History of the New Castle Church of Christ

The New Castle Church of Christ had its beginning in the early 1930’s when a young evangelist, Homer “H.J.” Holly, moved to to New Castle from Nashville TN with his wife, Mini “Belle” Richardson Holly, and their two young daughters, Evelyn and Ruth. H. J. had left a lucrative job with the DuPont company during the depth of the Great Depression to bring the Gospel to the North where there were few Churches of Christ. The Holly family left Nashville believing there was an established congregation in New Castle only to find out the person who’d shown a picture of the church in New Castle had actually shown them a picture of a combined dinner on the ground of the Struthers Ohio and Steubenville W.V. Churches of Christ. To support his family he started preaching up and down the Ohio Valley at Churches of Christ while having services in store fronts, etc., in New Castle. Their first break came when Evelyn and Ruth met Norma and Marge Campbell on the school bus and found out they too were members of the Church of Christ. The next tremendous event in the New Castle church’s evolution was the addition of brothers, Burt “B.G. Coates, Paul Mercer, and Ray Parish and Elon “Ray” Coates to the membership of the church. B.G., Ray and Paul were elders in the downtown Christian church while E. “Ray” Coates, B.G.’s son, was a jr. deacon. On a Sunday morning all four resigned their positions and started serving and worshiping with the Church now meeting in a renovated house at 1710 West State street on rt. 224 in New Castle. With the addition of the Coates, Parish and Mercer families to the Holly and Campbell families, plus other individuals, the congregation had a solid foundation of spiritually and scripturally sound leadership and grew rapidly. At this writing in 2025, and after the death of Ruth Holly Dillon during the Covid pandemic, Norma Campbell Thomas, a member of the Church of Christ in Brookville, PA, is the last surviving original member at the age of 98 yrs. old. She is still spry with a sharp mind. Present members are Tim Parish, grandson of brother and sister Ray Parish and Joe Dillon, and Holly Dillon Hobel, grandson and granddaughter of brother and sister H.J. Holly, plus Gary L. Smith, grandson of H.J. Holly and present evangelist and minister for the New Castle Church of Christ at 1711 West State street, New Castle, PA. In 1964, a new building at its present location was built from funds bequeathed to the congregation by sister Carrie Hunt. Evelyn Holly Smith recounted her embarrassment while meeting in a rented store when the wealthy Hunt sisters had to put up umbrellas when during a rain storm the roof leaked. One can only guess sister Hunt remembered those early church occasions and remembered the work and future of the New Castle Church of Christ in her will. May God bless her and all that served the cause of Christ in those early years.