Hickory Grove Church (11)
Hickory Grove Church (11)
Dr. Joe Sutton
BAPTIST INTERLUDE
Hickory Grove's Methodist leanings in the mid to late 1860s ended by the close of the decade. Although the Church would eventually become a permanent Methodist work, the 1870s brought about a denominational interlude with the Baptists that lasted a dozen years.
According to a Lenoir County Superior Court document, "In the year of 1872...J[ulius] E[ri] Sutton and wife Nancetta Sutton conveyed to the trustees of the Baptist church at Hickory Grove a lot of land...known as the Hickory Grove Baptist Church lot." With its origins in, and nearly a quarter-century affiliation with, the Free Will Baptists (F.W.B.), Hickory Grove's shift to the Baptist denomination is not surprising. Theologically, the F.W.B. and Baptists share many of the same doctrinal positions.
The legal record that confirmed Hickory Grove had become a Baptist church in 1872 appears to be discrepant with the 1872 Branson's North Carolina Business Directory, which identified the Church as Methodist. Timing likely explains the discrepancy. Surveys of churches for the Directory probably began in 1871, and continued into the spring of the 1872 publication year. It is plausible, then, that Hickory Grove's Methodist leanings, although short of formal affiliation, were still lingering in 1871, the year before Hickory Grove became a Baptist church.
Rev. Daniel Culbreth, the Hickory Grove pastor named in the Directory, presents a further discrepancy. Associated with the M.E.C.S. Conference, he was not a Baptist preacher. The 1860 Census recorded him as a 22-year old "M. E. Preacher" (i.e., Methodist Episcopal) who resided in Lenoir County.
In the official meeting minutes of the North Carolina M.E.C.S. Conference for 1872, Rev. Culbreth was listed as pastor of the M.E.C.S. Church in Snow Hill, some eighteen miles from Bucklesberry. Since Hickory Grove Church was not listed in the Conference minutes as an M.E.C.S. church that year, Rev. Culbreth may likely have served as the supply preacher, not pastor, at Hickory Grove during some portion of 1871, immediately before Hickory Grove became a Baptist Church in 1872.
Next month's article will discuss more about Hickory Grove's Baptist years. Interested readers may enjoy a previously published Bucklesberry article titled, "Fourth Time's a Beauty," available at https://is.gd/5Osa7O.
