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Photographer C. U. Williams moved a block north from the Methodist Church along High Street to make this photograph of the Baptist Church. (He had to walk right by the Presbyterian Church, but no Williams photograph of that church has surfaced yet.) The building in this view was erected in 1900, and extensively remodeled in 1948, according to the Sesquicentennial History. The First Baptist Church in Salem was an offshoot of the Sharon Baptist congregation, established at Royce's Lick in 1810, says the history. Fourteen charter members, including many from Old Sharon, organized in 1829, and in 1838 built a frame church on South High Street which stood for 60 years. This card back lacks the credit, "Genuine Photo by C. U. Williams, Bloomington, Ill." found on the views of the Methodist Church and the library, but the number, 1787, written on the negative puts it into the sequence. The range of numbers, from 1781 on the view of the IOOF Building to 1790 on the view of South Main Street, indicates there are still half a dozen cards in the series to be discovered. The card was mailed from Salem, postmarked at 8 a.m., August 23, 1907, and addressed to Miss Clara Niper (?), RFD, Dexter City, Ohio. The message reads, "Well, I hope you will have a nice day for the picknick next Sat. Sorry I can't be with you but try and have a good time for me too. N.W.B." (12/9/01, revised 6/2/04 and 12/30/04) |