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I JV Ptstorg of ffiL (Earmel papttst 0Il|urcJt| RFD No. 3 GJljapel JHtll, $artlj (Uarolhia 286.175656 S737h t&quxttntzxininl Vtnt 1803-1953 State Library of North Carolina Raleigh Presented by Wake Forest University Z.S. Reynolds Library NC Baptist Historical Collection JBQQQQOQQQQQQQQBE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/historyofmtcarmeOOmtca R: I.C. JV Ptstorg of It (Earmel lapttst Cijurclf RFD No. 3 (Etjapel Mill, ^ortt] Carolina Prepared by MRS. L. W. SPARROW 1803-1953 SESQUICENTENNIAL COMMITTEE Mrs. S. C. Hundley Mrs. A. D. Fowler S. T. Noell Junius Sparrow R. L. Blackwood, Sr. INTRODUCTION The present is of far more value than either the past or future, but it often pays to pause and look back over the road travelled, especially if this road has been long. One hundred and fifty years is a rather long road when we consider it in relation to the length of a man's life. Just why is Mount Carmel Church in existence after all these years? No doubt one reason is the firm foundation laid by our forefathers. Note in the old deed that Mount Carmel was to be called the "Church of Christ at Mount Carmel." All through these years there have been people, some-times few in number, who have kept that reason first in their hearts. Even if they did not know the words were in the deed, they loved the old Church and knew that it was Christ's Church. What were the conditions that prevailed during the years of the Church's life which have made it what it is today? Perhaps the Old Testament way of carrying out Law to the letter hindered this church as it did many others. The road uphill could be climbed only at a snail's pace because we so often stopped to discipline this or that weaker brother. As we look back over the hundred and fifty years the mistakes of any particular period do not seem so outstanding. After all, we are far from the fourteenth mile post on the old Hillsborough-Fayetteville great-road in more ways than one. Any one knows that we would have been much farther if these mistakes had not been made, but they are in the past. Let us press forward to the future, taking only those things from the past that will help us on to a successful future; a future of which God will say, "well done." Defence is needed for going so far afield as to tell of world, national, and state history in the history of Mount Carmel. With each successive year the world becomes more unified. Mount Carmel realized her re-sponsibility to her neighbor in her early days but the concept of neighbor has grown since that time to include the whole world. Why would the purchase of the Louisiana Territory affect us? The Louisiana Territory opened up new land to be settled by the residents of the seventeen states in the Union at that time. These people went west or southwest to new settlements carrying the customs and the beliefs of the old home with them. It is good that the early churches had been organized at that time because they served to spread the Gospel to the new territories even without special missionary effort. BACKGROUND CONDITIONS IN THE EARLY YEARS OF MOUNT CARMEL World History at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century It is difficult to connect the events of world history with the early affairs of Mount Carmel, a small rural Church in piedmont North Carolina. At this time Napoleon was the center of attention as he made his famous attempt to conquer the whole of Europe for France. Switzerland had just succeeded in a revolutionary attempt, and declared herself an independent republic, while the hated George III sat on the throne in England as he became more and more mentally unbalanced. The African continent still lay in unexplored darkness during this period, and all the Oriental world, which so occupies our attention today, was truly a separate world from the Occidental. American History at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century A brief look at the United States about the time our Church was organized shows us that these were important years in determining the size and strength of the young nation which had recently won its inde-pendence. All the vast area contained in the Louisiana Purchase, which more than doubled the area of the United States, was purchased in 1803 from France. From this purchase the states of Montana, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Kansas and Louisiana were formed. Altogether, one million square miles of territory were bought for fifteen million dollars. The chief proponent of the Purchase was President Thomas Jefferson, who was elected in 1800 by the House of Representatives, since the nominees for President and Vice President received the same number of electoral votes. It was also in 1803 that Ohio was admitted to the union as a Free state; that is, no slaves were allowed in the state. The issue of slavery versus abolition was growing more bitter as the years passed, so that eventually this issue outweighed all others in the minds of the statesmen and voters of the time. In 1804 the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition crossed the North American continent and gave the United States its claim to the West Coast territory which later played such an important part in the gold rush and the great migration to the west. Four years after the forming of Mount Carmel Church Robert Fulton's boat, the "Clermont," steamed from New York to Albany in one and one half days, marking the beginning of steam-ship transportation. George Washington, the immortal soldier who gave so liberally to fight for our independence, had been dead for only four years when Mount Carmel was organized, and the first American veterans were still living in great numbers. In 1812 the United States fought a second war to prove its independence and strength. It was the War of 1812 that showed that we were a strong determined nation, well capable of settling great issues justly. Truly these were great years in the history of our country, just as they were important years for the young Mount Carmel Baptist Church, which had just been organized. North Carolina History, at the Beginning of the 19th Century North Carolina can well be proud of its rural people. They made [3] up the state for the most part in early days and have retained a prominent place in its progress to this day. In the year of 1803 each little rural settlement was a world of its own to a great extent. It is most likely that piedmont North Carolina did not have the ruffled shirts and wigs which are commonly associated with early colonial times, because this section of the state was still in the pioneer stage of development. Homespun and leather was probably the fashion of the times. The hunters and farmers probably dressed in leather shirts and breeches made to withstand the hard wear of the frontier. They could have copied the Indians in their dress, for some still lived in the region. We are told that a whole tribe, the Suscunor, moved away just one year before Mount Carmel was organized. This left the Cherokees who later moved West. The women dressed in floor length dresses, with hoops on important occasions, while the little girls dressed in somewhat the same manner as their mothers. These people lived and worked in settlements miles apart; yet with few exceptions they worked their way up to something better year after year. It is wonderful how mere handfuls of people scattered over wide areas year after year managed to improve their circumstances as they did. We have to think hard to leave public education out of our plan of life; but when Mount Carmel was begun, public education was no more than a wild dream in the minds of a few far-sighted individuals. Indeed, the very conditions of the settlements made public education as we know it today impossible. It would have been hard to locate a school so that a goodly number of children could conveniently attend. For many years what the churches had to offer as education was all that could be obtained by rural people. Many of the older, more firmly established churches had grants of land or other sources of income with which they established and maintained schools. People had to pay for other education from their own private funds. In 1825, almost a quarter of a century after the founding of Mount Carmel, the Orange County Sunday School Union petitioned the General Assembly for funds to help out in schools which were conducted by that Union. Twenty-five cents annually for each Sunday School pupil was asked. There were between eight hundred and one thousand children in such schools at the time that this petition was made. This request was turned down twice by the assembly. Some time after this boarding schools and academies came into existence, but the ordinary people still depended on the church for their education. Roads were mere trails of dust or mud, depending on the season. No doubt this made our forefathers more anxious for "meeting houses" to be as close together as communities would allow. Almost all preachers travelled on horseback with Bible and other helps, as well as a change of clothes stored in large saddle bags. The road on which Mount Carmel was located was built of boards. Plank roads stretched from one trading center to another at this time. The road on which Mount Carmel stood stretched its bumpy line from Hillsboro to Fayetteville. Over this road passed wagons hauling farm produce, slaves to be sold, and many other items not found in markets today. Droves of cattle and horses passed the little church on the hill near Morgan's Creek. Perhaps the travellers stopped to drink from that spring mentioned in the deed and commented on the wisdom of building churches and the influence for good this church had in the neighborhood. [4] The country seemed so new, so full of life and so ready to try new ideas; so ready to make of itself a great nation. We should be glad that at such a time the nation almost as a whole turned its thoughts to the true source of power. The time was ripe for such a revival as swept our entire state in 1880. These revivals first started as camp meetings. All denominations met together. Those three most often mentioned were Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian. As converts from these meetings returned home members of the same denomination would begin meeting in homes, and finally a church would be organized. The rural communities were the first to organize such churches. Thus we see Mount Carmel with a church building in the country near Chapel Hill, while the village itself had no Baptist church. Camp meetings would last two days or a week. Many attendants walked seven or eight miles with just bread in their pocket to eat, while others with a longer distance to travel might bring a picnic lunch. As congregations grew and became more united in their purposes they built permanent houses to use instead of meeting in the homes. Generally the neighbors got together at a "bee" or "building spell" and built a log church much like their own homes, many of which had no floors. Mount Carmel was probably built in this neighborly way. These churches were the chief forces for law and order in the community. As soon as the churches were built they were put in use for schools, political meetings, or other public functions. After public schools were built, the congre-gations complained about this non-religious use, and all functions other than religious were moved to the school houses. It is interesting to notice the naming of these early churches. For the most part they were named for location: Rock Spring, Bear Creek, Cane Creek were all named in this manner. Some were named for large land owners who had given the land on which the church was built. We do not know whether our church founders had a vision of the tasks and possibilities of our church, or whether the name was suggested by the rough terrain, but the name has come to mean more and more to the members as the years have passed. We hope that any moneys needed were supplied in a way pleasing to God. In 1810 it is recorded that at least one church in Orange County obtained money for needed buildings by lottery. That seemed to be a common practice for in 1830 we find it recorded that such means of raising money were sinful, and the practices referred to soon were ceased. Even horse swapping was done at churches in some of the very early days. Baptists and Methodists were the only denominations which did not require a formal education for ministers. More emphasis was placed on call and public gift of speaking than on education. In 1848 the Baptist State Convention announced that prejudices AGAINST education were about to give way. Frequently people came to church from a radius of twenty miles for all day services. People would stand outside talking until the preacher came on horseback to the meeting house. The preacher would go im-mediately to the pulpit where he would deposit his saddle-bags on the floor and begin the service as the last outsider came quietly in. Sermons usually lasted two hours. Rural preachers preached against the un-pardonable sin, while the city preachers talked about social reform, temperance movements, church doctrine, piety or humiliation. Elder Purefoy wrote that the best preachers were those who could best explain the scripture. [5] With these background facts in mind, we now turn our attention to Mount Carmel in its early beginnings. MOUNT CARMEL BAPTIST CHURCH PRIOR TO 1870 It is hard to obtain accurate information about early church work. Records were not made, or if they were made, they were not kept. Some-times they were destroyed by fire and sometimes they were lost. As late as 1816 it is recorded that some thought it a sin to number people, basing this opinion on God's displeasure at David's numbering the people of Israel, as recorded in I Chronicles 21:1-7. In his volume on Sandy Creek History Purefoy gives the following short history of Mount Carmel Church: MOUNT CARMEL Is located on Morgan's Creek, in Orange County, N. C, about two miles southwest from Chapel Hill. This church was constituted in A.D. 1803, at Pritchard's meeting House, a few miles south of its present location. Of its early history but little is now known. In June, 1816, a few of the members met at Mount Carmel M.H., and organized for business. Elder R. T. Daniel was with them at this meeting. In 1817, this church was represented in the General Meeting of Correspondence for Missions. In 1818, Abner W. Clopton, of Virginia, a member of this church, who was principal of the Preparatory School at Chapel Hill, was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry by Elders George Roberts and David Newlin. In 1819, Elder Clopton tendered his resignation as clerk of the church, and James G. Hall, who was then a student at Chapel Hill, was licensed to preach the gospel. He is now a prominent minister in South Carolina. In 1823, this church organized an arm at Mount Gilead, which was organized into a church in 1824. George Oldham and Thomas D. Oldham were the first deacons after the church moved to Mount Carmel M.H. Thomas Weaver was licensed to preach by this church in May, 1818, and was ordained by Elders Thomas Freeman and Isaac Kirby, in 1826. Previous to 1826, this church belonged to the Flat River Association. Since then it has belonged to the Sandy Creek Asso-ciation. In May, 1827, William H. Merritt, at the call of the church, was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry by Elders James Ferrell and Thomas Freeman. In 1852 or '53, a large number of members were dismissed by letter, to organize a new church at Lystra M.H., by which their number was very considerably reduced. In 1854, Mount Carmel formed an arm for business at Chapel Hill, which was soon constituted into a church. Mount Carmel, though now reduced in numbers, is the mother of three flourishing churches. Dr. William Hooper was baptized into the fellowship of this church in 1832. The following ministers have served this church as pastors: R. T. Daniel, William P. Worrell, P. W. Dowd, William Hooper, R. McNabb, George W. Purefoy, Enoch Crutchfield, B. J. Hackney, and M. D. Andrews. This church has enjoyed several interesting revivals of religion. Its present number of members is thirty-five. [6] The Purefoy "History of Sandy Creek Association" gives a summary of the happenings of the churches in the Association each year. After 1827, when Mount Carmel received a letter from the Flat River Association to join the Sandy Creek Association, this church was represented a greater part of the time at the annual meetings. Some idea of the activities of the church can be obtained from this History. It is recorded that in 1805, in September, Abner Clopton, a member of Mount Carmel, preached at Arbor Meeting House at the Associational Meeting. In 1808 R. T. Daniel of Mount Carmel led in prayer at the Association. We assume that Elder Daniel was the first pastor of this church since he is the first one listed by Dr. Purefoy in the above history. As late as 1809 we find the Baptists still practicing laying on of hands following baptism, although the ritual was not a test of fellowship. At the Association of 1809 four preachers preached on Sunday, and one of these was Ralph, a colored man. Elder Robert T. Daniel preached at many of these meetings and was Moderator at many. Four years after Mount Carmel was organized we find that the expenses of the Association were still paid in pounds, shillings and pence. In 1827, the year that Mount Carmel joined the Sandy Creek Association, Elder Thomas Weaver and Grey Huckabee were the Delegates from Mount Carmel, as well as for the next year when the Meeting was held at Mount Gilead. The following year Elder William H. Merritt was a