EZRA FERRIS was a licentiate of Duck Creek, or Columbia, Church. He was an early pioneer in the Northwest Territory, having emigrated from Long Island, with his father's family, in 1789, and being but a lad when his father came to Columbia in that year. He united with the Columbia Church in 1801, some five years afterwards was licensed, and then ordained. For some years he taught school at Lebanon, then moved to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he preached for many years to the church at that place. He also studied medicine, and practiced as a physician at Lawrenceburg for a long time, but still continuing to preach. During his later years he was engaged in the drug business. He died at Lawrenceburg, May 29, 1857, at a good old age, having been pastor of the Lawrenceburg Church for about fifty years.

     Elder Ferris was a highly useful man, and his labors deserve an extended notice. This has been promised by Elder E. P. Bond, for some years associate pastor with Elder Ferris of the church at Lawrenceburg. I, therefore, only mention him in this connection as one of the early pastors in the Miami Association, merely adding that he died, as he had lived, in the unwavering confidence of salvation through Christ his Redeemer. "I am aware," he said to Elder Bond, in the last moments of his life, "of no change -- of no faltering."

     To Elder Ferris I am indebted for many of the facts connected with this history. To no one living could I apply with so much confidence of obtaining the information I desired, and having known him since I was but a boy, I had every assurance, not only of the correctness of his memory, but of the candor of all his statements. He was not a man to be prejudiced, as is too often the case, so as to form unjust opinions or give undue coloring to any transactions related by him.

     Elder Ferris knew more of the early history of the Miami country than any man living at the time of his death, and it is hoped he may have left some valuable notes of the events of this early period.
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Ferris' Reports of Revival in Boone County KY

Ferris' Recollections of the Columbia Baptist Church
This was the First Church in the Northwest Territory (Ohio)

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[From A. H. Dunlevy, A History of the Miami Baptist Association, pp. 169-171. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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