The First 100 Years tells the story from 1907 to 2007 of the First Baptist Church of Passtown and the African American Community of Hayti in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. The church members and residents tell their stories in words and pictures during the milestone 100th Anniversary of the First Baptist Church of Passtown in 2007. There are many historical Hayti communities throughout the United States. In this Hayti community, families migrating from the South found an oasis and have been neighbors and friends for over 100 years. Whether researching segregated schools in a northern state; or family members who migrated from the South to work in a steel town; or history contained in the books written by Hayti residents; you may find the answer inside, on the pages of this book. The surprise connections fell from the sky. What began as a small, local history of our church and community has yielded so much more historical texture. The years tell us much that the days never knew - Ralph Waldo Emerson Welcome to Hayti and the First Baptist Church of Passtown!

This book is a history of a community, and, moreover, a history by that community. In January, 2007, Jeannine Turgeon began to recruit a committee of Bellevue Park neighbors, volunteers who would be willing to produce a book about their neighborhood in honor of its 100th anniversary. Initial members were Clark and Vickie Bucher, Dan Deibler and Elizabeth Johnson, Chris Dick, Frank Haas, Hannah Leavitt, Carol Lopus, Mo Lynn, Bonnie Mark, Debbie Nifong, Peggy and Dan Purdy, John Quimby, Sue Ellen Ramer, Olivia Susskind, Doris Ulsh, Phil and Mary Walsh, Mary Warner, and Gretchen Yarnall. Prof. Michael Barton of Penn State Harrisburg was invited to serve as a consultant and general editor for the project, and we selected Xlibris as our publisher. In these early months, outlines were organized and re-organized, topics were proposed and discarded, and suggestions of all sorts were submitted and accepted or reluctantly retracted to fit within the publisher’s limits and the book’s budget.