third Delegate from Mount Carmel. When the Association met at Lick's Creek, Chatham County, in 1830, a serious difficulty in Mount Carmel Church was reported. What the difficulty was is not mentioned, but a committee was appointed to effect reconciliaton. At the Associations of 1830 and 1831 William H. Merritt of Mount Carmel was Moderator and William Hooper of Mount Carmel preached the asso-ciational sermon. Many associational meetings during these years found the same delegates from Mount Carmel: Merritt, Huckabee, and Weaver. The report is recorded that Elder William H. Merritt baptized one hundred candidates at different churches in the year 1832. Elder Merritt was known as a great revivalist and was very much in favor of missions and Christian Education. He was later a large benefactor of Wake Forest College. In 1833 the introductory sermon at the association was preached by George W. Purefoy, then of the Raleigh Association, but later the great leader and Historian of the Sandy Creek Association. At this meeting Cane Creek asked Mount Carmel and other churches to send messengers to help settle a dispute about an excommunication. Mount Carmel sent Thomas Hunter. There were ten baptisms reported from Mount Carmel in 1833 and the total membership was sixty. About this time there was much agitation over whether individual churches should be missionary or not. Mount Carmel was always on the side of missions. Elder Robert T. Daniel, first pastor, was called the "Prince of Missions." In 1821 he was employed by the North Carolina Baptist Missionary Society at $40.00 per month to organize local mis-sionary societies in various parts of the state. In 1834 there were no baptisms reported from Mount Carmel and the membership stood at forty-two, compared with the sixty in the previous year. The associational sermon in 1835 was preached by William H. Merritt at the Emmaus Meeting House in Chatham County. Of the nine ordained ministers in the Sandy Creek Association in 1835, three of them were [7] members of Mount Carmel: W. H. Merritt, William Hooper and Thomas Weaver. When the Association met at Mount Gilead in 1936, a committee was appointed to inquire into the reason for the low state of religion in the churches. At this meeting William H. Merritt gave $100.00 along with other donations to be used by the Baptist State Convention for Judson's trans-lation of the Bible in Burmese. This year Mount Carmel reported forty-four members with no baptisms. The death of Luther Rice, a companion missionary of Adoniram Judson, was reported and the resulting preambles and resolutions are good reading because they show so plainly the deep feelings for missions. A new delegate from Mount Carmel in the year 1838 is recorded. He was William Barbee, who went along with Merritt and Weaver. At no time are the women mentioned in the proceedings. , In the 1839 minutes Elder George W. Purefoy wrote a circular letter on the importance of education among ministers of the gospel. Mount Carmel this year reported twenty-three baptisms and sixty members. This is the best report coming from this church. At the 1843 association meeting at Antioch, Mount Carmel sent up a question: "To what extent shall we go in receiving worldly testimony in our churches?" The answer was: "When the church deems it necessary to take testimony from the world, hear it, and give it the weight to which it is entitled." No baptisms were reported from Mount Carmel this year and the Membership was one hundred and seven. In 1847 Alfred Boothe was a delegate from Mount Carmel. In 1848 James M. Cheek was a delegate. In 1850 Mount Carmel reported one hundred and five members but ne baptisms. Prior to this meeting Elder William H. Merritt had died and a committee was appointed to prepare an obituary. At the 1853 Meeting Lystra Church reported for the first time. She reported eighty-four members. No doubt many of these came from Mount Carmel's roll, since she is Lystra's mother church. Mount Carmel was represented by letter this year and reported seventy members. The year 1854 heard Chapel Hill Baptist Church asking for a seat in the Association. This new church had many former Mount Carmel members for it too was a daughter church of Mount Carmel. This year James P. Mason was recommended by the church at Chapel Hill for examination with the view of ordination for the ministry. Elder Purefoy and others were appointed to attend to that duty at Mason's convenience. In 1857 Mount Carmel was represented at the Association by James Edwards and S. T. Lindsey. Perhaps this delegate, Edwards, was a member of the Edwards family for whom the range of hills in front of the present church is named. In 1858 George W. Purefoy preached the Centennial Sermon for the Sandy Creek Association before a great crowd. This sermon was later enlarged into the "History of Sandy Creek Baptist Association." Mount Carmel reported twc baptisms and thirty-five members this year. Edwards and Lindsey were again the delegates. The remainder of this section contains information gleaned from the minutes of the Sandy Creek Association from 1859 through 1869, which are kept in the Wake Forest College Library. The year 1859 finds Mount Carmel reporting forty-four members with one member excommunicated. S. T. Lindsey was the church clerk. He, along with J. M. Cheek and R. Daniel were the delegates to the Association for that year. [8] George W. Purefoy was the Moderator of the Sandy Creek Association in 1860. Clerk Lindsey reported only forty members for that year. At the Association P. H. McDade of Chapel Hill reported that Mount Carmel had no Sabbath School and that there was a scarcity of children in the community and some backwardness on the part of the church in taking hold of and pushing forward such an enterprise. Still further decline was recorded for the church the next year. Only thirty-seven members were reported. Cheek, Edwards and R. Daniel were the delegates. The presence of the same delegates year after year indicates a lack of leaders in the church. Still further decline is indicated in 1862. No delegates were present and the membership remaind at thirty-seven. The next year there was no report at all. The Civil War was taking its toll. In 1864 again there was no report and no delegates. From 1859 to 1864 there are no pastors listed. It is good to see that in 1865, just after the war ended, Mount Carmel sent back its old delegates, Cheek, Daniel and Lindsey. Lindsey, still clerk, reported fifty-eight members and the Reverend 0. Churchill as pastor. The next year saw still more progress. Eighty-two members were reported by the new clerk, J. S. Tilley. Tilley, R. Daniel and 0. Churchill were delegates to the Association. The year 1867 was a red-letter year for Mount Carmel. A Sabbath School was reported with thirty scholars and four teachers. The school closed during the winter but it still marked a good beginning. Isaiah Cole was the superintendent, assisted by W. H. Lloyd. Oren Churchill was still Pastor and Mr. Daniel had two new delegates. Hudson Sparrow and W. H. Lloyd, to accompany him to the Association. However, there was a loss of seven members. An addition of two members is reported the following year. Oren Churchill is still pastor while R. M. and A. Daniel and D. S. Pendergrass were delegates to the Association. J. S. Tilley was still clerk. The report of 1869 is not so good. There was no Sabbath School report. Membership was four short of the year before. The pastor this year was James P. Mason. This year of 1869 concluded the stay of Mount Carmel Church in the Sandy Creek Association. Before leaving this early period in Mount Carmel History, another word is in order concerning those two spiritual giants about whom much has already been said, William Merritt and George W. Purefoy. The burial place for both Purefoy and Merritt is on a high knoll southwest of Morgan's Creek bridge on Highway 15-501. This is the family burial ground for the old Purefoy family. George W. Purefoy married Lucy Merritt, daughter of W. H. Merritt. The two, Purefoy and Merritt, made a fine family team for the great religious work they did together. Many of the farms around Mount Carmel were bought from the Purefoy descendants. They were fine neighborhood builders. When the old South's way was broken by the Civil War these people sold their lands under terms agreeable to purchaser, and purchaser and seller became lasting friends. We find the descendants of Merritt and Purefoy still filling many places of community and church service. The lives of these great men live on. Mount Carmel Church owes her debt to George W. Purefoy for donating the tract of land on which the present building now stands. But much more does she owe to both these men and the other great leaders for the spiritual heritage she has from them. [9] MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH SINCE 1870 In the year 1870 Mount Carmel received a letter from Sandy Creek Association in order to join other churches in forming the new Mount Zion Association. Ths new group was composed of churches in Alamance, Orange, Chatham, Durham and possibly some other counties. The minutes record that one of the names suggested for the new Association was NEW HOPE, after the Creek of the same name. However, one Brother objected on the grounds that the Association might prove to be as slugggish as the creek. This year of 1870 found Mount Carmel with forty-nine mem-bers and no pastor is listed. George W. Purefoy was elected the Moderator of Mount Zion in 1870 and also in 1871. In 1871 and 1872 the church membership dropped to 47. W. R. Gualtney was pastor. The year 1873 saw another epochal step in the church's history. This was the moving of the church from the original sight deeded by Mathew McCauley to the present sight on the south border of Orange County. There is no record of the exact reason why Mount Carmel was moved several miles south of its first location. Many old-timers think the Baptist feelings ran so high that the idea of Merritt's Chapel Methodist Church gaining membership in what could be Baptist grounds just could not be ignored. Be that as it may, other factors could have influenced the move. Chapel Hill now had a Baptist Church to take care of many people who were formerly Mount Carmel members. P. H. McDade's statement that there was a scarcity of children may have influenced the movement. Also, many of the names on the records at this time were residents of the present Mount Carmel community. Certainly a member living at the Rich place, as did Hudson Sparrow, would welcome his church nearer home. The Merritts and Purefoys also lived nearer the present location. In fact, Elder Purefoy gave the land for the present location. Interest at the old church seemed about dead at times, as is recorded in Purefoy's History. It may be that the church was moved in an effort to preserve the last spark of life it retained. It is told by word of mouth that in the year 1873, after the crops were laid by, there was a "working." The old church was torn down and hauled by wagons to the present location, where it was rebuilt. The fine old hand-planed boards were placed there as they are today in the center section of the building. Probably quite a few members were in-convenienced by the move, for in the early minutes for the succeeding years we find the Womble family (W. N., Savannah, and Sims) asking for letters. We have only to look at the record of growth in the church in the following years to be assured that the move was a healthy one. The very year of the move the membership jumped from forty-seven to seventy, a gain of roughly fifty per cent. By 1876 there were one hundred and sixteen members. For a period of nearly thirty years this number was not exceeded. In fact, the church membership varied between seventy-seven and one hundred and fifteen until 1904 when it rose to one hundred and thirty one. The reason for the fluctuation in numbers was due largely to the practice of excluding members and then restoring them to church fellowship when they conformed to church requirements. The best sources for any church history are the minutes of the Church conferences or business meetings. Unfortunately, there are no such records of Mount Carmel prior to 1888. A copy of the oldest set of minutes is contained in the appendix to this history. It was in the Fall [10] of 1888 that the Mount Zion Association met wth Mount Carmel. Rev. W. S. Olive was pastor at the time and there were ninety-seven members. At the December business meeting of 1889 it was decided to give the first two months' collections to Foreign Missions. This collecting was to be done by Brother C. L. Andrews and Sister Susan Cheek. In January of 1890 the church decided to withdraw fellowship from all able-bodied men who did not pay their part of the pastor's salary. For some reason, the former pastor, Rev. W. S. Olive, was to be notified of this act. At the February meeting of the church Brother A. Riggsbee and Sister Lela Merritt were appointed to collect for the next two months for home missions. The March conference of this year granted letters to Sisters Savannah Bland and E. S. Upchurch. Delegates to the Sunday School Convention were W. J. A. Cheek, J. M. Womble, and J. B. Cheek. In June of this year letters of dismissal were granted to Sister S. N. Cheek and Brother H. Y. Stone. August saw a number of committees appointed. W. G. Clements headed a committee to secure funds for the Baptist Orphanage. November of 1890 was the month for the election of a pastor. Rev. J. W. Watson was called for another year at a salary of $100.00 The church decided to pay the pastor each quarter. In this year a lengthy tribute of respect was recorded in the records for Sister Sarah Andrews, lately deceased. In September of 1894 the church had a committee to collect the balance due on the salary of Rev. J. W. Watson who left the church in 1892. Rev. A. C. Cree agreed in November of 1894 to serve the church for "what the committee can raise." These must have been hard years for Mount Carmel, but even in these times she was honest in trying to pay all her debts. We find plans were made in the January conference of 1895 to finish paying the back dues to Rev. W. A. Smith. Brother Cree kept these debts before the people. In May of this year the church accepted funds obtained from an entertainment at Merritt's School House. These funds were to be used to cover the church. In August, 1895, a motion was made to extend the roof of the church to correspond to the boxing. September found the church pledging money to help pay for shingles. One dollar was the highest amount paid. "Friday after next" was the date set for covering the church. During these years preceding 1900 the post office for those in the Mount Carmel community was Rialto. This strange sounding name is now Farrington, according to report. The address of community people was changed to Chapel Hill in 1903 or 1904. We mention only a few more facts in this section to show some of the trends in Church life. A much fuller account of the later years of the church's history will be found in the next section. In all of the church's conferences the roll of members was called and absentees noted. The roll was divided into a male roll and a female roll. At the April, 1914, meeting it was decided that the female roll would be called quarterly henceforth. A check of the minutes for several years reveals that more and more the roll call was omitted, until eventually it died out. On the Saturday before the second Sunday in March, 1917, the church voted that it was wrong for church members to dance and all who were guilty would be dealt with by the church. On the third Sunday in March, 1926, the church decided to do away with Saturday meeting and have meeting first and third Sundays. The Saturday meetings were restored under later pastors but this was the [11] beginning of the end for the Saturday meeting. It was also the beginning of a fuller program of church services. As the membership and the finan-cial ability of the people grew the need for full time services was seen. The first full time pastor was Rev. C. E. Bryd in 1945. The salary paid was $1200.00. Instead of the Saturday meeting or even the Sunday church conference, the church now convenes in business session on the Wednesday night fol-lowing the first Sunday in each month. The church now has a full-time program of work including: A pastor on the field, Preaching service twice on Sunday, Wednesday night services, rehearsal of adult and youth choirs on Thursday night, and occasional social meetings in the Cabin. Most of the other phases of church life are covered in the section to follow. However, it might be well to mention the present general church officers. They are: Clerk, L. W. Sparrow; Treasurer, Mrs. E. G. Merritt; Librarian, Nat Sparrow; Chorister, Billy B. Sparrow; and Pianist, Mrs. E. G. Merritt. The trustees of the Church are: June A. Sparrow, P. E. Johnson, and A. D. Fowler. The deacons are: A. G. White, chairman, L. W. Sparrow, Martin Sparrow, E. T. Dollar, S. T. Noell, W. L. Carson, Sr., J. E. Pendergraft, J. C. Carter, Dwight Pendergraft, Odell Blackwood, and J. H. Merritt. INTERESTING PHASES OF MOUNT CARMEL LIFE Mount Carmel and the University of North Carolina Although at present there seems to be little connection between our church and the University of North Carolina, in the past the University has had more influence on our affairs than we realize. For one thing, the University and the church are about the same age. The University was only eight years old when the church was organized. Since so many leadex's of early years came from the University it might have been a force in getting the church organized. At the time of the church's organization