 2 HABS hickory slats which were let into the .vertical timbers. $t~ tWfto.V Many years later the building was weatherboard ed on the outside and plastered on the inside.

Thus the name, ' * "Mud Meeting House11 was derived from the use of mud in its const rue t ion" This building is probably the only one of its type, using this particular construction, that is still in existence in this part of the country. The following is an extract from the History of I.iud Meeting House, by Dr. H. A. Scomp: "Mud Meeting House is directly concerned with those Dutch Colonists who, about began to pour from New Jersey into the extreme west of the then civilised world, York County in southern I^ennsylvania. These settlers, it is known, formed the famous Conewago Colony, "in as Corwins Manual, a New Jersey record, informs us the synod of the Dutch Reformed Presbyterian Church sent a missionary, Rev.

Peter LaBaugh, to the Salt River settlement south of Harrodsburg, and he organized these members into a church. We now find in Mercer County records of the deed and the agreement for building this pioneer Kentucky church which was erected in about three miles south of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, on a hill west of Dry Branch pike and east of Salt River. This is the first Low Dutch Reformed Church built west of the Alleghanies".

From some of the old records, preserved by the Harrodsburg Historical Society, Harrodsburg, Kentucky, is shown that three acres, "on which to erect a house of worship to be used for that purpose forever", were deeded by David Adams and Elizabeth, his wife, December 28, "for four pounds, ten shillings, Virginia currency in hand" to be paid by John Van Isaac Vanice, and Peter C^rnine, as agents of the Reformed Church, The first pastor of this church was Dominie Thomas Kyle and who is buried in the old graveyard adjoin- ing the church. This old structure has been acquired by the Harrodsburg Historical Society, Harrodsburg, Kentucky, in a clear deed from The Dutch Reformed Church in America, whose headquarters are in Mow York City. i^