Founded in 1864 by formerly enslaved individuals, conductors, and freedom seekers, Pleasant Green Baptist Church (PGBC) is the oldest continuous Black Baptist congregation in Portsmouth, Ohio. Its early leaders and members transformed faith into action by aiding those fleeing slavery, building a spiritual sanctuary in the heart of a region defined by what historian Cheryl LaRoche has called a “geography of resistance.” Pleasant Green’s founders drew upon a long tradition of Black Baptist organizing, with roots in the Providence and Union Anti-Slavery Baptist Associations, which united churches across Appalachia Ohio in a shared mission of spiritual and physical liberation.
Portsmouth’s Black Baptist church origins lie in the Shiloh Baptist Congregation, formed in the 1850s under Rev. Jonathan Craddoc, a formerly enslaved man who had previously pastored Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Lawrence County. Macedonia, the oldest Black Baptist church in Ohio, served as the “Mother Church” for a network of Baptist congregations stretching across the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio. Under Craddoc’s leadership, Shiloh joined the Providence Association, established in 1834 by Black Baptists who had broken from Virginia’s Teays Valley Association in protest against proslavery theology. In Portsmouth, Shiloh’s most notable conductor was Elder William Cook, who is documented as transporting freedom seekers north to the Pee Pee Settlement in Pike County.
When Shiloh dissolved in the early 1860s, its legacy was carried forward by Rev. Butler Harper, a preacher who had been imprisoned five times for sharing the gospel while enslaved in Virginia. Harper purchased his freedom in 1859, joined the original Pleasant Green Baptist Church of Lexington, Kentucky, where he was ordained in 1862 before migrating north to Cincinnati. In 1864, Harper helped organize Portsmouth’s Pleasant Green Baptist Church, initially meeting at the home of Anna Kerns, a member of Allen Chapel AME Church. Under Harper’s leadership, the new congregation aligned with the Union Anti-Slavery Baptist Association, reflecting both theological conviction and associational ties to Harper’s former congregation in Cincinnati. The new congregation built its first house of worship at 10th and Findlay Streets in 1865.
Among Pleasant Green’s founding members were Fannie Seaton, Addison Haley, and the Farley family, each deeply tied to the Underground Railroad.
- Fannie Seaton, a founding member, was married to Henry Seaton, who escaped slavery in Kentucky in 1859 only to be captured under the Fugitive Slave Act in Cleveland and returned south. Their story reminds us of the ever-present danger freedom seekers faced—even in northern states.
- Addison Haley, born into slavery in Virginia (now West Virginia), escaped to the free Black settlement of Red Hill in Lawrence County, c. 1862, and later moved to Portsmouth and became a founder of Pleasant Green in 1864. He would marry Elizabeth Brooks, daughter of conductor Lewis Brooks, and become not only a pastor at PGBC but also a civil rights leader who cast the deciding vote to integrate Portsmouth High School in 1885. Their son, William Haley, would help establish the Fourteenth Street Community Center.
- Jesse and George W. Farley represent a family tradition of faith in action. Jesse was an early member of PGBC, along with other close family relatives. He served as sexton for the old city cemetery and directed its relocation and the reinternment of remains in Greenlawn Cemetery. Jesse, with the aid of his teenage son, George Farley, assisted freedom seekers as they passed through Portsmouth. Born in 1849, George enlisted in the Union Army at age fifteen, served with distinction in the 44th U.S. Colored Troops, reaching the rank of sergeant by the end of the Civil War. In 1940, at his death, Sgt. George W. Farley would be memorialized as “Portsmouth’s Last Surviving Union Veteran of the Civil War,” with his burial in the center of Greenlawn Cemetery’s Soldier’s Circle. Farley’s funeral was jointly held by Allen Chapel and Pleasant Green, symbolizing enduring Black interfaith solidarity. Sgt. George W. Farley’s role in the Underground Railroad and his military service was later honored by the Portsmouth Metropolitan Housing Authority (PMHA) when Farley Square, a public housing project, was named in his memory, across the street from Pleasant Green Baptist Church.
Like other Black Baptist churches in the region, Pleasant Green operated with congregational autonomy—a theological principle that empowered local communities to tailor their ministries. Through preaching, prayer, fundraising, and organizing, PGBC and its sister congregations provided spiritual direction and practical support to freedom seekers, ensuring safe passage to rural settlements like Poke Patch, Pee Pee Settlement, and Berlin Crossroad, where additional Baptist congregations and safe houses awaited.
In the 1870s, Rev. W.P. Cradic—a former Underground Railroad conductor and nephew of Rev. Jonathan Craddoc, who had led Portsmouth’s Shiloh Baptist Church—served as pastor of Pleasant Green. Cradic had deep ties to Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church and the broader Underground Railroad network in Lawrence County, Ohio. His ministry, which extended from the antebellum era through Reconstruction, exemplifies the multigenerational commitment of Pleasant Green’s leadership to both spiritual guidance and the ongoing struggle for racial justice.
Beyond its Underground Railroad activities, the PGBC became a center of Black life in Portsmouth, offering educational opportunities, organizing for political rights, and supporting the community through times of hardship. The legacy of those who risked everything to help freedom seekers lives on in the church’s continued dedication to justice and service.
Today, Pleasant Green Baptist Church is a living monument to this legacy. As a congregation that once harbored freedom seekers, it remains a sacred place—a sanctuary of memory, justice, and hope.