there was no Baptist church at Chapel Hill. The distance to the nearest Baptist Church was prohibitive to student attend-ance, so there was definite need for a Baptist church closer by. The first site of Mount Carmel was within easy walking distance of the campus and the South Building bell could be plainly heard at the church. Abner W. Clopton, principal of a preparatory school in Chapel Hill, while not a member of the University faculty, was ordained to the work of the Gospel ministry at Mount Carmel. He served also as clerk of the old church and when he resigned James Hall, a University student, became clerk. In 1819 Iverson L. Brooks, a student, was licensed to preach the gospel by Mount Carmel. Dr. William Hooper, an Episcopal clergyman of Chapel Hill, was baptized into the fellowship of Mount Carmel in 1832. He served as Pro-fessor of ancient languages, rhetoric and logic at the University. He co-authored a report on education to the Baptist State Convention which resulted in the founding of Wake Forest College in 1834. He later became second President of Wake Forest College. He was a grandson of the William Hooper who signed the Declaration of Independence. He is buried on the University campus beside his mother and stepfather, Dr. Caldwell, former president of the University. We cannot forget the Y.M.C.A. boys who walked to Mount Carmel in former days to teach Sunday School when our leaders were few. They [12] came to the University with an earnest desire for education, and with a willingness to suffer hardship in order to get it. Among these students were 'Cooper, Walker, McKnight, Jones, Auld and Vogler, along with others whose names are forgotten, but whose efforts are still remembered. Perhaps they still remember the old church and the dinners to which they were often invited after services. Professor Gore of the Physics department was a leading member of our church for many years. We find him attending Union meetings and associational meetings as a delegate from our church. With the founding of the Baptist Church in Chapel Hill student participation in Mount Carmel affairs decreased. The efforts which these students made will be appreciated as long as they are remembered. Mount Carmel and Sunday School Work The first report of a Sunday School at Mount Carmel was made in 1867. It was then called a Sabbath School. The Superintendent was Isaiah Cole. The school closed for the winter months. There were four teachers and thirty scholars. The next year a report was made was in 1871. The number enrolled was still thirty. Within six years after the church was moved the enrollment had gone up to fifty. G. P. Moore was then pastor. From 1880 to 1900 the enrollment ranged from twenty-five to seventy-five. The enrollment from 1900 to 1920 was up and down with a slow but steady progress being noted. As late as 1908, when Mr. A. Riggsbee was superintendent, the school was open only ten months in the year. In 1920 there were sixty-five enrolled. By 1930 this number had grown to one hundred and thirty-seven, by 1940 to one hundred and ninety-one. The 1950 enrollment was two hundred and eight-nine, while 1951 was the all-time high of two hundred and ninety-seven, with an average attendance of one hundred and forty-six. Last year, 1952, saw the enrollment drop down somewhat but the attendance remained at one hundred and forty-six. This year of 1953 promises to exceed last year in attendance. The Sunday School is well-graded and uses the six-point record system. There are at present nineteen classes, a Nursery, Cradle Roll, and Ex-tension department in the School. The superintendents during the past quarter century have been: C. W. Sparrow, A. E. Knowles, W. M. Pendergraft, I. F. Hardee, L. W. Sparrow, S. J. Crabtree, P. E. Johnson, J. H. Sparrow, E. T. Dollar, and A. G. White. Brother White has served as superintendent since 1940. Further plans are being made to expand the Sunday School in 1954. Mount Carmel and Training Union Work The first report of a Baptist Young People's Union at Mount Carmel was in 1921. Rev. J. B. Davis was pastor and Miss Viola Cheek was president. There were eighteen members. In 1922 this had increased to thirty-five. The next several years show an up and down situation but with gradual overall progress. By 1940 the enrollment was sixty-two. There was no Union reported in 1942-44. In 1945 the enrollment was eighty-one. Follows a steady gain until the peak year of 1951 when the enrollment was one hundred and fifty-seven and average attendance of eighty-two. The influence of Training Union is seen throughout the Church's activities. Whenever a new worker is needed to fill some place of re-sponsibility, that worker has more than likely been trained in the Baptist [13] Training Union. The Training Union at Mount Carmel is a well-graded organization with unions and leaders for all age groups. The Training Union Directors since its inception have been: Miss Viola Cheek, Miss Agnes Knowles, Miss Mamie Lee Blackwood, J. 0. Blackwood, Miss Jessie Sparrow, Billy Sparrow, Miss Eva Doris Blackwood, Joseph Fowler, Mrs. C. E. Byrd, E. T. Dollar, Vernon Sparrow, Miss Carolyn Fowler, and Martin Sparrow. MOUNT CARMEL AND MISSIONARY EMPHASIS From the earliest date Mount Carmel has been a strong missionary church. She is seen standing by her convictions in the earliest days. Churches left the Association and were refused a place because of their anti-mission sentiment, but never Mount Carmel. Mention is made of different phases of early mission work here and there throughout Purefoy's History. Always there was a missionary spirit and a way to carry on, although at times that way seems to us today very inadequate. The collecting of money by a committee was one of the ways tried. Sometimes this committee would be appointed as late as August with instructions to collect until the meeting of the Association. The need for particular causes are not usually recorded. It was a collection just for missions. The spirit of Missions increased with the beginning of Woman's Mis-sionary Union. We hear of the first Woman's Missionary Society at Mount Carmel in 1916 when Rev. O. L. Riggs was pastor. He had not been long married and he brought his beautiful young wife to help with the church work. No doubt this young woman, full of love for her Master's work, inspired the women of Mount Carmel to take that first step. The first enrollment was twenty-two. From that day there has been a steady growth in the interest of missions. Many have been the women of Mount Carmel who have been leaders in mission organizations since that early beginning in 1916. The presidents of the Woman's Missionary Union for the past thirty years have been: Mrs. C. L. Rich, Mrs. June A. Sparrow, Mrs. Charles Knowles, Mrs. P. E. Johnson, Mrs. Jesse Merritt, Mrs. Carl Sparrow, Mrs. E. T. Dollar, Mrs. E. G. Merritt, Mrs. Vernon Sparrow, and Mrs. S. C. Hundley. As could be expected from the increased interest, auxiliaries were soon organized and added to the W.M.S. The Girls' Auxiliary and the Royal Ambassador Chapter, along with the Sunbeam Band, have been active for many years. Outstanding Royal Ambassador Leaders have been: Mrs. Flora Fowler, Mrs. E. T. Dollar, and Martin Sparrow. The present leader, Martin Sparrow, is the first man to serve as R.A. Leader. The members of the Girl's Auxiliary groups have been led by these efficient helpers: Mrs. Philip Sparrow, Mrs. A. D. Fowler, Mrs. Leonard Sparrow, and Mrs. William Kilpatrick. The young boys and girls get started in missionary training in the Sunbeam Band. Among the leaders of this Band have been: Mrs. W. L. Carson, Sr., Mrs. Edgar Stone, Mrs. James Fletcher, and Mrs. John Williams. The men were without a mission organization until the Brotherhood Chapter was organized in 1949, while Mr. Wagoner was pastor, with nineteen members. Though the idea of missions is primary in the Brother-hood, this is a men's organization with the purpose of undergirding the total program of the local church. S. T. Noell has been the president of the Brotherhood since its inception. [14] A section on Missions would be incomplete without a look at some of the objects of missionary zeal. As early as 1890 the church gave its first two months collections to Foreign Missions. The next two months collections went for Home Missions. This early interest has continued through the years. The Baptist Orphanage has long had a big place in the Church's heart. In days past the whole Sunday School has visited the Mills Home at Thomasville. For years also the Sunday School offering on each first Sunday has gone to the Orphanage. For the past few years Mount 'Carmel has taken a special interest in the Chowan Cottage of boys. Each Christ-mas gifts are sent to this group and each Spring these boys and their leaders come to Mount Carmel for a week-end visit. Several of the youngsters usually spend their Christmas holidays with Mount Carmel families. Many homes have opened to welcome these boys as one of the family, even for as long as their two-week summer vacation. None have shown more genuine hospitality than the Leonard Sparrow family, who, in a recent year had vacationing boys from Mills Home in their home for a full month. Leonard never seemed happier than when these children from the Orphanage came to visit. The Baptist Hospital has long been a recipient of Mount Carmel gifts. A few years ago when North Carolina Baptists were asked to raise a large amount for a new south wing, each church in the state was asked to give a sizeable amount to this cause. Mount Carmel gladly came through and paid in full the amount requested. Another feeling of satisfaction comes to Mount Carmel over its response to the call of North Carolina Baptists for money to help in moving Wake Forest to Winston-Salem. Mount Carmel accepted a goal of $1200.00 to be paid within five years. In September of 1952 the five years was up and the pledge was paid in full. With the advent of the Baptist Home for the Aging, "Resthaven," this church placed this new cause in her budget and on the hearts of her people. Associational Missions is another cause in which Mount Carmel has her part. From the first she has seen the need of a paid worker in the Association and this year is paying $250.00 to support this cause. There are other mission objects to which the church gives individually. However, through the years she has given liberally to many objects through the Co-operative Program of our Baptist Convention. Beginning in 1926 with contributions of $150.00, there has not been a year since in which gifts have not gone out to the ends of the earth through the Co-operative Program. A total of over $12,000.00 has gone to worldwide missions through these channels. This year's budget calls for $1725.00 through the Co-operative Program. People of Mount Carmel have envisioned a budget with a 50-50 ratio between missions and local expenses. This ideal has not been reached in recent years, although in at least one year, 1920, the church gave well over fifty per cent of its expenditures to missions. Brother Dorsett was then pastor. The present budget calls for thirty four and one-half per cent for missions, or a total of $3,144.00. All this goes to prove that the Divine command, "Go ye into all the world. . ." is being heeded more and more as the years pass, and as a result Mount Carmel is proving herself a blessing as a witness to the uttermost parts of the earth. [15] MOUNT CARMEL STEWARDSHIP Mount Carmel membership is made up of hard working people whose income is never in the high brackets. Not since the days of W. H. Merritt and Purefoy have there been individuals with much wealth. It might be thought that such a church would not be so generous, but not so with Mount Carmel. She has through the years been conscious of her financial stewardship. In the olden days money was raised to pay the pastor and give to missions by the assessment or dues system. Usually there was an assessing committee and a collecting committee or a combination of both. That the system worked poorly can be seen by the hard times they had trying to collect the dues. Gradually we have come around to the position of a vital and challenging stewardship of possessions, which presents the needs to the people and then seeks a voluntary response. As the pastors and church leaders have stressed the obligation of every Christian to be a good steward the church gifts have grown through the years. A glance at church records will show that in 1902 the total church expenditures amounted to $121.41; in 1910, $405.19; in 1920, $727.55; in 1931, $980.69; in 1940, $1229.50; and in 1950, $10,245.67. Over the same period the pastor's salary increased from $100.00 per year for one Sat-urday and one Sunday service per month to $2860.00 for full time work. By 1953 the pastor was receiving $3600.00 yer year. One main reason for the church's sound financial status can be found in the consecrated treasurers through the years. There have been only three treasurers in the past thirty years: Mr. June A. Sparrow held this office for many years. Then Ben Tripp was treasurer, and Mrs. E. G. Merritt has now been treasurer for several years. MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH MUSIC Music, especially singing, has always been a vital part in the worship services of rural churches. This is as it should be, for no other part of the worship can be participated in by so nearly everyone. It is pleasing to the ear, it gives emphasis to the sermons, and it carries out the theme of the service in a way nothing else can do. In the earliest churches there were no hymn books, nor any musical instruments. Indeed, at the time Mount Carmel was first organized, only a few of the hymns we know today were in existence and use. The Psalms were sung as the only appropriate church music. Later came the hymns that we are familiar with as the old-time songs, and still later came the popular innovation of gospel songs. In early times, a deacon often preached in the absence of a regular pastor. This deacon would often lead in the singing, and from this custom the term "deaconize the lines" came to be applied to song leading. Most often the deacon or pastor would read or sing a line, which the congregation would repeat after him, continuing this process until the hymn was sung. Hymn books were as much a rarity as books of any kind when Mount Carmel was a young church. The possessor of one of these hymnals often copied the words and distributed them to members of the congregation so that the hymnal served as many people as possible. If there was a time when the people of Mount Carmel did not like to sing, it is not known or recorded. Entire generations have come to be known as music lovers. The Yergans, Baileys, Andrews, and the Sparrows were a few of the old families who took pleasure in making the church house ring with music. The Sparrows were so numerous and so settled [16] that we still find them well represented in the singers of Mount Carmel. Mr. Caswell Andrews was one of the good leaders of the old tuning fork day. When he, his good wife Lula, his sister Louisana, and his little less than a dozen children sang their best, there was little left for the remainder of the congregation to do but join in. Many "Singing Schools" were conducted in by-gone days. John Bryan, brother of Dean D. B. Bryan of Wake Forest College, and Mr. Lynch are two well-remembei*ed teachers. The first musical instrument bought was an organ at which sat various ladies laboring at the pumps to produce accompaniment for the singing. Next came a piano and we now look forward to the day when we can progress to an electric organ. It has been wonderful that at no time has there been any lack of pianists or organists to provide music for the church. Mrs. E. G. Merritt has for some years served well and faithfully as church pianist. The church now has two choirs, the adult choir directed by Billy Sparrow, and the youth choir directed by Mrs. Morgan, the pastor's wife. Both choirs rehearse on Thursday evenings. The adult choir regularly sings at Sunday Morning services while the youth choir sings at the evening service. This year of 1953 a group of the young girls entered the Training Union Hymn Festival. They qualified at the Associational and District meetings and went on to become state winners at Caswell Assembly on July fourth. In addition to the two choirs there is a junior song service at the evening preaching service, at which time the smaller children sing choruses. MOUNT CARMEL BUILDING PROGRAM After the church was moved to its present location in 1873 there was a period of thirty-one years in which no substantial changes were made in the building. That building can be recognized as the rectangular center section of today's building. There have been three additions to the original building. The first of these came in 1904, according to the best record. It con-sisted of adding a front or entrance section on the side next to the road. This section is still used as the front entrance to the building. This is the section with the steeple on it. The old minutes tell us that the cost was $450.00, which sum the church voted to borrow and repay as it could. Increased attendance at Sunday School and the inconvenience of teaching in the auditorium in curtained rooms led the church to undertake the build-ing of Sunday School rooms. The addition at the back of the auditorium gave four small rooms on the ground floor and four of the same size on the second floor. This addition was started in December of 1930 and was completed in 1931. As soon as this addition was in use some farsighted members saw the possibility of two other rooms, one on each side of the front entrance. The building of these rooms was slow and discouraging but was finally