A church in Lyon County is turning 200 this month and will celebrate the historic milestone with a Bicentennial Homecoming this weekend.
Officials said in a news release that Saratoga United Methodist Church was established in September 1822 and will be celebrating the occasion Sunday with special music by the Servant’s Heart gospel quartet at 10:00 that morning, followed by a historical presentation from retired Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham, a homecoming sermon by Rev. Jamus Redd, and more music and congregational singing. A potluck dinner will follow at noon.
According to Saratoga Bicentennial Committee Chair Jane Freeman Wells, this historic church was established in the early 1800s after settlers arrived in what is now the Saratoga community. The community was first called Galusha Springs, named for pioneer Matthew Lyon’s stepson Elijah Galusha; and the earliest members of the church called their place of worship Reed’s Chapel. She noted all that changed some years later after some local boys attempted to prank the proprietor of a local store. She said they had heard of the fashionable Saratoga Springs in New York State, so they painted a plank to read “Saratoga Springs” and put it up in front of the store. The store owned like it, the name stuck, and previous names went by the wayside. She added the community came to be known as Saratoga Springs, and the church, Saratoga.
Wells said the first church building at Saratoga was built of logs; in 1859 that structure was replaced with the one we see today. She noted that barely two years after it was completed the grounds served as headquarters for a Confederate unit that tangled with Union soldiers in the first of two battles fought in the area. The church itself, Wells said, was a casualty of sorts: one of the Minie balls that pierced the original siding in October of 1861 is still visible on the east exterior wall of the church, protected by a Plexiglas window. The church later served as an infirmary and morgue for a nearby 1865 battle that caused more bloodshed than the first one. Wells noted a historical marker was erected in 2019 to commemorate the church’s historic role in the community.
Wells added Saratoga United Methodist Church has met continuously through times of hardship, conflict and propensity and they invite the public to join them in celebrating this historic milestone. The church is located about 7 miles east of Eddyville at 2449 KY 293.
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