Ryker's Ridge Presbyterian Church: Jefferson County

The Ryker's Ridge Presbyterian Church existed from roughly 1826 until about 1836, but may have existed earlier as a mission as there was reportedly preaching by a Presbyterian minister at the home of Samuel Ledgerwood in 1818.

This church's short existence has confounded some Ryker historians and those writing histories of the Ryker's Ridge Baptist Church. Most have assumed that the Rykers went to the Madison Presbyterian Church until the formation of the Ryker's Ridge Baptist Church in 1840. They were members at Madison at first. But John Ryker, Gerardus Ryker and their wives withdrew from the Madison Presbyterian Church in 1820 and the only possible home for them was another Presbyterian Church. The Baptist church history reported there was a non-denominational church meeting on Ryker's Ridge from 1818. But it's doubtful it included the Rykers. And most of the earliest burials in the Ryker's Ridge cemetery are families that were Presbyterian at the time: Rykers, Hillises and Ledgerwoods.

While we can assume the Ryker's joined the Ryker's Ridge Presbyterian Church, the first record of that body came on Dec. 4, 1826. On that day, the session records of the Madison Presbyterian Church noted " “some members of the church at Ryker’s Ridge" wanted a meeting, for reasons not stated. However, Madison appointed two of its members to meet with John Ryker and wife, Mathew Hillis and wife, Gerardus Ryker and wife, Peter Van Cleave and William Jackson. These eight members are the closest we have to a membership list, although the names of some ministers who preach here also known..

In 1830, Presbyterian records showed the church had 32 members with John Parsons as the supply minister. The 1831 minutes of the Presbyterian General Assembly showed Ryker's Ridge with 20 members. The Sept. 1, 1831 issue off the Home Missionary and Pastor’s Journal, the Rev. James Johnston, who served Ryker's Ridge, along with the Middlefork (later Monroe), Caledonia and Pleasant Township Presbyterian churches, along with Madison. He said prospects at Ryker's Ridge were encouraging and that it had a Sunday School and Bible class. Parsons was reappointed to the executive committee of the American Missionary Society between Nov.15 and Dec. 15, 1832. His address was given as Ryker’s Ridge, although it was not stated he was preaching there. In 1833, when his address was given as China, he noted “I received a pressing solicitation from the Ridge church to labor with them steadily” which he said he accepted.

Madison records show a meeting of elders at the Madison church on Aug. 1, 1832. Gerardus Ryker was listed as an elder who attended a meeting of the Madison Presbytery at the Madison Church, although his affiliation was not given. While family researchers have assumed he was representing Madison, Madison had other representatives and it seems clear he was representing Ryker's Ridge.

The church soon disappeared. on January 1835, Mathew Hillis and his wife Rebecca were received at Madison by letter from the Central Church (as short-lived and located at China), suggesting both Ryker’s Ridge and Central had weakened by this time. The Ryker's Ridge church does not appear in the 1836 general assembly minutes or in any later minutes.