finished in the Spring of 1942. This left only one class meeting in the auditorium. The next step in Mount Carmel's building program came as the result of a specific need, namely, a full-time pastor living on the field. The Parsonage was built during the pastorate of Rev. Thomas Bland. Although Brother Bland was pastor at the time of completion of the parsonage in 1948, he was not married at the time and planned to leave to enter the seminary at Louisville the following year. For this reason, it was the next pastor, W. R. Wagoner, who was the first to live in the parsonage. [17] Never had the progress of the church seemed so evident as now, with the pastor living in the community. The cost of the pastors home was about $12,500.00, a large part of which was borrowed. Since that time the third Sunday of each month in Sunday School has been parsonage debt day. According to the church budget this debt is due to be paid in full this church year. In the meantime the Sunday School had grown to such proportions that more room was needed. Thus it was that the idea of a Cabin came about. The cement block Cabin was paid for only as the money came to hand for materials, and most of the labor was supplied by the people themselves. As soon as the sub-flooring was in and the roof on the building was put to use. A whole junior department was organized, consisting of all classes up through junior age, to meet in the Cabin with Mrs. Wagoner as the first superintendent. Since 1951 Mrs. Martin Sparrow has been superintendent of this important segment of the Sunday School. Equipment for a kitchen in the Cabin has been given by individuals, classes and other groups. The local Home Demonstration Club has fur-nished money for the ceiling and flooring of the Cabin within the past year. To give some idea of the increase in property value through the years, compare the value of the property in 1904 with that of today. In 1904 the total value was $1000.00. Today the evaluation is about $30,000.00. MOUNT CARMEL'S FULL-TIME CHRISTIAN WORKERS In the early years of its history Mount Carmel was blessed with ministerial sons. Most of these have been mentioned already in this history. Abner Clopton was ordained in 1818. Iverson L. Brooks was licensed to preach in 1819. Thomas Weaver was ordained in 1826. W. H. Merritt was ordained in May, 1827. Dr. William Hooper was baptized into the fellowship of the church from the Episcopal denomination. He was already a clergyman and we have no record of further ordination but Mount Carmel can consider him as one of her ministerial sons. From 1832, when Hooper was received into the church, until 1911, we have no record of either a son or daughter of the church who went into full-time Christian work. There may well have been some but the records have not come to us. The next person on the list is Rupert Merritt, who was born in the Mount Carmel community on March 14, 1891. Rupert's mother, Mrs. Lizzie, still attends church and Sunday School regularly here at Mount Carmel. Rupert was educated at Merritt's Schoolhouse, Chapel Hill High School, Elon and Wake Forest 'Colleges, University of North Carolina, and Southern Baptist Seminary at Louisville, Ky. Converted at the age of thirteen, Rupert early felt the pull of Christian service. He served Mount Carmel as Sunday School Superintendent and Deacon before answering the call to preach. This young man was licensed to preach on September 26, 1911. His first pastorate was Lizzie Mill Baptist Mission in Selma. As soon as he was called to this field of service Mount Carmel ordained him on Sep-tember 16, 1917. Since that time Rupert has served the following churches: (1) The Sandy Bottom field near Kinston composed of four churches, (2) the Dobson field, also composed of four churches, (3) Buffalo, Kentucky, (4) Munfordville and other part-time churches in Kentucky, (5) Hiseville, Kentucky, (6) the South Fork Church, where Abraham Lincoln's father attended many years ago, (7) Mount Eden, Kentucky, (8) Mount Pleasant, near Concord, N. C, and (8) Powell Tabernacle in Fayetteville. [18] At present Brother Rupert is doing a fine job with the last mentioned church. After forty-two years in the ministry he is still being greatly used by the Lord. During his ministry many young people have gone out to serve the Lord in a full-time capacity. He has had a varied and interest-ing life of paying chui'ch debts, building churches and parsonages, and serving as Temperance leader. We wish for this Son of the old church many more years of successful ministry. Joseph Fowler is another Mount Carmel preacher who promises to be used of the Lord wherever he goes. He was always a quiet, thoughtful boy who loved his church and tried to serve anywhere he was needed. He served his church in many capacities including that of Training Union Director and Deacon. He saw over-seas service in World War II, coming at the end of the war to enter the University of North Carolina and graduate. After college graduation Joseph entered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1952 he received his B.D. degree from the seminary and will soon complete work on the Th.M. Degree. After his first year there he married Miss Pearl York, a Bible teacher in the public schools. This consecrated couple have a great future in the Lord's work. The most recent entry from Mount Carmel into actual full-time Christian work is Vernon Sparrow. Vernon served the church long and faithfully before deciding to go into full-time service. He served as Deacon, Sunday School teacher and was for some years the Training Union Director. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina. In the Fall of 1951 the call came so strong and in such a definite way that Vernon sold his business, took his wife and four fine children, and moved to Winston-Salem where he has since been serving as Director of Education and Recreation at the North Winston Baptist Church. At present another of our young people, Miss Carolyn Fowler, is in school at Mars Hill College preparing for a life of Christian Service. During the Summer months of this year of 1953 Carolyn is serving as Assistant Asso-ciational Missionary in charge of Vacation Bible School Work. Carolyn served well as Training Union Director before entering upon her collegiate studies. There are other young people in our community who have either answered or are contemplating the call to Christian service. We pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth a host of others from Mount Carmel to bless the world. CONCLUSION: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE We would not close this history simply by looking at the past and present. We must look tc the future. The backward glance is a profitable thing if it is used as a means to future growth and service. We at Mount Carmel do not glory simply in the fact that the old church has somehow weathered the storms for one hundred and fifty years. Rather, we delight to see how the fathers of our church examined their own mistakes and then went on to overcome them. The story of Mount Carmel has been one of progress. If we should somehow feel that with this sesquicentennial year Mount Carmel has reached its peak and we can take a resting spell, then the old-timers would have just reason to be ashamed of us. Time does not stand still. Neither must Mount Carmel. There is much to be done in the Master's Kingdom. We can well take as our challenge the word of the Lord to an earlier generation: "Speak to the children of Israel that they go FORWARD." (Exodus 14:15). Mount Carmel has done, is doing, and can continue to do great things in the Master's Name. [19] APPENDIX Deed for the First Site of Mount Carmel Baptist Church Mathew McCauley to The trustees of the Baptist Society: This indenture made this 14th day of May in the year of Our Lord One Thousand eight hundred and fourteen between Mathew McCauley of the County of Orange and the state of North Carolina of the one part; and Abner W. Clopton, William Henry Merritt and Thomas Weaver, all of County and State aforesaid, acting as trustees of and for the Baptist Society in said County of the other part, witnesseth that for and in consideration of the sum of one dollar to the said Mathew in hand paid at or before the sealing and delivery of these present, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, he the said Mathew hath granted, bargained and sold and by these present doth give, grant, bargain and sell claim, release, convey and confirm unto the said Abner W. Clopton, William H. Merritt and Thomas Weaver as trustees as aforesaid and their proper successors for the use and behoff of the said Baptist Society (and for the purpose of building a church thereon) a certain piece of land situate lying and being in the County and State aforesaid on the South side of Morgan's Creek on the great road leading from Hillsborough to Fayette-ville and bounded as follows (viz.) Beginning on a white oak saplin on the east side of said Road at the 14 mile post thence along the same south 6% degrees West—3 chains and 30 links to a stake thence South 83% degrees east 3 chains and five links to a stake thence North 83% degrees West to the Beginning containing by estimation one acre be the same more or less; and all the estate right, title, interest use, trust, property, claim and demand whatsoever of him the said Mathew of in and to the said Land and premises. And the said Mathew doth also hereby grant to the said Abner, William H., and Thomas as aforesaid the free and untroled use and privilege of such spring or springs of water as may be most con-tiguous to the said land for the use and benefit of such society or con-gregation of people as may from time to time assemble at said place for the puropse of worship etc. without any bar or hindrance whatsoever. To have and to hold the aforesaid Land and premises herby granted with the appurtenances unto the said Abner, William, and Thomas and their successors forever for the sole and exclusive use of the said Baptist Church as aforesaid to be called and known by the name of Christ's Church at Mount Carmel: And the said Mathew doth covenant and agree that he will the right, title and claim of the said one acre of land as above de-scribed and the appurtenances from the claim or claims of all and every other person or persons to the said Abner, Wm. & Thomas and their successors warrent and forever, defend by these Present — In testimony whereof he the said Mathew hath herunto set his hand and affixed his seal the day and date first above written. Signed Sealed and delivered In the presentee of John Pendergrass Mathew McCauley Edw'd Robson Orange County May Term 1814 The Execution of this Deed was duly proved in open Court by the Oath of John Pendergrass a subscribing witness thereto and ordered the Reg-istem. Test. J. Taylor CC [20] Book 14 p. 654-655. The Mathew McCauley who gave this deed to Mount Carmel Church is an ancestor of Miss Pearl Cole, a resident in the Smith Level community who works in Rose's Store in Chapel Hill. The land on which the old church stood is now owned by Dwight Ray, who is a partner in the Lloyd-Ray Hardware Co. at Carrboro. The outline of the old foundation rocks can still be seen there. There is an oak tree at the spot, but it is doubtful that it is the sapling mentioned in the deed. It stands on the left side of the old road bed coming up from Morgan's Creek. This road is one which was travelled by Cornwallis. Down at the foot of the hill is the spring mentioned in the deed. This is probably the only feature which has not undergone change in the years since Mount Carmel was located at this site. OLDEST EXTANT ROLL OF MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH This is the first roll of the church given in the church records. It dates back as far as 1888, perhaps farther. Additions were made in later years as new members were admitted. Since this was the way in which the roll was kept, the number of people listed cannot be taken as the number of members in any one year of the church's history. Jackson Andrewse Sarah Andrewse C. L. Andrewse M. A. Blackwood M. C. Blackwood M. S. Blackwood M. L. Blackwood T. D. Blackwood J. L. Blackwood Nancy Blackwood A. L. Blackwood E. C. Burgess M. H. Bennett S. J. Blackwood E. D. Blackwood W. F. Booth W. E. Blackwood Allie Burgess I. F. Baily L. H. Baily Nelie Baily Gannie Baily Bessie Blackwood John F. Bennett D. M. Bailey Mertle Bailey Elcie Boothe Hattie Bennett W. S. Blackwood Robert Blackwood M. L. Blackwood (Lilly) Minnie Blackwood Sam Blackwood John A. Blackwood H. C. Blackwood A. S. Blackwood A. B. Bennett Nancy Cheek Laura Canady M. J. Cheek Susan Cheek W. J. A. Cheek J. W. Cheek J. B. Cheek R. D. Cheek Fletcher Critendon Frances Critendon James Merritt Cheek E. A. Clements W. G. Clements Anna Clements Charley Cole B. J. Cole James Cole Pinckney Cole Seaton Cole Roda Cole Nelle Cole Anner Cole Mary D. Cheek L. 0. Cheek Clauda J. Cheek Abbie Crittendon Ella Cheek Hattie Cole M. S. Cole Jocie Cheek Mittie Cole Walter Cheek Bettie Cole R. J. Crittendon Ida Cheek J. Marvin Cheek Melvin Cheek R. H. Cheek J. R. Council Eugenia Council McQuary Council W. C. Carson Ella Carson Elizabeth Dodd Mittie Daniel Algernon Daniel F. B. Daniel N. L. Daniel A. L. Davis H. B. Daniel A. F. Duke A. L. Duke J. M. Duke E. H. Goodwin M. J. Goodwin Jane Gooch J. W. Gore Madge C. Gore A. Hunter Virginia Hunter M. E. Henderson Catie Holden Rutha Hester A. S. Harward E. J. Horton J. P. Harward T. R. Harward W. J. Harward £21] OLDEST EXTANT ROLL OF MT. CARMEL CHURCH (Continued) Mattie Harward Annie Hutchins Maria Johnson Mary Johnson Arthur Johnson Olie Jones Samual Jones Lloyd Johnson P. J. Johnson Martha King G. W. Kinbro Caroline Lynsey Elizabeth Lloyd Louzania Lloyd Mary Laycock Florances Lloyd M. L. Laycock Tommie Lloyd E. D. Laycock E. G. Marshall Anna Marshall M. B. Merritt M. H. Merritt E. S. Merritt L. A. Merritt Mary B. Merritt C. C. Merritt Elizabeth Merritt W. H. Merritt Jr. I. F. Meatcham Lelian Morgan William Mitchell Alice Merritt Cle Merritt W. C. Merritt W. B. Merritt Jas. C. Martin Mintie Merritt Minnie Morgan Meter Merritt Esther Mabel Merritt N. F. Merritt Mary Morgan Luby Morgan Jack Myrick H. Carl Merritt J. C. Merritt Annie Merritt R. P. Merritt J. H. Merritt E. J. Merritt Elizabeth Neville Joseph Nevill Mary C. Pendergrass Mary Pendergrass Daniel Pendergrass Nathaniel Pendergrass Jennie Petty James Purefoy Maggie Purefoy J. M. Pendergrass Belle Pendergrass R. A. Pendergrass Melvin Pendergrass J. E. Riggsbee Ninie M. Riggsbee J. M. Riggsbee M. E. Riggsbee N. E. Riggsbee J. W. Riggsbee Lizar Riggsbee H. Riggsbee Callie D. Riggsbee T. E. Riggsbee J. J. Riggsbee J. S. Riggsbee P. E. Riggsbee J. C. Riggsbee Lucy Riggsbee Lougana Riggsbee Ida Riggsbee T. T. Riggsbee Adda Riggsbee I. J. Riggsbee R. O. Riggsbee Frank Rigggsbee Eva Riggsbee M. E. Riggsbee Jessie Riggsbee Bessie D. Riggsbee Milton Riggsbee Earnest Riggsbee Lillie Riggsbee Veter Riggsbee C. W. Riggsbee M. J. Riggsbee W. M. Riggsbee J. Edward Riggsbee Lilla Riggsbee Hudson Sparrow Pup Sparrow Caroline Sparrow E. L. Sparrow H. F. Stone M. Z. Sparrow T. E. Sparrow Eva Sparrow M. I. Sparrow Lizzie Sparrow Lodie Sparrow Junius Sparrow Malory Sparrow Bertha Sparrow Wescot Sparrow Comma Sparrow Lydia Sparrow Agnes Sparrow Nannie Sparrow Eliza Sparrow S. C. Sparrow Laura Whitaker Nora Whitaker W. H. Williams Francis Williams J. M. Wombel Mary Wombel Savana Wombel Josephine Williams Fred H. Williams Dora Williams Enna Womble J. J. Williams [22] Oldest Recorded Minutes of Mount Carmel Baptist Church 1888 Mt. Carmel Baptist Church Orange County, N. C. Rev. W. S. Olive, Pastor. Salary—$135.00 January Saturday before the 4 Lord's day in January. After services by the Postor, Rev. W. S. Olive, the church convened for conferances. The roll was called and absentees noted. The proceedings of last conferances were read and approved. Committee called on to report. The Committee to see Bro. Olive reported that Bro. Olive would preach for this church this year 1888. The Church ordered the treasurer to pay over to Bro. Olive what money he had on hand. Letter of dismission was granted to Sister Bettie Williams & N. A. Wombel. The conferance adjourned. Rev. W. S. Olive Morderator W. G. C. cc The original spelling is retained in both the roll and the minutes in the interest of authenticity. PASTORS OF MOUNT CARMEL BAPTIST CHURCH Robert T. Daniel N C. A. Upchurch 1898 William P. Worrell ) W. D. Bostic 1900 Patrick W. Dowd J J. C. Hocutt 1901-03 William Hooper f R. McNabb v George W. Purefoy 1 Enoch Crutchfield 1 > 1803-1858 A. J. R. C. C. E. Hamby Hocutt Clark 1904-05 1906-07 1908-09 B. J. Hackney O. B. Mitchell 1910-15 M. D. Andrews / O. L. Riggs 1916-17 Oren Churchill 1865-68 H. G. Dorsett 1919-20 James P. Mason 1869 J. B. Davis 1921-22 W. R. Gualtney 1871-72 J. F. McDuffie 1923-26 W. T. Farrow 1873 S. A. Wilkinson 1926-27 R. A. Patterson 1874 c. H. Henderson 1928-29 G. P. Moore 1874-79 A. C. Hamby 1930-35 C. C. Newton 1880-84 F. D. Hemphill 1936-38 D. D. Edwards 1886 J. C. Shore 1939 W. S. Olive 1887-88 W. B. Cone 1940 J. W. Watson 1888-89 M. A,, Pegram 1941-43 W. A. Smith 1890-92 C. E. Byrd 1944-46 A. C. Cree 1893-94 T. A. Bland 1947-48 W. A. Smith 1895-96 W., R. Wagoner 1948-51 W. H. Edwards 1897 H. A. Morgan 1951- [23] BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Purefoy, George W., "A History of the Sandy Creek Baptist Associa-tion from its Organization in A.D. 1758, to A.D. 1858." 2. Johnson, "Ante-Bellum North Carolina." 3. Knight, "History of Education." 4. "The Hillsborough Recorder." 5. Minutes of the Sandy Creek Baptist Association. 6. Minutes of the Mount Zion Baptist Association. 7. Hutchinson, R. L., "History of Mount Carmel Church," as printed in the Minutes of Mount Zion Baptist Association for 1952. 8. Minutes of church conferences of Mount Carmel Church. .c. [24] STATE LIBRARY OF NORTH CAROLINA 3 3091 00636 9516 DATE DUE GAYLORD PRINTED INI US. A
