West Henrietta Baptist Church enjoys a long and rich history.
1810 – John Brininstool is the first settler on East River Road.
1811 – Michael Brininstool follows his son John to the area. The James McNalls, father and son, arrive.
1813 – Elder Weaver, a lay preacher from Mendon, begins to minister here.
1815 – A Baptist congregation forms in the riverside home of Isaac Nichols. Rev. Thomas Gorton, an ordained minister, is called to be its minister. Michael Brininstool is its one deacon.
1818 - Henrietta becomes a town separate from Pittsford.
1818 - The Baptists build a log cabin house of worship on East River Road.
1820 – Current Moose Lodge built as blacksmith and carriage shop.
1821 – Monroe County forms. Henry Chapman builds first hotel in West Henrietta.
1827 – The church unites with Baptists in East Henrietta to form United Baptist Church in the village of East Henrietta.
Circa 1830 – A small band of West Henriettans briefly resumes worship in the log cabin with Rev. Thomas Gorton.
1831 – Second hotel later known as Cartwright Inn is built. General store is built.
1838 – West Henriettans seeking dismissal from United Baptist meet in the home of Elijah Nichols. United Baptist grants dismissal provided they build a church. They build on the northeast corner of the West Henrietta village.
1838 was so much more than a single construction project. It began as a painful year when the marriage of two churches was undone with all the necessary cuts to single threads that accompany any divorce. Baptists from West Henrietta had been united with Baptists from East Henrietta for 11 years when, in the bitter cold of winter, their growing dissatisfaction led to a petition for dis-mission.
Treat other Christians respectfully. The United Baptist Church split was not entirely amicable, but the West Henriettans didn’t just leave. They asked to go.
Act in the best interest of fellow Christians, regardless of feelings. The East Henriettans allowed dozens to leave, but stipulated that the new congregation must build a church. They thus wisely and effectively blocked a return to the log cabin and the past.
Build the future bravely and well. Even as we reaffirm our roots, we must embrace God’s unexpected, transforming will.
1883 – Rev. A. Judson Allen resigns, ending a dispute with James Lodge and Deacon Wesley Search that William Fenner had tried to defuse.
1902 – West Henrietta Baptist Church is incorporated. Neighboring St. Mark’s Lutheran Church dedicated.
1903 – West Henrietta Road is paved.
1904 – Grange Hall, later the Masons and now the Church of the First Born, is built.
September 1904 – Rev. J.C. and Elizabeth McFarlane arrive from Ontario, Canada.
June 1905 (or perhaps 1906) – Village is saved from conflagration with the sounding of the church bell as Jones & Buckley General Store burns. Telephone installers staying at the hotel join the fight.
Circa 1907 – The Ruth and Esther Class is renamed the Elizabeth McFarlane Memorial Class.
1909 – The Fellowship Hall is built.
Circa 1910 – Plans are made for memorial stained glass windows in the sanctuary and the Elizabeth McFarlane Memorial Class photos in the Fellowship Hall.
1915 – WHBC celebrates its centennial with a new pipe organ.
1917-1918 – World War I.
1922 – Electricity comes to West Henrietta.
1926 – Church appoints seven deaconesses.
1960s – Vietnam War and Civil Rights issues. Church takes stand on fair housing.
1980 – The balcony is built.
2014 – Beloved pastor, Rev. D. C David Hess, dies and the church hires its first female pastor as interim. She is Rev. Dr. Jill Bradway.
2015 – Church celebrates its bicentennial.
13WHAM News had coverage of the historic church bell that was rehung and rung for the first time again for the first time in a Sunday worship service on December 23, 2012.
In the middle of the first decade of the 20th century, West Henrietta Baptist Church abandoned its windows with clear glass panes requiring long pull shades and installed stained glass windows.
Money for the windows was raised by allowing them to be memorial windows. Families could purchase a window naming a lost loved one for $25. Most of those so honored were recently deceased, but others were early Henrietta pioneers and settlers who founded a town and a church.
In the fall of 1904, a remarkable young Canadian woman arrived in West Henrietta as the wife of the Baptist pastor. She started a women's class that reorganized and grew in her memory after her sudden death on Christmas Eve 1906. Read about Elizabeth McFarlane and the 100 women whose lives she touched. Click the magazine cover at right.
On May 10, 2015, the congregation honored the late Emily Keyes with a reading of her poems and missionary letters. To view the videotape of the Mama Emile's Readers' Theater on youtube.com, click the photo above. You may view the entire presentation or individual decades. Click "Show More" in the video description to find where each decade starts.
To order the more complete compilation of poems and letters found in the book, Emily: A missionary's life, click the book cover above to go to amazon.com. Or contact our historian at historian@whbaptist.org.
Dedicated in May 1936, the Book of Golden Memories chronicles the names and dates of the deceased for whom contributions were made to the church's Memorial Endowment Fund. This typed copy has been alphabetized for easier searching by genealogy researchers.
Click the book to open.
Originally named the West Baptist Church of Pittsford, we were established in 1815 before the town was named Henrietta. In 1818, we were renamed West Henrietta Baptist Church. The current church was built in 1838.
Page content created by our Church Historian, Bonnie Healy, historian@whbaptist.org.