Mount Horeb Baptist Church celebrated its 190th anniversary on Aug. 5 with a potluck dinner, an ice cream social and music that was held at the corner of Mount Horeb Church and Prairie Fork roads.

About 25 people attended the event, including the 4 The Gospel Quartet, a southern group from the Church of the Shepherd of St. Charles.

“I love it,” said Norma Mueller, who served as secretary/treasurer for the Mount Horeb Historical Society for 40 years. “A lot of them are my cousins. Everybody around here is my cousin. They’re related to us in some way or another.”

Mueller’s family lived south of the Mount Horeb area, next to the Montgomery-Callaway county line. Her three-time great-uncle was the first pastor at the church, which was built in 1897 and was designated as an historic site in 1980.

“After my husband died, I was here at least once or twice a month,” Mueller said. “I fell and had an accident last November. I haven’t been over here since my sister-in-law was buried in April.”

Also in attendance was Debbi Adams Gambert, a Montgomery County resident who is related to the Hamlin family. The Hamlins were members of the Mount Horeb church and have a marker in the Mount Horeb grounds.

“I do a lot of genealogy and research, including the DNA type of research,” Gambert said. “I have a Hamlin third great-grandfather. His parents are a brick wall, but I have a lot of descendants. John Hamlin and Elizabeth Luscini are my DNA matches.”

Sandy Bothe, who serves as the historical research chair of the Mount Horeb Historical Society, said she and Mueller have been working on finding out information on the people who are buried at the Mount Horeb cemetery.

“It’s always neat to find the links,” said Bothe, who grew up east of the church. “We fight with some family genealogies. We would really like to see their verification. It’s not there. But it’s out there on the internet. We’re not finding the same. We’ve been going to the hard copy records as much as we can. That’s how we’re solving the problems.”

Bothe brought some books on the old board minutes for people to view at the homecoming ceremony.

“It’s been a long term project,” Bothe said. “To have it to this point for the 190th (anniversary), it has taken years to get to this point. They started this project in 1968. Obituaries were turned over and became more in earnest in the early 1970s. I remember seeing my mother have a tub of old obituaries. I was supposed to try to figure out if any of these people were connected. I didn’t know enough to find out if they were connected or not. Thank goodness she didn’t throw them away.”

Mount Horeb Baptist Church was founded on Aug. 3, 1833 by Samuel Boone, the nephew of Daniel Boone. The pulpit, pews and flooring are still in use after the church was built 126 years ago.

The Mount Horeb Historical Society, which was established in 1987, has a board of trustees that includes secretary/treasurer Caleb Davis. Davis was elected as secretary/treasurer during last year’s homecoming event.

“I love it,” Davis said. “I grew up right down the road. I guess out of ignorance I didn’t know a lot of this was going on until a few years ago. I kind of jumped in a few years ago. It kind of feels like your responsibility when you have so much family over there.”