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Title | History of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, RFD No. 3, Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Sesquicentennial year, 1803-1953 |
Creator | Sparrow, L. W., Mrs. |
Date | 1953 |
Subjects |
Mount Carmel Baptist Church (Chapel Hill, N.C.)--History North Caroliniana Church buildings--North Carolina--Chapel Hill--History Baptists--North Carolina--Chapel Hill--History Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Church history |
Place |
Chapel Hill, Orange County, North Carolina, United States |
Time Period |
(1789-1820) North Carolina's early statehood (1820-1860) Antebellum (1860-1876) Civil War and Reconstruction (1876-1900) Gilded Age (1900-1929) North Carolina's industrial revolution and World War One (1929-1945) Depression and World War Two (1945-1989) Post War/Cold War period |
Description | Includes bibliographical references (p. 24). |
Publisher | [Chapel Hill, N.C. : The Church, 1953?] |
Rights | Religion in North Carolina see http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ref/collection/p249901coll37/id/23786 |
Physical Characteristics | 24 p. ; 22 cm. |
Collection |
General Collection. State Library of North Carolina |
Type | text |
Language | English |
Format | Histories |
Digital Characteristics-A | 1420 KB; 30 p. |
Digital Collection | General Collection |
Digital Format | application/pdf |
Audience | All |
Pres File Name-M | gen_religion_historymtcarmel1953.pdf |
Full Text | I JV Ptstorg of ffiL (Earmel papttst 0Il|urcJt| RFD No. 3 GJljapel JHtll, $artlj (Uarolhia 286.175656 S737h t&quxttntzxininl Vtnt 1803-1953 State Library of North Carolina Raleigh Presented by Wake Forest University Z.S. Reynolds Library NC Baptist Historical Collection JBQQQQOQQQQQQQQBE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/historyofmtcarmeOOmtca R: I.C. JV Ptstorg of It (Earmel lapttst Cijurclf RFD No. 3 (Etjapel Mill, ^ortt] Carolina Prepared by MRS. L. W. SPARROW 1803-1953 SESQUICENTENNIAL COMMITTEE Mrs. S. C. Hundley Mrs. A. D. Fowler S. T. Noell Junius Sparrow R. L. Blackwood, Sr. INTRODUCTION The present is of far more value than either the past or future, but it often pays to pause and look back over the road travelled, especially if this road has been long. One hundred and fifty years is a rather long road when we consider it in relation to the length of a man's life. Just why is Mount Carmel Church in existence after all these years? No doubt one reason is the firm foundation laid by our forefathers. Note in the old deed that Mount Carmel was to be called the "Church of Christ at Mount Carmel." All through these years there have been people, some-times few in number, who have kept that reason first in their hearts. Even if they did not know the words were in the deed, they loved the old Church and knew that it was Christ's Church. What were the conditions that prevailed during the years of the Church's life which have made it what it is today? Perhaps the Old Testament way of carrying out Law to the letter hindered this church as it did many others. The road uphill could be climbed only at a snail's pace because we so often stopped to discipline this or that weaker brother. As we look back over the hundred and fifty years the mistakes of any particular period do not seem so outstanding. After all, we are far from the fourteenth mile post on the old Hillsborough-Fayetteville great-road in more ways than one. Any one knows that we would have been much farther if these mistakes had not been made, but they are in the past. Let us press forward to the future, taking only those things from the past that will help us on to a successful future; a future of which God will say, "well done." Defence is needed for going so far afield as to tell of world, national, and state history in the history of Mount Carmel. With each successive year the world becomes more unified. Mount Carmel realized her re-sponsibility to her neighbor in her early days but the concept of neighbor has grown since that time to include the whole world. Why would the purchase of the Louisiana Territory affect us? The Louisiana Territory opened up new land to be settled by the residents of the seventeen states in the Union at that time. These people went west or southwest to new settlements carrying the customs and the beliefs of the old home with them. It is good that the early churches had been organized at that time because they served to spread the Gospel to the new territories even without special missionary effort. BACKGROUND CONDITIONS IN THE EARLY YEARS OF MOUNT CARMEL World History at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century It is difficult to connect the events of world history with the early affairs of Mount Carmel, a small rural Church in piedmont North Carolina. At this time Napoleon was the center of attention as he made his famous attempt to conquer the whole of Europe for France. Switzerland had just succeeded in a revolutionary attempt, and declared herself an independent republic, while the hated George III sat on the throne in England as he became more and more mentally unbalanced. The African continent still lay in unexplored darkness during this period, and all the Oriental world, which so occupies our attention today, was truly a separate world from the Occidental. American History at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century A brief look at the United States about the time our Church was organized shows us that these were important years in determining the size and strength of the young nation which had recently won its inde-pendence. All the vast area contained in the Louisiana Purchase, which more than doubled the area of the United States, was purchased in 1803 from France. From this purchase the states of Montana, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Kansas and Louisiana were formed. Altogether, one million square miles of territory were bought for fifteen million dollars. The chief proponent of the Purchase was President Thomas Jefferson, who was elected in 1800 by the House of Representatives, since the nominees for President and Vice President received the same number of electoral votes. It was also in 1803 that Ohio was admitted to the union as a Free state; that is, no slaves were allowed in the state. The issue of slavery versus abolition was growing more bitter as the years passed, so that eventually this issue outweighed all others in the minds of the statesmen and voters of the time. In 1804 the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition crossed the North American continent and gave the United States its claim to the West Coast territory which later played such an important part in the gold rush and the great migration to the west. Four years after the forming of Mount Carmel Church Robert Fulton's boat, the "Clermont," steamed from New York to Albany in one and one half days, marking the beginning of steam-ship transportation. George Washington, the immortal soldier who gave so liberally to fight for our independence, had been dead for only four years when Mount Carmel was organized, and the first American veterans were still living in great numbers. In 1812 the United States fought a second war to prove its independence and strength. It was the War of 1812 that showed that we were a strong determined nation, well capable of settling great issues justly. Truly these were great years in the history of our country, just as they were important years for the young Mount Carmel Baptist Church, which had just been organized. North Carolina History, at the Beginning of the 19th Century North Carolina can well be proud of its rural people. They made [3] up the state for the most part in early days and have retained a prominent place in its progress to this day. In the year of 1803 each little rural settlement was a world of its own to a great extent. It is most likely that piedmont North Carolina did not have the ruffled shirts and wigs which are commonly associated with early colonial times, because this section of the state was still in the pioneer stage of development. Homespun and leather was probably the fashion of the times. The hunters and farmers probably dressed in leather shirts and breeches made to withstand the hard wear of the frontier. They could have copied the Indians in their dress, for some still lived in the region. We are told that a whole tribe, the Suscunor, moved away just one year before Mount Carmel was organized. This left the Cherokees who later moved West. The women dressed in floor length dresses, with hoops on important occasions, while the little girls dressed in somewhat the same manner as their mothers. These people lived and worked in settlements miles apart; yet with few exceptions they worked their way up to something better year after year. It is wonderful how mere handfuls of people scattered over wide areas year after year managed to improve their circumstances as they did. We have to think hard to leave public education out of our plan of life; but when Mount Carmel was begun, public education was no more than a wild dream in the minds of a few far-sighted individuals. Indeed, the very conditions of the settlements made public education as we know it today impossible. It would have been hard to locate a school so that a goodly number of children could conveniently attend. For many years what the churches had to offer as education was all that could be obtained by rural people. Many of the older, more firmly established churches had grants of land or other sources of income with which they established and maintained schools. People had to pay for other education from their own private funds. In 1825, almost a quarter of a century after the founding of Mount Carmel, the Orange County Sunday School Union petitioned the General Assembly for funds to help out in schools which were conducted by that Union. Twenty-five cents annually for each Sunday School pupil was asked. There were between eight hundred and one thousand children in such schools at the time that this petition was made. This request was turned down twice by the assembly. Some time after this boarding schools and academies came into existence, but the ordinary people still depended on the church for their education. Roads were mere trails of dust or mud, depending on the season. No doubt this made our forefathers more anxious for "meeting houses" to be as close together as communities would allow. Almost all preachers travelled on horseback with Bible and other helps, as well as a change of clothes stored in large saddle bags. The road on which Mount Carmel was located was built of boards. Plank roads stretched from one trading center to another at this time. The road on which Mount Carmel stood stretched its bumpy line from Hillsboro to Fayetteville. Over this road passed wagons hauling farm produce, slaves to be sold, and many other items not found in markets today. Droves of cattle and horses passed the little church on the hill near Morgan's Creek. Perhaps the travellers stopped to drink from that spring mentioned in the deed and commented on the wisdom of building churches and the influence for good this church had in the neighborhood. [4] The country seemed so new, so full of life and so ready to try new ideas; so ready to make of itself a great nation. We should be glad that at such a time the nation almost as a whole turned its thoughts to the true source of power. The time was ripe for such a revival as swept our entire state in 1880. These revivals first started as camp meetings. All denominations met together. Those three most often mentioned were Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian. As converts from these meetings returned home members of the same denomination would begin meeting in homes, and finally a church would be organized. The rural communities were the first to organize such churches. Thus we see Mount Carmel with a church building in the country near Chapel Hill, while the village itself had no Baptist church. Camp meetings would last two days or a week. Many attendants walked seven or eight miles with just bread in their pocket to eat, while others with a longer distance to travel might bring a picnic lunch. As congregations grew and became more united in their purposes they built permanent houses to use instead of meeting in the homes. Generally the neighbors got together at a "bee" or "building spell" and built a log church much like their own homes, many of which had no floors. Mount Carmel was probably built in this neighborly way. These churches were the chief forces for law and order in the community. As soon as the churches were built they were put in use for schools, political meetings, or other public functions. After public schools were built, the congre-gations complained about this non-religious use, and all functions other than religious were moved to the school houses. It is interesting to notice the naming of these early churches. For the most part they were named for location: Rock Spring, Bear Creek, Cane Creek were all named in this manner. Some were named for large land owners who had given the land on which the church was built. We do not know whether our church founders had a vision of the tasks and possibilities of our church, or whether the name was suggested by the rough terrain, but the name has come to mean more and more to the members as the years have passed. We hope that any moneys needed were supplied in a way pleasing to God. In 1810 it is recorded that at least one church in Orange County obtained money for needed buildings by lottery. That seemed to be a common practice for in 1830 we find it recorded that such means of raising money were sinful, and the practices referred to soon were ceased. Even horse swapping was done at churches in some of the very early days. Baptists and Methodists were the only denominations which did not require a formal education for ministers. More emphasis was placed on call and public gift of speaking than on education. In 1848 the Baptist State Convention announced that prejudices AGAINST education were about to give way. Frequently people came to church from a radius of twenty miles for all day services. People would stand outside talking until the preacher came on horseback to the meeting house. The preacher would go im-mediately to the pulpit where he would deposit his saddle-bags on the floor and begin the service as the last outsider came quietly in. Sermons usually lasted two hours. Rural preachers preached against the un-pardonable sin, while the city preachers talked about social reform, temperance movements, church doctrine, piety or humiliation. Elder Purefoy wrote that the best preachers were those who could best explain the scripture. [5] With these background facts in mind, we now turn our attention to Mount Carmel in its early beginnings. MOUNT CARMEL BAPTIST CHURCH PRIOR TO 1870 It is hard to obtain accurate information about early church work. Records were not made, or if they were made, they were not kept. Some-times they were destroyed by fire and sometimes they were lost. As late as 1816 it is recorded that some thought it a sin to number people, basing this opinion on God's displeasure at David's numbering the people of Israel, as recorded in I Chronicles 21:1-7. In his volume on Sandy Creek History Purefoy gives the following short history of Mount Carmel Church: MOUNT CARMEL Is located on Morgan's Creek, in Orange County, N. C, about two miles southwest from Chapel Hill. This church was constituted in A.D. 1803, at Pritchard's meeting House, a few miles south of its present location. Of its early history but little is now known. In June, 1816, a few of the members met at Mount Carmel M.H., and organized for business. Elder R. T. Daniel was with them at this meeting. In 1817, this church was represented in the General Meeting of Correspondence for Missions. In 1818, Abner W. Clopton, of Virginia, a member of this church, who was principal of the Preparatory School at Chapel Hill, was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry by Elders George Roberts and David Newlin. In 1819, Elder Clopton tendered his resignation as clerk of the church, and James G. Hall, who was then a student at Chapel Hill, was licensed to preach the gospel. He is now a prominent minister in South Carolina. In 1823, this church organized an arm at Mount Gilead, which was organized into a church in 1824. George Oldham and Thomas D. Oldham were the first deacons after the church moved to Mount Carmel M.H. Thomas Weaver was licensed to preach by this church in May, 1818, and was ordained by Elders Thomas Freeman and Isaac Kirby, in 1826. Previous to 1826, this church belonged to the Flat River Association. Since then it has belonged to the Sandy Creek Asso-ciation. In May, 1827, William H. Merritt, at the call of the church, was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry by Elders James Ferrell and Thomas Freeman. In 1852 or '53, a large number of members were dismissed by letter, to organize a new church at Lystra M.H., by which their number was very considerably reduced. In 1854, Mount Carmel formed an arm for business at Chapel Hill, which was soon constituted into a church. Mount Carmel, though now reduced in numbers, is the mother of three flourishing churches. Dr. William Hooper was baptized into the fellowship of this church in 1832. The following ministers have served this church as pastors: R. T. Daniel, William P. Worrell, P. W. Dowd, William Hooper, R. McNabb, George W. Purefoy, Enoch