DANVILLE – In the early 1900s, there was a Methodist presence of three churches, one in Danville, Jelloway and Brinkhaven.
Today, there is only one church from the original three open to the congregation, the church in Danville.
However, a previous owner of the Brinkhaven church found a piece of that original legacy in the form of a Bible from the 1800s — and recently donated it to a new home.
The discovery
In 2018, Sheila and Dave Adams were moving to the Village of Brinkhaven area to be closer to their animal barn on Dodd Road, and ended up buying the former Methodist church there to live.
When the couple was rummaging through the vacant church, they found a piece of history, a Bible from 1893.
“When we purchased the church, the previous owners had it on display in the living room, on a baker’s rack,” Dave Adams said.
For four years the couple lived in a part of the church behind the sanctuary while keeping the Bible preserved and away from sunlight.
When the couple began to move, they weren’t sure what to do with the Bible.
The donation
When the husband and wife duo sold the church to new owners in 2025, the new owners didn’t want the Bible.
So, on July 17 the pair ultimately decided to donate it to the United Methodist Church in Danville.
“We were getting ready to sell it, and we figured, well, so Sheila contacted this Methodist church,” Dave Adams said. “It needed to go somewhere because it’s a nice piece of history.”
The display
Up until recently, the Adamses had only publicly displayed the Bible once during a camp, allowing campers to experience the history of the book.
“We did share it with a group of campers at the Joy of Living camp on Dodd Road,” Sheila Adams said. “There’s a big history about that also, and that’s why I wanted the two items to be put together and to let somebody else look at and enjoy this old Bible.”
Since Dave and Sheila donated the Bible, the plan is to now have the Danville church move it to the Archives of Ohio United Methodism in Delaware, Ohio, for others to study and enjoy.
(Below are two photos of the Bible resting in the United Methodist Church in Danville from July 17, credit Jack Slemenda. The third photo is of Sheila Adams with Joy of Living campers, and the fourth photo is of Dave and Sheila Adams outside the Brinkhaven church they used to own with the Bible, credit Sheila Adams.)
