DAYTON – Members and friends of the Dayton First Congregational Church held a celebration following last Sunday's service to honor the 140th anniversary of the church's founding. The historic Rev. Cushing Eells bell in the church's steeple was rung during worship.

The Congregational Church is one of Dayton's first churches. According to a history provided by church officials, a group of Congregationalists began meeting in Dayton in 1877, led by Rev. E.W. Allen, a local farmer. This was only a decade after the first white settlers reached the area, and four years before the city's incorpor...