Crutchfield, B. J. Hackney, and M. D. Andrews. This church has enjoyed several interesting revivals of religion. Its present number of members is thirty-five. [6] The Purefoy "History of Sandy Creek Association" gives a summary of the happenings of the churches in the Association each year. After 1827, when Mount Carmel received a letter from the Flat River Association to join the Sandy Creek Association, this church was represented a greater part of the time at the annual meetings. Some idea of the activities of the church can be obtained from this History. It is recorded that in 1805, in September, Abner Clopton, a member of Mount Carmel, preached at Arbor Meeting House at the Associational Meeting. In 1808 R. T. Daniel of Mount Carmel led in prayer at the Association. We assume that Elder Daniel was the first pastor of this church since he is the first one listed by Dr. Purefoy in the above history. As late as 1809 we find the Baptists still practicing laying on of hands following baptism, although the ritual was not a test of fellowship. At the Association of 1809 four preachers preached on Sunday, and one of these was Ralph, a colored man. Elder Robert T. Daniel preached at many of these meetings and was Moderator at many. Four years after Mount Carmel was organized we find that the expenses of the Association were still paid in pounds, shillings and pence. In 1827, the year that Mount Carmel joined the Sandy Creek Association, Elder Thomas Weaver and Grey Huckabee were the Delegates from Mount Carmel, as well as for the next year when the Meeting was held at Mount Gilead. The following year Elder William H. Merritt was a third Delegate from Mount Carmel. When the Association met at Lick's Creek, Chatham County, in 1830, a serious difficulty in Mount Carmel Church was reported. What the difficulty was is not mentioned, but a committee was appointed to effect reconciliaton. At the Associations of 1830 and 1831 William H. Merritt of Mount Carmel was Moderator and William Hooper of Mount Carmel preached the asso-ciational sermon. Many associational meetings during these years found the same delegates from Mount Carmel: Merritt, Huckabee, and Weaver. The report is recorded that Elder William H. Merritt baptized one hundred candidates at different churches in the year 1832. Elder Merritt was known as a great revivalist and was very much in favor of missions and Christian Education. He was later a large benefactor of Wake Forest College. In 1833 the introductory sermon at the association was preached by George W. Purefoy, then of the Raleigh Association, but later the great leader and Historian of the Sandy Creek Association. At this meeting Cane Creek asked Mount Carmel and other churches to send messengers to help settle a dispute about an excommunication. Mount Carmel sent Thomas Hunter. There were ten baptisms reported from Mount Carmel in 1833 and the total membership was sixty. About this time there was much agitation over whether individual churches should be missionary or not. Mount Carmel was always on the side of missions. Elder Robert T. Daniel, first pastor, was called the "Prince of Missions." In 1821 he was employed by the North Carolina Baptist Missionary Society at $40.00 per month to organize local mis-sionary societies in various parts of the state. In 1834 there were no baptisms reported from Mount Carmel and the membership stood at forty-two, compared with the sixty in the previous year. The associational sermon in 1835 was preached by William H. Merritt at the Emmaus Meeting House in Chatham County. Of the nine ordained ministers in the Sandy Creek Association in 1835, three of them were [7] members of Mount Carmel: W. H. Merritt, William Hooper and Thomas Weaver. When the Association met at Mount Gilead in 1936, a committee was appointed to inquire into the reason for the low state of religion in the churches. At this meeting William H. Merritt gave $100.00 along with other donations to be used by the Baptist State Convention for Judson's trans-lation of the Bible in Burmese. This year Mount Carmel reported forty-four members with no baptisms. The death of Luther Rice, a companion missionary of Adoniram Judson, was reported and the resulting preambles and resolutions are good reading because they show so plainly the deep feelings for missions. A new delegate from Mount Carmel in the year 1838 is recorded. He was William Barbee, who went along with Merritt and Weaver. At no time are the women mentioned in the proceedings. , In the 1839 minutes Elder George W. Purefoy wrote a circular letter on the importance of education among ministers of the gospel. Mount Carmel this year reported twenty-three baptisms and sixty members. This is the best report coming from this church. At the 1843 association meeting at Antioch, Mount Carmel sent up a question: "To what extent shall we go in receiving worldly testimony in our churches?" The answer was: "When the church deems it necessary to take testimony from the world, hear it, and give it the weight to which it is entitled." No baptisms were reported from Mount Carmel this year and the Membership was one hundred and seven. In 1847 Alfred Boothe was a delegate from Mount Carmel. In 1848 James M. Cheek was a delegate. In 1850 Mount Carmel reported one hundred and five members but ne baptisms. Prior to this meeting Elder William H. Merritt had died and a committee was appointed to prepare an obituary. At the 1853 Meeting Lystra Church reported for the first time. She reported eighty-four members. No doubt many of these came from Mount Carmel's roll, since she is Lystra's mother church. Mount Carmel was represented by letter this year and reported seventy members. The year 1854 heard Chapel Hill Baptist Church asking for a seat in the Association. This new church had many former Mount Carmel members for it too was a daughter church of Mount Carmel. This year James P. Mason was recommended by the church at Chapel Hill for examination with the view of ordination for the ministry. Elder Purefoy and others were appointed to attend to that duty at Mason's convenience. In 1857 Mount Carmel was represented at the Association by James Edwards and S. T. Lindsey. Perhaps this delegate, Edwards, was a member of the Edwards family for whom the range of hills in front of the present church is named. In 1858 George W. Purefoy preached the Centennial Sermon for the Sandy Creek Association before a great crowd. This sermon was later enlarged into the "History of Sandy Creek Baptist Association." Mount Carmel reported twc baptisms and thirty-five members this year. Edwards and Lindsey were again the delegates. The remainder of this section contains information gleaned from the minutes of the Sandy Creek Association from 1859 through 1869, which are kept in the Wake Forest College Library. The year 1859 finds Mount Carmel reporting forty-four members with one member excommunicated. S. T. Lindsey was the church clerk. He, along with J. M. Cheek and R. Daniel were the delegates to the Association for that year. [8] George W. Purefoy was the Moderator of the Sandy Creek Association in 1860. Clerk Lindsey reported only forty members for that year. At the Association P. H. McDade of Chapel Hill reported that Mount Carmel had no Sabbath School and that there was a scarcity of children in the community and some backwardness on the part of the church in taking hold of and pushing forward such an enterprise. Still further decline was recorded for the church the next year. Only thirty-seven members were reported. Cheek, Edwards and R. Daniel were the delegates. The presence of the same delegates year after year indicates a lack of leaders in the church. Still further decline is indicated in 1862. No delegates were present and the membership remaind at thirty-seven. The next year there was no report at all. The Civil War was taking its toll. In 1864 again there was no report and no delegates. From 1859 to 1864 there are no pastors listed. It is good to see that in 1865, just after the war ended, Mount Carmel sent back its old delegates, Cheek, Daniel and Lindsey. Lindsey, still clerk, reported fifty-eight members and the Reverend 0. Churchill as pastor. The next year saw still more progress. Eighty-two members were reported by the new clerk, J. S. Tilley. Tilley, R. Daniel and 0. Churchill were delegates to the Association. The year 1867 was a red-letter year for Mount Carmel. A Sabbath School was reported with thirty scholars and four teachers. The school closed during the winter but it still marked a good beginning. Isaiah Cole was the superintendent, assisted by W. H. Lloyd. Oren Churchill was still Pastor and Mr. Daniel had two new delegates. Hudson Sparrow and W. H. Lloyd, to accompany him to the Association. However, there was a loss of seven members. An addition of two members is reported the following year. Oren Churchill is still pastor while R. M. and A. Daniel and D. S. Pendergrass were delegates to the Association. J. S. Tilley was still clerk. The report of 1869 is not so good. There was no Sabbath School report. Membership was four short of the year before. The pastor this year was James P. Mason. This year of 1869 concluded the stay of Mount Carmel Church in the Sandy Creek Association. Before leaving this early period in Mount Carmel History, another word is in order concerning those two spiritual giants about whom much has already been said, William Merritt and George W. Purefoy. The burial place for both Purefoy and Merritt is on a high knoll southwest of Morgan's Creek bridge on Highway 15-501. This is the family burial ground for the old Purefoy family. George W. Purefoy married Lucy Merritt, daughter of W. H. Merritt. The two, Purefoy and Merritt, made a fine family team for the great religious work they did together. Many of the farms around Mount Carmel were bought from the Purefoy descendants. They were fine neighborhood builders. When the old South's way was broken by the Civil War these people sold their lands under terms agreeable to purchaser, and purchaser and seller became lasting friends. We find the descendants of Merritt and Purefoy still filling many places of community and church service. The lives of these great men live on. Mount Carmel Church owes her debt to George W. Purefoy for donating the tract of land on which the present building now stands. But much more does she owe to both these men and the other great leaders for the spiritual heritage she has from them. [9] MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH SINCE 1870 In the year 1870 Mount Carmel received a letter from Sandy Creek Association in order to join other churches in forming the new Mount Zion Association. Ths new group was composed of churches in Alamance, Orange, Chatham, Durham and possibly some other counties. The minutes record that one of the names suggested for the new Association was NEW HOPE, after the Creek of the same name. However, one Brother objected on the grounds that the Association might prove to be as slugggish as the creek. This year of 1870 found Mount Carmel with forty-nine mem-bers and no pastor is listed. George W. Purefoy was elected the Moderator of Mount Zion in 1870 and also in 1871. In 1871 and 1872 the church membership dropped to 47. W. R. Gualtney was pastor. The year 1873 saw another epochal step in the church's history. This was the moving of the church from the original sight deeded by Mathew McCauley to the present sight on the south border of Orange County. There is no record of the exact reason why Mount Carmel was moved several miles south of its first location. Many old-timers think the Baptist feelings ran so high that the idea of Merritt's Chapel Methodist Church gaining membership in what could be Baptist grounds just could not be ignored. Be that as it may, other factors could have influenced the move. Chapel Hill now had a Baptist Church to take care of many people who were formerly Mount Carmel members. P. H. McDade's statement that there was a scarcity of children may have influenced the movement. Also, many of the names on the records at this time were residents of the present Mount Carmel community. Certainly a member living at the Rich place, as did Hudson Sparrow, would welcome his church nearer home. The Merritts and Purefoys also lived nearer the present location. In fact, Elder Purefoy gave the land for the present location. Interest at the old church seemed about dead at times, as is recorded in Purefoy's History. It may be that the church was moved in an effort to preserve the last spark of life it retained. It is told by word of mouth that in the year 1873, after the crops were laid by, there was a "working." The old church was torn down and hauled by wagons to the present location, where it was rebuilt. The fine old hand-planed boards were placed there as they are today in the center section of the building. Probably quite a few members were in-convenienced by the move, for in the early minutes for the succeeding years we find the Womble family (W. N., Savannah, and Sims) asking for letters. We have only to look at the record of growth in the church in the following years to be assured that the move was a healthy one. The very year of the move the membership jumped from forty-seven to seventy, a gain of roughly fifty per cent. By 1876 there were one hundred and sixteen members. For a period of nearly thirty years this number was not exceeded. In fact, the church membership varied between seventy-seven and one hundred and fifteen until 1904 when it rose to one hundred and thirty one. The reason for the fluctuation in numbers was due largely to the practice of excluding members and then restoring them to church fellowship when they conformed to church requirements. The best sources for any church history are the minutes of the Church conferences or business meetings. Unfortunately, there are no such records of Mount Carmel prior to 1888. A copy of the oldest set of minutes is contained in the appendix to this history. It was in the Fall [10] of 1888 that the Mount Zion Association met wth Mount Carmel. Rev. W. S. Olive was pastor at the time and there were ninety-seven members. At the December business meeting of 1889 it was decided to give the first two months' collections to Foreign Missions. This collecting was to be done by Brother C. L. Andrews and Sister Susan Cheek. In January of 1890 the church decided to withdraw fellowship from all able-bodied men who did not pay their part of the pastor's salary. For some reason, the former pastor, Rev. W. S. Olive, was to be notified of this act. At the February meeting of the church Brother A. Riggsbee and Sister Lela Merritt were appointed to collect for the next two months for home missions. The March conference of this year granted letters to Sisters Savannah Bland and E. S. Upchurch. Delegates to the Sunday School Convention were W. J. A. Cheek, J. M. Womble, and J. B. Cheek. In June of this year letters of dismissal were granted to Sister S. N. Cheek and Brother H. Y. Stone. August saw a number of committees appointed. W. G. Clements headed a committee to secure funds for the Baptist Orphanage. November of 1890 was the month for the election of a pastor. Rev. J. W. Watson was called for another year at a salary of $100.00 The church decided to pay the pastor each quarter. In this year a lengthy tribute of respect was recorded in the records for Sister Sarah Andrews, lately deceased. In September of 1894 the church had a committee to collect the balance due on the salary of Rev. J. W. Watson who left the church in 1892. Rev. A. C. Cree agreed in November of 1894 to serve the church for "what the committee can raise." These must have been hard years for Mount Carmel, but even in these times she was honest in trying to pay all her debts. We find plans were made in the January conference of 1895 to finish paying the back dues to Rev. W. A. Smith. Brother Cree kept these debts before the people. In May of this year the church accepted funds obtained from an entertainment at Merritt's School House. These funds were to be used to cover the church. In August, 1895, a motion was made to extend the roof of the church to correspond to the boxing. September found the church pledging money to help pay for shingles. One dollar was the highest amount paid. "Friday after next" was the date set for covering the church. During these years preceding 1900 the post office for those in the Mount Carmel community was Rialto. This strange sounding name is now Farrington, according to report. The address of community people was changed to Chapel Hill in 1903 or 1904. We mention only a few more facts in this section to show some of the trends in Church life. A much fuller account of the later years of the church's history will be found in the next section. In all of the church's conferences the roll of members was called and absentees noted. The roll was divided into a male roll and a female roll. At the April, 1914, meeting it was decided that the female roll would be called quarterly henceforth. A check of the minutes for several years reveals that more and more the roll call was omitted, until eventually it died out. On the Saturday before the second Sunday in March, 1917, the church voted that it was wrong for church members to dance and all who were guilty would be dealt with by the church. On the third Sunday in March, 1926, the church decided to do away with Saturday meeting and have meeting first and third Sundays. The Saturday meetings were restored under later pastors but this was the [11] beginning of the end for the Saturday meeting. It was also the beginning of a fuller program of church services. As the membership and the finan-cial ability of the people grew the need for full time services was seen. The first full time pastor