This house of worship sits across the road from Bethel Cemetery.
Salem, the original name of the town now known as Clayton, was changed by the federal post office to avoid confusion with at least two other sites in Ohio – Salem, diagonally across the state, and West Salem, in the north-central part of the state. I’m currently unable to date the switch, sometime before 1891.
The naming does, however, create confusion for genealogists combing through early records.
Additionally, the church sits not the small city of Clayton, but in the countryside at the corner of Phillipsburg Union Road and Diamond Mill Road … just north of the Binkley farm we used to visit, actually. It’s also in Clay Township, not Randolph, in Montgomery County, Ohio, and is now incorporated in the city of Englewood.
My ancestors Jacob and Caroline Ehrstine were apparently members of this congregation.
Orphan George 