History of
Amity Church of Christ

Where we started and how far God has brought us.

Amos Harvey

Amity, at the south edge of Yamhill County on Highway 99W, was the middle ground between two families disputing on where to put a school. The name means friendship.

Amos and Jane Harvey, pioneers of 1845, are credited with starting the Amity congregation with thirteen charter members. The first meeting may have been held just north at a town now called Whiteson.

The charter members were Mr. and Mrs. Harvey, Enos C. and Willamina Williams, Barney Springer, Stanley and Salina Umphlett, Stephen and Louisa McKinney, Mrs. Carolina Buffum, F. W. Briedwell, A. P. Caldwell and Mrs. Eliza Lancefield. A post office was established at Amity in 1852.

Writing to an eastern religious journal, Elder Harvey said, "We met, as the disciples anciently did, upon the first day of the week, to break the loaf, to implore the assistance of the Heavenly Father, and to encourage each other in the heavenly way."

The late Dr. James Matthew Alley wrote:

The second minister of the Amity Church of Christ was Glen O. Burnett, a pioneer of 1846. Soon after his arrival in the Amity area we find him busy preaching, baptizing, marrying and burying the citizens of this area. He performed his first marriage shortly after his arrival in 1846, in the cabin of Joseph Watt, another pioneer of the Amity community.

Elder Burnett was a hard-working circuit rider. He was a close friend of Amos Harvey, and the two of them kept the Amity church alive in its infancy.

Gospel Meetings: About 9 out of 10 additions were by immersion, the rest were by transfer from another congregation.
May 1855	Alexander McCarty	4 added
July 1855	Alexander McCarty H. H. Hendrix	3 added

After first meeting in homes, the small congregation met in a log school house beginning in 1849. Later, Enos Williams gave the church a lot. A building was erected on the property in 1870. The West Side, a newspaper published in McMinnville, said in its February 21, 1871 edition that ". . . the Christian Church is not quite complete, they paid out $2,700 and it will cost them finished $3,300 . . ." That same year, they reported 60 members.

During 1878, Bruce Wolverton was the circuit-riding preacher here.

In 1881 the church reported 78 members. Enos Williams and G. A. Maddox were elders and T. M. Morgan was the circuit-riding preacher.

R. M. Messick wrote the following the the Christian Standard of Ohio in 1887:

Bro. Dr. Doty of McMinnville and the writer closed a meeting of sixteen days at Amity last Sunday night, 28 were added to the congregation, 19 by confession and obedience. One old gentleman, aged 82, raised up under Quaker influences was induced to obey the gospel. He was universally respected in his community and I believe all, saint and sinner, rejoiced when it was known that "Uncle Billy Buffum" had made the good confession. After he had been baptized he was as happy as any many I ever saw, and was largely instrumental in leading an old friend to the feet of the Lord.
Original spelling has been retained.

The circuit-riding preacher in 1891 was K. H. Sickafoos. He also preached at Sheridan that year. At the end of 1893 he said he was beginning his fourth year with the Amity church.

In 1892 the church moved to a location by what is now Highway 99W. At that time, it was by the wagon trail going south through Bethel and Monmouth.

The Amity Church has on display a bell, cast in the east and shipped to Amity. It may have been in the building of 1892. (Use BACK to return here.)

A new building was built in 1912 which unfortunately burned in 1928. That building was rebuilt in 1929 and stood until 1991. This writer led a tour group into the building just days before it was dismantled. Now there is a parking lot on the location and the old parsonage next door houses offices of the Amity School District. The church now has a spacious facility in the southeast corner of Amity on Goucher Street.

In 1956 the Amity Church of Christ held a special service to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the founding of their church. Among the distinguished guests were the former United States Senator Maureen Neuberger (later Solomon), a great granddaughter of Amos Harvey, and her mother, Mrs. Ethel Kelty Brown, a granddaughter. Mrs. Brown unveiled portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey.

Mrs. Neuberger had been baptized in the Church of Christ at Amity as a young person and left a significant gift for the church in her will.

Credit for historical info found here.