was Rev. C. E. Bryd in 1945. The salary paid was $1200.00. Instead of the Saturday meeting or even the Sunday church conference, the church now convenes in business session on the Wednesday night fol-lowing the first Sunday in each month. The church now has a full-time program of work including: A pastor on the field, Preaching service twice on Sunday, Wednesday night services, rehearsal of adult and youth choirs on Thursday night, and occasional social meetings in the Cabin. Most of the other phases of church life are covered in the section to follow. However, it might be well to mention the present general church officers. They are: Clerk, L. W. Sparrow; Treasurer, Mrs. E. G. Merritt; Librarian, Nat Sparrow; Chorister, Billy B. Sparrow; and Pianist, Mrs. E. G. Merritt. The trustees of the Church are: June A. Sparrow, P. E. Johnson, and A. D. Fowler. The deacons are: A. G. White, chairman, L. W. Sparrow, Martin Sparrow, E. T. Dollar, S. T. Noell, W. L. Carson, Sr., J. E. Pendergraft, J. C. Carter, Dwight Pendergraft, Odell Blackwood, and J. H. Merritt. INTERESTING PHASES OF MOUNT CARMEL LIFE Mount Carmel and the University of North Carolina Although at present there seems to be little connection between our church and the University of North Carolina, in the past the University has had more influence on our affairs than we realize. For one thing, the University and the church are about the same age. The University was only eight years old when the church was organized. Since so many leadex's of early years came from the University it might have been a force in getting the church organized. At the time of the church's organization there was no Baptist church at Chapel Hill. The distance to the nearest Baptist Church was prohibitive to student attend-ance, so there was definite need for a Baptist church closer by. The first site of Mount Carmel was within easy walking distance of the campus and the South Building bell could be plainly heard at the church. Abner W. Clopton, principal of a preparatory school in Chapel Hill, while not a member of the University faculty, was ordained to the work of the Gospel ministry at Mount Carmel. He served also as clerk of the old church and when he resigned James Hall, a University student, became clerk. In 1819 Iverson L. Brooks, a student, was licensed to preach the gospel by Mount Carmel. Dr. William Hooper, an Episcopal clergyman of Chapel Hill, was baptized into the fellowship of Mount Carmel in 1832. He served as Pro-fessor of ancient languages, rhetoric and logic at the University. He co-authored a report on education to the Baptist State Convention which resulted in the founding of Wake Forest College in 1834. He later became second President of Wake Forest College. He was a grandson of the William Hooper who signed the Declaration of Independence. He is buried on the University campus beside his mother and stepfather, Dr. Caldwell, former president of the University. We cannot forget the Y.M.C.A. boys who walked to Mount Carmel in former days to teach Sunday School when our leaders were few. They [12] came to the University with an earnest desire for education, and with a willingness to suffer hardship in order to get it. Among these students were 'Cooper, Walker, McKnight, Jones, Auld and Vogler, along with others whose names are forgotten, but whose efforts are still remembered. Perhaps they still remember the old church and the dinners to which they were often invited after services. Professor Gore of the Physics department was a leading member of our church for many years. We find him attending Union meetings and associational meetings as a delegate from our church. With the founding of the Baptist Church in Chapel Hill student participation in Mount Carmel affairs decreased. The efforts which these students made will be appreciated as long as they are remembered. Mount Carmel and Sunday School Work The first report of a Sunday School at Mount Carmel was made in 1867. It was then called a Sabbath School. The Superintendent was Isaiah Cole. The school closed for the winter months. There were four teachers and thirty scholars. The next year a report was made was in 1871. The number enrolled was still thirty. Within six years after the church was moved the enrollment had gone up to fifty. G. P. Moore was then pastor. From 1880 to 1900 the enrollment ranged from twenty-five to seventy-five. The enrollment from 1900 to 1920 was up and down with a slow but steady progress being noted. As late as 1908, when Mr. A. Riggsbee was superintendent, the school was open only ten months in the year. In 1920 there were sixty-five enrolled. By 1930 this number had grown to one hundred and thirty-seven, by 1940 to one hundred and ninety-one. The 1950 enrollment was two hundred and eight-nine, while 1951 was the all-time high of two hundred and ninety-seven, with an average attendance of one hundred and forty-six. Last year, 1952, saw the enrollment drop down somewhat but the attendance remained at one hundred and forty-six. This year of 1953 promises to exceed last year in attendance. The Sunday School is well-graded and uses the six-point record system. There are at present nineteen classes, a Nursery, Cradle Roll, and Ex-tension department in the School. The superintendents during the past quarter century have been: C. W. Sparrow, A. E. Knowles, W. M. Pendergraft, I. F. Hardee, L. W. Sparrow, S. J. Crabtree, P. E. Johnson, J. H. Sparrow, E. T. Dollar, and A. G. White. Brother White has served as superintendent since 1940. Further plans are being made to expand the Sunday School in 1954. Mount Carmel and Training Union Work The first report of a Baptist Young People's Union at Mount Carmel was in 1921. Rev. J. B. Davis was pastor and Miss Viola Cheek was president. There were eighteen members. In 1922 this had increased to thirty-five. The next several years show an up and down situation but with gradual overall progress. By 1940 the enrollment was sixty-two. There was no Union reported in 1942-44. In 1945 the enrollment was eighty-one. Follows a steady gain until the peak year of 1951 when the enrollment was one hundred and fifty-seven and average attendance of eighty-two. The influence of Training Union is seen throughout the Church's activities. Whenever a new worker is needed to fill some place of re-sponsibility, that worker has more than likely been trained in the Baptist [13] Training Union. The Training Union at Mount Carmel is a well-graded organization with unions and leaders for all age groups. The Training Union Directors since its inception have been: Miss Viola Cheek, Miss Agnes Knowles, Miss Mamie Lee Blackwood, J. 0. Blackwood, Miss Jessie Sparrow, Billy Sparrow, Miss Eva Doris Blackwood, Joseph Fowler, Mrs. C. E. Byrd, E. T. Dollar, Vernon Sparrow, Miss Carolyn Fowler, and Martin Sparrow. MOUNT CARMEL AND MISSIONARY EMPHASIS From the earliest date Mount Carmel has been a strong missionary church. She is seen standing by her convictions in the earliest days. Churches left the Association and were refused a place because of their anti-mission sentiment, but never Mount Carmel. Mention is made of different phases of early mission work here and there throughout Purefoy's History. Always there was a missionary spirit and a way to carry on, although at times that way seems to us today very inadequate. The collecting of money by a committee was one of the ways tried. Sometimes this committee would be appointed as late as August with instructions to collect until the meeting of the Association. The need for particular causes are not usually recorded. It was a collection just for missions. The spirit of Missions increased with the beginning of Woman's Mis-sionary Union. We hear of the first Woman's Missionary Society at Mount Carmel in 1916 when Rev. O. L. Riggs was pastor. He had not been long married and he brought his beautiful young wife to help with the church work. No doubt this young woman, full of love for her Master's work, inspired the women of Mount Carmel to take that first step. The first enrollment was twenty-two. From that day there has been a steady growth in the interest of missions. Many have been the women of Mount Carmel who have been leaders in mission organizations since that early beginning in 1916. The presidents of the Woman's Missionary Union for the past thirty years have been: Mrs. C. L. Rich, Mrs. June A. Sparrow, Mrs. Charles Knowles, Mrs. P. E. Johnson, Mrs. Jesse Merritt, Mrs. Carl Sparrow, Mrs. E. T. Dollar, Mrs. E. G. Merritt, Mrs. Vernon Sparrow, and Mrs. S. C. Hundley. As could be expected from the increased interest, auxiliaries were soon organized and added to the W.M.S. The Girls' Auxiliary and the Royal Ambassador Chapter, along with the Sunbeam Band, have been active for many years. Outstanding Royal Ambassador Leaders have been: Mrs. Flora Fowler, Mrs. E. T. Dollar, and Martin Sparrow. The present leader, Martin Sparrow, is the first man to serve as R.A. Leader. The members of the Girl's Auxiliary groups have been led by these efficient helpers: Mrs. Philip Sparrow, Mrs. A. D. Fowler, Mrs. Leonard Sparrow, and Mrs. William Kilpatrick. The young boys and girls get started in missionary training in the Sunbeam Band. Among the leaders of this Band have been: Mrs. W. L. Carson, Sr., Mrs. Edgar Stone, Mrs. James Fletcher, and Mrs. John Williams. The men were without a mission organization until the Brotherhood Chapter was organized in 1949, while Mr. Wagoner was pastor, with nineteen members. Though the idea of missions is primary in the Brother-hood, this is a men's organization with the purpose of undergirding the total program of the local church. S. T. Noell has been the president of the Brotherhood since its inception. [14] A section on Missions would be incomplete without a look at some of the objects of missionary zeal. As early as 1890 the church gave its first two months collections to Foreign Missions. The next two months collections went for Home Missions. This early interest has continued through the years. The Baptist Orphanage has long had a big place in the Church's heart. In days past the whole Sunday School has visited the Mills Home at Thomasville. For years also the Sunday School offering on each first Sunday has gone to the Orphanage. For the past few years Mount 'Carmel has taken a special interest in the Chowan Cottage of boys. Each Christ-mas gifts are sent to this group and each Spring these boys and their leaders come to Mount Carmel for a week-end visit. Several of the youngsters usually spend their Christmas holidays with Mount Carmel families. Many homes have opened to welcome these boys as one of the family, even for as long as their two-week summer vacation. None have shown more genuine hospitality than the Leonard Sparrow family, who, in a recent year had vacationing boys from Mills Home in their home for a full month. Leonard never seemed happier than when these children from the Orphanage came to visit. The Baptist Hospital has long been a recipient of Mount Carmel gifts. A few years ago when North Carolina Baptists were asked to raise a large amount for a new south wing, each church in the state was asked to give a sizeable amount to this cause. Mount Carmel gladly came through and paid in full the amount requested. Another feeling of satisfaction comes to Mount Carmel over its response to the call of North Carolina Baptists for money to help in moving Wake Forest to Winston-Salem. Mount Carmel accepted a goal of $1200.00 to be paid within five years. In September of 1952 the five years was up and the pledge was paid in full. With the advent of the Baptist Home for the Aging, "Resthaven," this church placed this new cause in her budget and on the hearts of her people. Associational Missions is another cause in which Mount Carmel has her part. From the first she has seen the need of a paid worker in the Association and this year is paying $250.00 to support this cause. There are other mission objects to which the church gives individually. However, through the years she has given liberally to many objects through the Co-operative Program of our Baptist Convention. Beginning in 1926 with contributions of $150.00, there has not been a year since in which gifts have not gone out to the ends of the earth through the Co-operative Program. A total of over $12,000.00 has gone to worldwide missions through these channels. This year's budget calls for $1725.00 through the Co-operative Program. People of Mount Carmel have envisioned a budget with a 50-50 ratio between missions and local expenses. This ideal has not been reached in recent years, although in at least one year, 1920, the church gave well over fifty per cent of its expenditures to missions. Brother Dorsett was then pastor. The present budget calls for thirty four and one-half per cent for missions, or a total of $3,144.00. All this goes to prove that the Divine command, "Go ye into all the world. . ." is being heeded more and more as the years pass, and as a result Mount Carmel is proving herself a blessing as a witness to the uttermost parts of the earth. [15] MOUNT CARMEL STEWARDSHIP Mount Carmel membership is made up of hard working people whose income is never in the high brackets. Not since the days of W. H. Merritt and Purefoy have there been individuals with much wealth. It might be thought that such a church would not be so generous, but not so with Mount Carmel. She has through the years been conscious of her financial stewardship. In the olden days money was raised to pay the pastor and give to missions by the assessment or dues system. Usually there was an assessing committee and a collecting committee or a combination of both. That the system worked poorly can be seen by the hard times they had trying to collect the dues. Gradually we have come around to the position of a vital and challenging stewardship of possessions, which presents the needs to the people and then seeks a voluntary response. As the pastors and church leaders have stressed the obligation of every Christian to be a good steward the church gifts have grown through the years. A glance at church records will show that in 1902 the total church expenditures amounted to $121.41; in 1910, $405.19; in 1920, $727.55; in 1931, $980.69; in 1940, $1229.50; and in 1950, $10,245.67. Over the same period the pastor's salary increased from $100.00 per year for one Sat-urday and one Sunday service per month to $2860.00 for full time work. By 1953 the pastor was receiving $3600.00 yer year. One main reason for the church's sound financial status can be found in the consecrated treasurers through the years. There have been only three treasurers in the past thirty years: Mr. June A. Sparrow held this office for many years. Then Ben Tripp was treasurer, and Mrs. E. G. Merritt has now been treasurer for several years. MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH MUSIC Music, especially singing, has always been a vital part in the worship services of rural churches. This is as it should be, for no other part of the worship can be participated in by so nearly everyone. It is pleasing to the ear, it gives emphasis to the sermons, and it carries out the theme of the service in a way nothing else can do. In the earliest churches there were no hymn books, nor any musical instruments. Indeed, at the time Mount Carmel was first organized, only a few of the hymns we know today were in existence and use. The Psalms were sung as the only appropriate church music. Later came the hymns that we are familiar with as the old-time songs, and still later came the popular innovation of gospel songs. In early times, a deacon often preached in the absence of a regular pastor. This deacon would often lead in the singing, and from this custom the term "deaconize the lines" came to be applied to song leading. Most often the deacon or pastor would read or sing a line, which the congregation would repeat after him, continuing this process until the hymn was sung. Hymn books were as much a rarity as books of any kind when Mount Carmel was a young church. The possessor of one of these hymnals often copied the words and distributed them to members of the congregation so that the hymnal served as many people as possible. If there was a time when the people of Mount Carmel did not like to sing, it is not known or recorded. Entire generations have come to be known as music lovers. The Yergans, Baileys, Andrews, and the Sparrows were a few of the old families who took pleasure in making the church house ring with music. The Sparrows were so numerous and so settled [16] that we still find them well represented in the singers of Mount Carmel. Mr. Caswell Andrews was one of the good leaders of the old tuning fork day. When he, his good wife Lula, his sister Louisana, and his little less than a dozen children sang their best, there was little left for the remainder of the congregation to do but join in. Many "Singing Schools" were conducted in by-gone days. John Bryan, brother of Dean D. B. Bryan of Wake Forest College, and Mr. Lynch are two well-remembei*ed teachers. The first musical instrument bought was an organ at which sat various ladies laboring at the pumps to produce accompaniment for the singing. Next came a piano and we now look forward to the day when we can progress to an electric organ. It has been wonderful that at no time has there been any lack of pianists or organists to provide music for the church. Mrs. E. G. Merritt has for some years served well and faithfully as church pianist. The church now has two choirs, the adult choir directed by Billy Sparrow, and the youth choir directed by Mrs. Morgan, the pastor's wife. Both choirs rehearse on Thursday evenings. The adult choir regularly sings at Sunday Morning services while the youth choir sings at the