Hickory Grove Church (4)
Dr. Joe Sutton
EARLY WORSHIP (Cont.)
During the years when Bucklesberry had no local church, evidence suggests community residents worshipped at the original Bear Creek Meeting House. As the only established church in the area, albeit some ten miles away, it certainly was not "local." Bear Creek Church's new building, however, was a bit closer for Bucklesberrians. Located directly by the railroad where the old depot formerly stood in Moseley Hall township (now La Grange), the new Church building was completed and dedicated in 1857, which, interestingly, was only three years before Hickory Grove Church was built in Bucklesberry in 1860.
Rev. John L. Pritchard of Wilmington witnessed the dedication of the new Bear Creek Church building. In an 1857 letter published in The Biblical Recorder, Pritchard acknowledged, "This house [was] built by the congregation which formerly worshipped at the Bear Creek Church." Original church records housed at Duke University provide the names of members, regular worshippers, and contributors who donated funds for the new Bear Creek Church building. Listed were many residents from the heart of Bucklesberry, including Jesse Lassiter (1800-1866), Benjamin Sutton, Jr. (1795-1864), Hardy Sutton (1803-1861), and Dempsey Wood (1816-1881), to name a few.
Commuting to and from the first Bear Creek Meeting House, though, was a challenge for those living in Bucklesberry. Although insignificant today, the ten-mile distance to the Meeting House back then was considerable. Author-educator Terry Burns noted that the typical horse-drawn wagon could travel fifteen to twenty-five miles a day. Coupled with the long worship services, the travel time to and from Bear Creek probably required overnight stay for families at the Meeting House camp.
Accessing the Bear Creek Meeting House was an issue for other area folks as well. For example, the Mewborn Church, located on Mewborn Church Road in the Jason community, north of La Grange, was also organized initially as a Primitive Baptist work like Bear Creek Meeting House. It was located a mere five miles from Bear Creek Church. Highly regarded historian Martha Mewborn Marble noted that Mewborn Church was "formed from Bear Creek [Church]...members who found it too far to go to Bear Creek for services." Based on obituaries of some of its earliest members, Mewborn Church was established by 1843.
In his 1813 book on Baptist history, Rev. Dr. David Benedict, D.D. described how lodging and nourishment needs were met in the late 1700s for meeting house worshippers who lived some distance away. Meeting houses generally were built in areas surrounded by groves of trees. This was the setting of Bear Creek Meeting House, situated along the aptly-named Meeting House Branch which flowed into Bear Creek.
Remote churchgoers from Bucklesberry could enjoy cool shade during the hot, humid summers, thereby allowing them to camp fairly comfortably on the Meeting House grounds. According to Benedict, although families living within close proximity to the meeting house were willing to share food with campers, ministers would advise congregants upon their first camp meeting to "come to the next and all succeeding ones prepared to accommodate and refresh themselves."
Next month's article focuses on Hickory Grove's early years as a house church. Interested readers may enjoy a timely, previously published Bucklesberry article titled "New Year's Fire 1903" available at https://t.ly/JhuYg.
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