Historic North Bend Church, on North Bend Rd. near Jarrettsville, was originally a preaching station of Bethel Presbyterian Church. The property was transferred from the Baltimore Presbytery to the North Bend Church & Cemetery Association in 2007. In 1860, Isaac Rogers, owner of La Grange Ironworks at the Rocks of Deer Creek, gave an acre of ground on a hill above the creek to a group of men who i
ntended to build a church there. These men, William Glenn, J. Clair, John Jenkins, Thomas Streett, and Rodger Streett, were the first trustees of the “North Bend Old School Presbyterian Church,” according to the deed. The first boundary marker was a stone set up on the “easterly side of the public road represented as the ‘Road leading from Dublin District to George Cairnes’ --.”
By the next year, a red brick one-room church with two doors in the gable end had been built on the hillside. Pews were installed and oil lamps were hung in cast iron holders upon the walls and a wood stove was set in place. The congregation used the building for 90 years, until the early 1950s when it disbanded and members joined other churches, notably Highland and Bethel Presbyterian. Members from these two churches formed a committee to document, maintain and protect the building and cemetery. Families in the North Bend cemetery include: Baird, Beall, Billingsley, Blaney, Burkins, Calder, Coe, Glenn, Jones, Neeper, Reed, Rutledge, St. Clair, Slade, Stansbury, Stearns, Stokes, Streett, Tracey, Wagner, and Watkins. The Association meets regularly to assure maintenance and repairs where needed. For information, call Association President Deborah Bowers at 410 913-8979, or email her at [email protected].
