Version 1

Blair Chapel was first built in 1869.  It was burned and rebuilt in later years.  Although built and dedicated under the management of the United Brethren, in after years the Methodists, for several years, held glorious meetings there and such men as the late Captain Stiles and Mr. Shannon were active and ardent church workers in Methodism there. 

At one revival season about sixty converts were secured, the U.B. and the M.E. members being about equal.   That the church has been instrumental in the accomplishment of much good can not well be questioned.  The evidence is confirmatory.

The original trustees, were as Mr. Carter remembers, Elza Blair, Wm. Cason, and Hiram Phillips.  The church parsonage is at Patterson.  This is about midway between Blair Chapel and the nearly new church near Middle River the two principal point of service, being about four or five miles distant.

Blair Chapel

Version 2

Alexander Blair lived in Tileville [four miles east of Winterset] in 1850 and urged his brother, the Rev. John Blair, to come to Madison County.  Rev. Blair brought a following of about 60 persons from Kentucky to settle in Madison County about 1860, which was when the chapel was built.  Blair and his family and clan were "abolitionist," which meant they were against the evil practice of slavery.  Their lives had been threaten in Kentucky.

Settling first on flat farmland near Winterset, many of the clan, all with Scottish ancestry, waned to move to the hills and trees in the area southwest of Bevington because it was reminiscent of the hills of Kentucky.  They were real Kentuckians, because they made distilled spirits and brought with them some of the "long green" plants, which was the name of tobacco.  Eventually, some oft he men from the settlement went off to fight in the Civil War.  

The church closed in 1935, except for funeral services from time to time and as a gathering place for descendants and the local rural community.  The area around the Blair Chapel is also known as the "chapel community" and "Brush Ridge."

Version 3

The Blair Church and Brush Ridge Cemetery is located in section 3 in South Township and named for Rev. John Blair and Martha J. Blair who came to Madison County with the Kentucky settlement.  They deeded the land to the County September 5, 1870.  The first Church was built July 12, 1870 and celebrated its Centennial Anniversary in 1970.

The first Cemetery in this community was called the Crawford Township Cemetery and is located 1/2 mile north of Blair Chapel Church and was used as early as February 14, 1850 to bury the infant daughter of David and Jane Cason Smith who were the first couple to be married in Madison County.  Other families buried there include the Bells, Smiths, Johns, Worleys, Moses, Crossleys, and Scotts.

The first Church burned in 1909 but was replaced immediately by the present Church which held services and Sunday School classes until February 1932.

The Church and Cemetery have been kept in good repair by money provided by a fund left to the Church by the late Chris Wolf and his half-sister Emma Schroppel.  Emma died November 1977 at the age of 98.

A number of pioneer families are buried in this cemetery including the Blairs, Carters, Breedings, McKinneys, Strables, Slaydens, Huglins, Clelands, Schrivners, Lukes and Wolfs along with many of their descendants.

Once a year on Memorial Day the doors are open wide and people once again flock under the roof for a short afternoon service with a talk by a visiting pastor - singing and remembering -which follows a basket dinner in the yard at noon.   The dinner is an old tradition, nourished by the late George Blair and his son Fred Blair and kept alive through the efforts of Mrs. Fred (Alice) Blair.

Blair Chapel was established by a large number of family and neighbors from Adair County, Kentucky, who migrated to Iowa six months before the Civil War erupted.  They believed in freedom and chose Iowa to be their new home.  They became known as the Kentucky Settlement.⁴