Hickory Grove Church (13)
Hickory Grove Church (13)
Dr. Joe Sutton
BAPTIST YEARS (Cont.)
Hickory Grove was a relatively small Baptist work in 1872. Yet newspapers from as far as Charlotte, Greensboro, Wilson, and New Bern, and closer home in Goldsboro and Kinston soon began to report on Church happenings. Reporting continued over the next several decades. The earliest known reference to Hickory Grove appeared in an 1873 news item:
1873, November 6: "We learn from the Baptist Review that the annual association of the Baptist Church of North Carolina, which closed its session, with the church at Hickory Grove in Lenoir County, Saturday the 25th ulto., was a meeting of unusual interest to the ministers and delegates who were in attendance." (Goldsboro Messenger)
Baptist Review was the publication of the Union Baptist Association (U.B.A.). Holding the U.B.A. meeting at Hickory Grove in 1873 was almost surely not coincidental. Just one year earlier, Julius and Nancetta Sutton of Bucklesberry gifted the Hickory Grove Baptist Church building and land to the trustees, effectively formalizing their Baptist affiliation.
Not solely a place of worship, Hickory Grove was occasionally the site for community meetings. In 1874, politicians presented their platforms at the Church where they wooed voters:
1874, July 13: "The Conservative candidates will address the people of Lenoir at the following times and places....Hickory Grove, Saturday, [July] 25....Let the people turn out in crowds, and hear what the candidates have to say." (Goldsboro Messenger)
In the closing years of the 1870s, Hickory Grove appeared to distance itself from Baptist affiliation several times. With no explanation, the Church opened its pulpit in 1877 to Rev. Elder B. B. Holder, a Free Will Baptist (F.W.B.) preacher-missionary:
1877, January 1: "We are requested to announce that Elder B. B. Holder will preach...at Hickory Grove the 4th Sunday." (Goldsboro Messenger)
As the new decade unfolded, a more significant F.W.B. event occurred at Hickory Grove. The Church hosted a F.W.B. Conference in 1880:
1880, November 25: "The sixth annual session of the United [sic., Cape Fear] Free Will Baptist Conference will convene with Hickory Grove Church, Lenoir County, this week." (Goldsboro Messenger).
Reference to the United F.W.B. Conference was probably a misprint, given there are no historical records of a Conference by that name. The group that likely met at Hickory Grove was the Cape Fear F.W.B. Conference. Formed in 1873-1874, a meeting in 1880 would have been their "sixth" as indicated in the news item.
By allowing a F.W.B. minister to preach a Sunday service in 1877, and by hosting a F.W.B. Conference in 1880, Hickory Grove may have been second-guessing their denominational affiliation. Perhaps they were reconsidering a return to their F.W.B. roots, from which the Church sprang decades earlier. Regardless of the reason, the Church was reportedly still operating under the Baptist banner by 1881.
Next month's article will share more on Hickory Grove's Baptist years. Interested readers may enjoy a previously published Bucklesberry article titled "What mean these trees?" available at https://bit.ly/4cwXGfx.
