The Mother A.M.E Church still stands today known as Mother Bethel. The A.M.E Church is a Connecting Organization with 19 Episcopal Districts,
Worldwide. [Cadiz is in the 3 rd District]. The A.M.E church of Cadiz was organized by Mr. James Duling, in April 1851, in a Log Cabin on West Spring St. Then in 1865, the congregation purchased the Methodist Protestant Building on N. Trustees at that t
ime were; Lot Williams, John Smith, Joseph Cunningham, Oliver Bowman & Reuben Brown. The Church duly elected 5 Trustees, April 1874. They were; G.W West, J.T Mason, Peter Cooper, Alexander West,& Fleming Christian; and they signed the First Corporation Papers-for the Cadiz A.M.E Church. There are now 6 Conferences in the 3rd district; Cadiz was originally in the North Ohio Conference, and Hosted the 3rd Annual Conference in Sept 1884, with the Ministers housed in homes throughout the community. We are now in the Mother Conference, which is the Ohio Conference. In 1889 Mr. W.H Lucas was elected Superintendent of the Cadiz A.M.E Sabbath School for the 17th consecutive time. He was presented a gold-headed cane for his faithful & long service. Was also a Local Elder in the Cadiz A.M.E Church. In 1893, the church built a parsonage on Ohio St. containing 7 rooms & in 1915 the present parsonage on 126 S buffalo St. was built containing 8 rooms. Aug 20th 1916 was a momentous day for the African American citizens of Cadiz. The Corner stone was laid for the present Church. In the Copper box was placed a; Bible, History of the Church, names of members in the Church, copies of Cadiz newspaper, history of the Dunbar school, a list of the National, State, County & Village Officials, an autograph album of Cadiz citizens, 3 small silver coins & a copy of the Masonic proceedings. The Church was Dedicated June 24th 1917; Rev. O.W. Childers was Pastor at this time. After this the Cadiz A.M.E Church was to be known as St. James A.M.E Church. In Sept 1942 a capacity crowd witnessed the Burning of the mortgage. At long last, St James was debt free.
