Editor’s Note: This is part 1 of a series.

BY SHELLIE TAYLOR

April consists of Holy Week (including Easter) and Passover, so the month is full of meaning for faithful followers of Christianity and Judaism. This month the Local History & Genealogy Department of the Iredell County Public Library is focusing on church history in Iredell County. The history of this county is steeped in deep religious communities, some of which continue today. Although the founding of Iredell County dates to 1788, the church history of this area goes back even further.

Books upon books could be written on the religious history of Iredell County. In fact, each denomination could fill a book. Each church could fill chapters. This article will spotlight the history of the first denomination in this area: Presbyterianism. Many of the early pioneers who settled in what would become Iredell County were Scots-Irish immigrants who migrated from Pennsylvania and Maryland. The majority of these people were Presbyterian.

The Presbyterian Church in America experienced a split in doctrine in the late 1700s, which resulted in two factions: the General Association and the Associate Reformed Presbyterians. These two sects resulted in the earliest congregations in Iredell County.

Fourth Creek is the name of a tributary connecting to the South Yadkin River. It’s also the name of Statesville’s first church. Today, it is also the name of a brewing company and an apartment complex. The name “Fourth Creek” is etched into the history of this area. In fact, before Statesville earned its name and became the county seat in 1789, it was called the Fourth Creek Settlement or Fourth Creek Congregation.

We believe the church, which would become First Presbyterian, began meeting between 1751 and 1753. Fergus Sloan, a well-known citizen whose land eventually became the City of Statesville, presented the Fourth Creek Congregation with land (about three quarters of an acre) for a burying ground. This is known now as Old Fourth Creek Burying Ground.

The other two congregations meeting at this time were Cathey’s Meeting House (Thyatira) near Salisbury in Rowan County and Osborne’s Meeting House, which became Centre Presbyterian in present-day Mooresville. In 1764, Fourth Creek was formalized by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia. By the 1770s, the church had grown quite large. Because it was the only church in the area, many parishioners traveled several miles to attend church. Some journeys included crossing over Third or Fourth creek, which could prove treacherous after a heavy rain. The church appealed to the synod to divide the congregation and create two new locations. The William Sharpe map of 1773 was drawn to show the magnitude of growth within the congregation and the need for additional church locations. Out of this request came the congregations of Concord (on Highway 90 heading toward Stony Point) and Bethany (north on Highway 21).

After years of requesting a full-time minister and receiving only traveling missionaries and occasional visiting pastors, the Fourth Creek congregation was able to finally secure a permanent minister in the form of Dr. James Hall in 1778. Born in Pennsylvania, Hall moved to Iredell County (Rowan at that time) with his family as a young boy and later studied at Princeton. He returned home to accept the call of ministry at Fourth Creek in 1778. This made his installment as minister even more special to the congregation as he was one of their own.

The Presbyterians were great supporters of education. Rev. Hall started both Clio’s Nursery and Ebenezer Academy as part of his ministry. Because of their love of learning, the Presbyterians have what we can probably consider the best records of all the Christian denominations.

Concord Presbyterian was officially established in 1775, but may have been holding meetings as early as the 1750s on the farm of William Morrison. The Morrison family cemetery contains burials as early as 1753, not all of which were family members, hinting that it may have been used as a church graveyard prior to Concord’s establishment.

The earliest churches of the other sect of Presbyterians, the Associate Reformed Presbyterians (ARP), included Coddle Creek (1753), New Sterling (1790), and New Perth (1789). In 1802, the Great Revival saw an explosion of churches and newer denominations moving into the area.

After the Civil War, Iredell saw its first African American Presbyterian churches founded by newly emancipated Blacks. These first churches were Freedom (1865), Logan (1866), and Cameron (1867). These churches were started with the help of white Presbyterian ministers like Sidney Murkland and Amos Billingsley. Murkland believed that true freedom began with land ownership and encouraged many of his congregation to purchase property. As a result, most of the Freedom congregation were landowners rather than sharecroppers. Billingsley came to Statesville as a missionary to the recently freed slaves and helped establish Second Presbyterian, later renamed Broad Street Presbyterian. Upon his death in 1897, Billingsley left money to start what would become Billingsley Hospital, with the stipulation that it serve both races of people. The Billingsley Academy, which opened in 1906, was located on the corner of Green and Garfield streets, where the current Calvary Presbyterian stands. This school provided a private, Presbyterian education to African Americans in Statesville.

Although this is one of my longer articles, this is still only a sliver of the history that the Presbyterian church has in Iredell County. We invite you to visit the Local History Room and peruse our church files for further information. There will also be two opportunities to attend the library program, Church History of Iredell County: 

♦ Statesville Library: Thursday, April 6, at 6 p.m.
♦ Troutman Library: Thursday, April 27, at 2 p.m.

We hope to see you there. Registration is available online or by calling the library.

Sources: Keever, H. (1976). Iredell, Piedmont County. Brady Printing Company. Raynal, H.M. (1995). Old Fourth Creek Congregation. Delmar Printing Company.

Shellie Taylor is the Local History Program Specialist at the Iredell County Public Library. She can be contacted at michelle.taylor@co.iredell.nc.us or 704.878.3090 ext. 8801.