Hickory Grove Church (10)
Dr. Joe Sutton
Methodist Leanings (Cont.)
Historical records indicate that Hickory Grove Church of Bucklesberry began as a Free Will Baptist (F.W.B.) work. Organized by 1841, it remained F.W.B. until dismissal from the Original F.W.B. Conference in 1864 for reasons unknown. By 1867, evidence suggests it was leaning Methodist through a loose association with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (M.E.C.S.) Conference.
The two Branson's North Carolina Business Directories for 1867-1868 and for 1869 listed Hickory Grove as a Methodist work in Lenoir County. Other contemporaneous records, however, indicate Hickory Grove was not formally affiliated with the Methodists. The official meeting minutes of the annual M.E.C.S. Conference for the corresponding years of 1867 and 1869, in particular, identified only four Lenoir County Methodist churches in Goldsboro, Institute, Kinston, and Snow Hill. Notably absent was a Methodist church in Moseley Hall where Hickory Grove of Bucklesberry was located.
The incorrect listing of Hickory Grove as a Methodist work in the Branson's Directories probably had to do with mistaking "supply preachers" for pastors. Still practiced today, some fledgling and struggling churches without a pastor make use of supply preachers. Eighteenth and nineteenth century churches typically did not hold services every Sunday. By way of example, an appointed pastor could hold services at his own church regularly on the first Sunday of the month, which would then free him to supply the pulpit at a nearby, pastorless church on the third Sunday of the month.
Given only a few miles separated the two churches, the pastor at the M.E.C.S. Church in Kinston probably served as the supply preacher for Hickory Grove. The 1867-1868 M.E.C.S. Conference minutes listed Rev. Caswell W. King as the pastor at the Kinston church. The same Rev. King was also named as pastor of the Hickory Grove Church in the 1867 Branson's Directory. Similarly, the 1869 M.E.C.S. Conference minutes listed Rev. W. D. Meacham as the pastor at the Kinston church. This Rev. Meacham was also named as the pastor of the Hickory Grove Church in the 1869 Branson's Directory. In all likelihood, then, Revs. King and Meacham were supply preachers, not pastors, at Hickory Grove.
Short of formal Methodist affiliation, local area M.E.C.S. Conference pastors who presumably supplied the pulpit for Hickory Grove in the mid to late 1860s was an indication that the Church was leaning Methodist. Possibly not denominational attraction per se, Hickory Grove may have accepted ministerial support from the M.E.C.S. Conference preachers simply because there were no other options to keep the church doors open. Minimally, the presence of Methodist preachers at Hickory Grove suggested their more than two decades of Free Will Baptist affiliation had permanently come to an end.
Next month's article will discuss Hickory Grove's Baptist years. Interested readers may enjoy reading a previously published Bucklesberry article titled "Death and Drinking: Spring 1922" available at https://t.ly/-iV7j.
