PEOPLE’SLIBERTY BANK AND TRUST COMPANY, COVINGTON
from throughout the county bought shares of stock in the venture. For many years, Penn Grove was the major mass meeting place for wholesome events in Robertson Co., in addition to the typical southern-style church summer camp meetings, which were held by many different religious denominations. Moore, T. Ross, ed. Echoes from the Century, 1867– 1967. Mount Olivet, Ky.: Robertson Co. Historical Society, 2000.
PENTECOSTALS. Some of the earliest Pentecostal churches in Northern Kentucky included the First Church of God at 502 Johnson St. in Covington, the Church of God at 1044 Prospect St. in Covington, the First Church of God of Erlanger, and the Full Gospel Assembly of God in Newport. The First Church of God, Covington, moved to 524 Southern Ave. in Covington, where a basement church was built in 1949, and a new sanctuary above it in 1955. The Full Gospel Assembly of God in Newport was founded in 1948 by Rev. Orville A. Morgan, a native of Lee Co., Ky. Christ’s Chapel Assembly of God in Erlanger was founded by Rev. Terry Crigger in 1986. One of the largest Pentecostal churches in the region is the Heritage Assembly of God in Florence, which also operates the Heritage Academy. Currently, Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) congregations are located in Alexandria, Cold Spring, Covington, Crescent Springs, Dayton, Falmouth, Florence, Highland Heights, Newport, Walton, and Williamstown. There are Assembly of God churches in Alexandria, Bellevue, Boone Co., Brooksville (see Brooksville Assembly of God), Covington, Dry Ridge, Erlanger, Falmouth, Florence, Maysville, Mount Olivet, Newport, and Owenton. There are also many Pentecostal churches of other denominations, as well as unaffiliated congregations, in Northern Kentucky. Pentecostals are Christians who derive their name from the Pentecost of the New Testament, the occasion at which Christians believe that the Apostles received the Holy Spirit. Worldwide today, Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing movement in Christianity and, measured by actual membership, the second-largest denomination of Christianity, next to that of Roman Catholics. Pentecostal Protestants trace their earliest roots to John Wesley (1703–1791), founder of the Methodist Church (see Methodists). Wesley emphasized a two-step religious experience for individuals, conversion or “justification,” followed by Christian perfection or “sanctification.” In conversion, individuals realized their sinfulness and were forgiven for their own personal sins. In the second phase, their “inbred sin” or “residue of sin,” a consequence of the “original sin” of Adam and Eve, was removed as they received the Holy Spirit; they then grew in “holiness.” The American camp meeting (see Reeves’ Campground), featuring thousands of attendees in a highly emotional setting marked by trembling, trances, and other “gifts of the Spirit,” had its origins at Cane Ridge in Bourbon Co. in 1801. “Holiness” revivals—the basic foundation of
modern Pentecostalism—spread throughout the nation before the Civil War. In contrast to the Calvinism of some religious denominations of the time, which stressed predestination and the selectivity of salvation, the holiness revivals stemmed from Arminianism, which maintained that all could be saved. This democratic and dramatic individualistic element of the Holiness movement of Methodism proved especially appealing in frontier areas like Kentucky. After the Civil War, the Holiness movement experienced resurgence. By the 1880s, however, for a variety of reasons, Methodists began to dissociate themselves from what they viewed as an increasingly radical movement that appeared to be taking on an antidenominational stance. Holiness churches began to be formed, beginning with Daniel S. Warner’s organization of the Church of God in Anderson, Ind., in 1880 and continuing with the Nazarenes and the Pilgrim Holiness Church, founded in Cincinnati in 1897. By the 1890s the term Pentecostals came into wider usage, led by Henry C. Morrison of Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky., and others. The modern Pentecostal movement is traced to Rev. Charles Fox Parham of Kansas, who stressed a “third experience,” a baptism with the Holy Spirit, as subsequent to and wholly separate from the second experience, “sanctification,” which Parham viewed as a cleansing from inbred sin. According to Parham, glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, was evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit; before this time, glossolalia was a little-known phenomenon. Beginning in 1906 and lasting for three and a half years in a church on Azusa St. in Los Angeles, William Joseph Seymour, an African American follower of Parham, oversaw enthusiastic Pentecostal revivals marked by glossolalia on a massive scale. Azusa St. captured the attention of the media, as thousands flocked to Los Angeles, and modern Pentecostalism was born and spread quickly throughout the world. By 1910 Rev. William H. Durham of Chicago officially introduced the doctrine of the “finished work,” denying the “residue of sin” and claiming that at the time of conversion an individual was sanctified and would grow progressively in grace thereafter. Some Pentecostals, namely the newly formed Assemblies of God (1914), adopted the “finished work” doctrine, departing from the three-step process of other Pentecostals. Those denominations believing in the three original steps of grace became known as “second work” or Wesleyan Pentecostals and included the Church of God of Cleveland, Tenn. A third division of Pentecostals, represented by the United Pentecostal Church, are called “Oneness” or “Jesus Only,” meaning that they are Unitarians rather than Trinitarians; they regard the terminology of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as different titles for Jesus. In the 1940s and after, Pentecostal revivalism concentrated on healing. Originally associated with the poor and minorities, Pentecostalism was largely scorned by older, mainline Christian denominations. Slowly, Pentecostals, especially preachers such as Oral Roberts (who became a Methodist in 1968), achieved acceptance. Also, by
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the 1960s and 1970s some members of mainline denominations began their own charismatic renewals, making Pentecostalism more understandable and palatable. Anderson, Robert Mapes. “Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.” In Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Detroit: Thomson Gale, ca. 2005. “Anniversary,” KTS, March 18, 1955, 2A. “Church of God to Break Ground,” KTS, April 4, 1958, 8A. “Evangelistic Ser vices,” KP, January 17, 1931, 2. “First Ser vice in New Church,” KTS, January 28, 1955, 6A. “Orville Morgan, 95, Founded Newport Church,” KE, October 14, 2003, 4B. “Pastor Heeds Call to Start New Church,” KP, January 11, 1986, 9K. “Revival to Be Continued,” KP, November 18, 1930, 3. Synan, Vinson. The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1997.
Paul A. Tenkotte
PEOPLE’S-LIBERTY BANK AND TRUST COMPANY, COVINGTON. People’s-Liberty Bank of Covington, once the largest bank in Northern Kentucky, was the result of a 1928 merger between People’s Savings Bank and Trust Company and the Liberty National Bank (formerly German National Bank) of Covington. The German National Bank of Covington was founded in 1871 and in January 1890 moved to a Richardsonian Romanesque–style building still standing at 609– 611 Madison Ave. In 1913 it merged with the Merchants National Bank, retaining the name German National Bank. Because of the backlash against German culture during World War I (see Anti- German Hysteria, 1917–1920), in 1918 the bank changed its name to Liberty National Bank of Covington. In 1921 it purchased the Walsh Building at the southeast corner of Sixth St. and Madison Ave. (see Covington, Downtown) and in 1923 opened on the site a new bank, designed by architect Harry Hake of Cincinnati in the Neoclassical style. The Carl Brothers provided the cut stone, granite, and masonry for the building. People’s Savings Bank and Trust Company was organized in Covington in 1903 and soon opened offices on the ground floor of the newly completed (1904) Farmers and Traders National Bank (see First National Bank and Trust Company of Covington) at the northwest corner of Sixth St. and Madison Ave. It moved across the street, to the southwest corner of Sixth St. and Madison Ave. (originally called the Walker Dry Goods Building and later the Degginger Dry Goods Building) in 1912, after architect Bernard T. Wisenall oversaw remodeling of the structure into a bank. In 1926 U.S. Senator Richard Pretlow Ernst and businessman L. B. Wilson purchased controlling interest in the bank. After its 1928 merger, People’s-Liberty Bank and Trust Company was the second-largest bank in Kentucky and the largest in Northern Kentucky.