Rocky Mount Church

Rocky Mount Methodist Church as it appeared between 1880's and 1920's.

The following has been adapted from Our Heritage: A History of Rocky Mount United Methodist Church the author of which is not explicitly named, but who is likely James R. Reeves, former Pastor of the church. Many thanks to Mrs. Sue M. Sherrill for making it available...

The original deed for Rocky Mount United Methodist Church is dated August 11, 1852, but the origins of the church date much earlier. Rocky Mount had its beginning in a brush arbor about 1850. The congregation met out of doors in good weather, and in homes in bad weather. In 1852 at the third Quarterly Conference, David Brown, Osborne Tatum, Jesse Cornelius, Andrew Thompson, William Brown, John A. Murchison and James Rankin were appointed as a committee to build a church. At the next Quarterly Conference the Trustees of Rocky Mount Church filed a report. On August 11, 1852, a deed was recorded by Edwin Falls to the Trustees of Rocky Mount United Methodist Church. The first pastor of Rocky Mount United Methodist Church was Rev. E.P. Bibbs.

The first one-room log church building was built in 1852. The first church roll was made up of 37 members. By 1876, the roll had grown to 94. About this time the original structure was moved one-half mile east to the Cornelius farm where it served for a time as a school.

The second church building was constructed in the mid 1870's as a one-room, plank-and-frame structure. It had a high ceiling and a wood stove in the middle of the building. Two doors were on the north side; the left one had high steps and was called the "men's door" While the right door with low steps was the "women's door." Two aisles were in the sanctuary with short pews on either side. the pews in the left front were called the "amen corner," and the preacher heard encouragement from there whenever he preached. At the front of the church was a pump organ, and the pulpit was in the center at the front; behind it was an alcove with chairs for the preachers and windows on each of the three sides.

Mrs. Nancy Lambert Parker tells the story about those early days:

"I was five or six years old (1893--94) when we moved near Rocky Mount Church, and I went to church almost every Sunday...We walked a little path across the woods to church....We had one wood stove for heat. We had a good little spring for water, and we would go down the circle path to get a drink. We had a gourd then to drink from. In May we would have Children's Day. We would have little recitations; we would learn poetry and anything else we could find that was suitable, and songs too. It was an all-day affair. We would have dinner on the ground, and it was on the ground (no tables)...

Rocky Mount had some wonderful revivals. It would last for one week with two services a day, one at eleven in the morning and one at seven at night. It was held the first week in August after the farmers were done their farm work, and all the families would go to church. We did not have automobiles then, and we would go in wagons and buggies, and some would walk. We sure had a happy time...Some of the people would shout. We did not have much money back then. Some of us girls did not have very many dresses. For a while we had three dresses to wear to school and one nice dress to wear to preaching. And, we wore our school dresses to Sunday School...The list of the girls that walked to church with me includes Katy Collins, Belle Collins, Wilmoth Nesbit (sic), and Florida Collins."