evening service. This year of 1953 a group of the young girls entered the Training Union Hymn Festival. They qualified at the Associational and District meetings and went on to become state winners at Caswell Assembly on July fourth. In addition to the two choirs there is a junior song service at the evening preaching service, at which time the smaller children sing choruses. MOUNT CARMEL BUILDING PROGRAM After the church was moved to its present location in 1873 there was a period of thirty-one years in which no substantial changes were made in the building. That building can be recognized as the rectangular center section of today's building. There have been three additions to the original building. The first of these came in 1904, according to the best record. It con-sisted of adding a front or entrance section on the side next to the road. This section is still used as the front entrance to the building. This is the section with the steeple on it. The old minutes tell us that the cost was $450.00, which sum the church voted to borrow and repay as it could. Increased attendance at Sunday School and the inconvenience of teaching in the auditorium in curtained rooms led the church to undertake the build-ing of Sunday School rooms. The addition at the back of the auditorium gave four small rooms on the ground floor and four of the same size on the second floor. This addition was started in December of 1930 and was completed in 1931. As soon as this addition was in use some farsighted members saw the possibility of two other rooms, one on each side of the front entrance. The building of these rooms was slow and discouraging but was finally finished in the Spring of 1942. This left only one class meeting in the auditorium. The next step in Mount Carmel's building program came as the result of a specific need, namely, a full-time pastor living on the field. The Parsonage was built during the pastorate of Rev. Thomas Bland. Although Brother Bland was pastor at the time of completion of the parsonage in 1948, he was not married at the time and planned to leave to enter the seminary at Louisville the following year. For this reason, it was the next pastor, W. R. Wagoner, who was the first to live in the parsonage. [17] Never had the progress of the church seemed so evident as now, with the pastor living in the community. The cost of the pastors home was about $12,500.00, a large part of which was borrowed. Since that time the third Sunday of each month in Sunday School has been parsonage debt day. According to the church budget this debt is due to be paid in full this church year. In the meantime the Sunday School had grown to such proportions that more room was needed. Thus it was that the idea of a Cabin came about. The cement block Cabin was paid for only as the money came to hand for materials, and most of the labor was supplied by the people themselves. As soon as the sub-flooring was in and the roof on the building was put to use. A whole junior department was organized, consisting of all classes up through junior age, to meet in the Cabin with Mrs. Wagoner as the first superintendent. Since 1951 Mrs. Martin Sparrow has been superintendent of this important segment of the Sunday School. Equipment for a kitchen in the Cabin has been given by individuals, classes and other groups. The local Home Demonstration Club has fur-nished money for the ceiling and flooring of the Cabin within the past year. To give some idea of the increase in property value through the years, compare the value of the property in 1904 with that of today. In 1904 the total value was $1000.00. Today the evaluation is about $30,000.00. MOUNT CARMEL'S FULL-TIME CHRISTIAN WORKERS In the early years of its history Mount Carmel was blessed with ministerial sons. Most of these have been mentioned already in this history. Abner Clopton was ordained in 1818. Iverson L. Brooks was licensed to preach in 1819. Thomas Weaver was ordained in 1826. W. H. Merritt was ordained in May, 1827. Dr. William Hooper was baptized into the fellowship of the church from the Episcopal denomination. He was already a clergyman and we have no record of further ordination but Mount Carmel can consider him as one of her ministerial sons. From 1832, when Hooper was received into the church, until 1911, we have no record of either a son or daughter of the church who went into full-time Christian work. There may well have been some but the records have not come to us. The next person on the list is Rupert Merritt, who was born in the Mount Carmel community on March 14, 1891. Rupert's mother, Mrs. Lizzie, still attends church and Sunday School regularly here at Mount Carmel. Rupert was educated at Merritt's Schoolhouse, Chapel Hill High School, Elon and Wake Forest 'Colleges, University of North Carolina, and Southern Baptist Seminary at Louisville, Ky. Converted at the age of thirteen, Rupert early felt the pull of Christian service. He served Mount Carmel as Sunday School Superintendent and Deacon before answering the call to preach. This young man was licensed to preach on September 26, 1911. His first pastorate was Lizzie Mill Baptist Mission in Selma. As soon as he was called to this field of service Mount Carmel ordained him on Sep-tember 16, 1917. Since that time Rupert has served the following churches: (1) The Sandy Bottom field near Kinston composed of four churches, (2) the Dobson field, also composed of four churches, (3) Buffalo, Kentucky, (4) Munfordville and other part-time churches in Kentucky, (5) Hiseville, Kentucky, (6) the South Fork Church, where Abraham Lincoln's father attended many years ago, (7) Mount Eden, Kentucky, (8) Mount Pleasant, near Concord, N. C, and (8) Powell Tabernacle in Fayetteville. [18] At present Brother Rupert is doing a fine job with the last mentioned church. After forty-two years in the ministry he is still being greatly used by the Lord. During his ministry many young people have gone out to serve the Lord in a full-time capacity. He has had a varied and interest-ing life of paying chui'ch debts, building churches and parsonages, and serving as Temperance leader. We wish for this Son of the old church many more years of successful ministry. Joseph Fowler is another Mount Carmel preacher who promises to be used of the Lord wherever he goes. He was always a quiet, thoughtful boy who loved his church and tried to serve anywhere he was needed. He served his church in many capacities including that of Training Union Director and Deacon. He saw over-seas service in World War II, coming at the end of the war to enter the University of North Carolina and graduate. After college graduation Joseph entered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1952 he received his B.D. degree from the seminary and will soon complete work on the Th.M. Degree. After his first year there he married Miss Pearl York, a Bible teacher in the public schools. This consecrated couple have a great future in the Lord's work. The most recent entry from Mount Carmel into actual full-time Christian work is Vernon Sparrow. Vernon served the church long and faithfully before deciding to go into full-time service. He served as Deacon, Sunday School teacher and was for some years the Training Union Director. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina. In the Fall of 1951 the call came so strong and in such a definite way that Vernon sold his business, took his wife and four fine children, and moved to Winston-Salem where he has since been serving as Director of Education and Recreation at the North Winston Baptist Church. At present another of our young people, Miss Carolyn Fowler, is in school at Mars Hill College preparing for a life of Christian Service. During the Summer months of this year of 1953 Carolyn is serving as Assistant Asso-ciational Missionary in charge of Vacation Bible School Work. Carolyn served well as Training Union Director before entering upon her collegiate studies. There are other young people in our community who have either answered or are contemplating the call to Christian service. We pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth a host of others from Mount Carmel to bless the world. CONCLUSION: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE We would not close this history simply by looking at the past and present. We must look tc the future. The backward glance is a profitable thing if it is used as a means to future growth and service. We at Mount Carmel do not glory simply in the fact that the old church has somehow weathered the storms for one hundred and fifty years. Rather, we delight to see how the fathers of our church examined their own mistakes and then went on to overcome them. The story of Mount Carmel has been one of progress. If we should somehow feel that with this sesquicentennial year Mount Carmel has reached its peak and we can take a resting spell, then the old-timers would have just reason to be ashamed of us. Time does not stand still. Neither must Mount Carmel. There is much to be done in the Master's Kingdom. We can well take as our challenge the word of the Lord to an earlier generation: "Speak to the children of Israel that they go FORWARD." (Exodus 14:15). Mount Carmel has done, is doing, and can continue to do great things in the Master's Name. [19] APPENDIX Deed for the First Site of Mount Carmel Baptist Church Mathew McCauley to The trustees of the Baptist Society: This indenture made this 14th day of May in the year of Our Lord One Thousand eight hundred and fourteen between Mathew McCauley of the County of Orange and the state of North Carolina of the one part; and Abner W. Clopton, William Henry Merritt and Thomas Weaver, all of County and State aforesaid, acting as trustees of and for the Baptist Society in said County of the other part, witnesseth that for and in consideration of the sum of one dollar to the said Mathew in hand paid at or before the sealing and delivery of these present, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, he the said Mathew hath granted, bargained and sold and by these present doth give, grant, bargain and sell claim, release, convey and confirm unto the said Abner W. Clopton, William H. Merritt and Thomas Weaver as trustees as aforesaid and their proper successors for the use and behoff of the said Baptist Society (and for the purpose of building a church thereon) a certain piece of land situate lying and being in the County and State aforesaid on the South side of Morgan's Creek on the great road leading from Hillsborough to Fayette-ville and bounded as follows (viz.) Beginning on a white oak saplin on the east side of said Road at the 14 mile post thence along the same south 6% degrees West—3 chains and 30 links to a stake thence South 83% degrees east 3 chains and five links to a stake thence North 83% degrees West to the Beginning containing by estimation one acre be the same more or less; and all the estate right, title, interest use, trust, property, claim and demand whatsoever of him the said Mathew of in and to the said Land and premises. And the said Mathew doth also hereby grant to the said Abner, William H., and Thomas as aforesaid the free and untroled use and privilege of such spring or springs of water as may be most con-tiguous to the said land for the use and benefit of such society or con-gregation of people as may from time to time assemble at said place for the puropse of worship etc. without any bar or hindrance whatsoever. To have and to hold the aforesaid Land and premises herby granted with the appurtenances unto the said Abner, William, and Thomas and their successors forever for the sole and exclusive use of the said Baptist Church as aforesaid to be called and known by the name of Christ's Church at Mount Carmel: And the said Mathew doth covenant and agree that he will the right, title and claim of the said one acre of land as above de-scribed and the appurtenances from the claim or claims of all and every other person or persons to the said Abner, Wm. & Thomas and their successors warrent and forever, defend by these Present — In testimony whereof he the said Mathew hath herunto set his hand and affixed his seal the day and date first above written. Signed Sealed and delivered In the presentee of John Pendergrass Mathew McCauley Edw'd Robson Orange County May Term 1814 The Execution of this Deed was duly proved in open Court by the Oath of John Pendergrass a subscribing witness thereto and ordered the Reg-istem. Test. J. Taylor CC [20] Book 14 p. 654-655. The Mathew McCauley who gave this deed to Mount Carmel Church is an ancestor of Miss Pearl Cole, a resident in the Smith Level community who works in Rose's Store in Chapel Hill. The land on which the old church stood is now owned by Dwight Ray, who is a partner in the Lloyd-Ray Hardware Co. at Carrboro. The outline of the old foundation rocks can still be seen there. There is an oak tree at the spot, but it is doubtful that it is the sapling mentioned in the deed. It stands on the left side of the old road bed coming up from Morgan's Creek. This road is one which was travelled by Cornwallis. Down at the foot of the hill is the spring mentioned in the deed. This is probably the only feature which has not undergone change in the years since Mount Carmel was located at this site. OLDEST EXTANT ROLL OF MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH This is the first roll of the church given in the church records. It dates back as far as 1888, perhaps farther. Additions were made in later years as new members were admitted. Since this was the way in which the roll was kept, the number of people listed cannot be taken as the number of members in any one year of the church's history. Jackson Andrewse Sarah Andrewse C. L. Andrewse M. A. Blackwood M. C. Blackwood M. S. Blackwood M. L. Blackwood T. D. Blackwood J. L. Blackwood Nancy Blackwood A. L. Blackwood E. C. Burgess M. H. Bennett S. J. Blackwood E. D. Blackwood W. F. Booth W. E. Blackwood Allie Burgess I. F. Baily L. H. Baily Nelie Baily Gannie Baily Bessie Blackwood John F. Bennett D. M. Bailey Mertle Bailey Elcie Boothe Hattie Bennett W. S. Blackwood Robert Blackwood M. L. Blackwood (Lilly) Minnie Blackwood Sam Blackwood John A. Blackwood H. C. Blackwood A. S. Blackwood A. B. Bennett Nancy Cheek Laura Canady M. J. Cheek Susan Cheek W. J. A. Cheek J. W. Cheek J. B. Cheek R. D. Cheek Fletcher Critendon Frances Critendon James Merritt Cheek E. A. Clements W. G. Clements Anna Clements Charley Cole B. J. Cole James Cole Pinckney Cole Seaton Cole Roda Cole Nelle Cole Anner Cole Mary D. Cheek L. 0. Cheek Clauda J. Cheek Abbie Crittendon Ella Cheek Hattie Cole M. S. Cole Jocie Cheek Mittie Cole Walter Cheek Bettie Cole R. J. Crittendon Ida Cheek J. Marvin Cheek Melvin Cheek R. H. Cheek J. R. Council Eugenia Council McQuary Council W. C. Carson Ella Carson Elizabeth Dodd Mittie Daniel Algernon Daniel F. B. Daniel N. L. Daniel A. L. Davis H. B. Daniel A. F. Duke A. L. Duke J. M. Duke E. H. Goodwin M. J. Goodwin Jane Gooch J. W. Gore Madge C. Gore A. Hunter Virginia Hunter M. E. Henderson Catie Holden Rutha Hester A. S. Harward E. J. Horton J. P. Harward T. R. Harward W. J. Harward £21] OLDEST EXTANT ROLL OF MT. CARMEL CHURCH (Continued) Mattie Harward Annie Hutchins Maria Johnson Mary Johnson Arthur Johnson Olie Jones Samual Jones Lloyd Johnson P. J. Johnson Martha King G. W. Kinbro Caroline Lynsey Elizabeth Lloyd Louzania Lloyd Mary Laycock Florances Lloyd M. L. Laycock Tommie Lloyd E. D. Laycock E. G. Marshall Anna Marshall M. B. Merritt M. H. Merritt E. S. Merritt L. A. Merritt Mary B. Merritt C. C. Merritt Elizabeth Merritt W. H. Merritt Jr. I. F. Meatcham Lelian Morgan William Mitchell Alice Merritt Cle Merritt W. C. Merritt W. B. Merritt Jas. C. Martin Mintie Merritt Minnie Morgan Meter Merritt Esther Mabel Merritt N. F. Merritt Mary Morgan Luby Morgan Jack Myrick H. Carl Merritt J. C. Merritt Annie Merritt R. P. Merritt J. H. Merritt E. J. Merritt Elizabeth Neville Joseph Nevill Mary C. Pendergrass Mary Pendergrass Daniel Pendergrass Nathaniel Pendergrass Jennie Petty James Purefoy Maggie Purefoy J. M. Pendergrass Belle Pendergrass R. A. Pendergrass Melvin Pendergrass J. E. Riggsbee Ninie M. Riggsbee J. M. Riggsbee M. E. Riggsbee N. E. Riggsbee J. W. Riggsbee Lizar Riggsbee H. Riggsbee Callie D. Riggsbee T. E. Riggsbee J. J. Riggsbee J. S. Riggsbee P. E. Riggsbee J. C. Riggsbee Lucy Riggsbee Lougana Riggsbee Ida Riggsbee T. T. Riggsbee Adda Riggsbee I. J. Riggsbee R. O. Riggsbee Frank Rigggsbee Eva Riggsbee M. E. Riggsbee Jessie Riggsbee Bessie D. Riggsbee Milton Riggsbee Earnest Riggsbee Lillie Riggsbee Veter Riggsbee C. W. Riggsbee M. J. Riggsbee W. M. Riggsbee J. Edward Riggsbee Lilla Riggsbee Hudson Sparrow Pup Sparrow Caroline Sparrow E. L. Sparrow H. F. Stone M. Z. Sparrow T. E. Sparrow Eva Sparrow M. I. Sparrow Lizzie Sparrow Lodie Sparrow Junius Sparrow Malory Sparrow Bertha Sparrow Wescot Sparrow Comma Sparrow Lydia Sparrow Agnes Sparrow Nannie Sparrow Eliza Sparrow S. C. Sparrow Laura Whitaker Nora Whitaker W. H. Williams Francis Williams J. M. Wombel Mary Wombel Savana Wombel Josephine Williams Fred H. Williams Dora Williams Enna Womble J. J. Williams [22] Oldest Recorded Minutes of Mount Carmel Baptist Church 1888 Mt. Carmel Baptist Church Orange County, N. C. Rev. W. S. Olive, Pastor. Salary—$135.00 January Saturday before the 4 Lord's day in January. After services by the Postor, Rev. W. S. Olive, the church convened for conferances. The roll was called and absentees noted. The proceedings of last conferances were read and approved. Committee called on to report. The Committee to see Bro. Olive reported that Bro. Olive would preach for this church this year 1888. The Church ordered the treasurer to pay over to Bro. Olive what money he had on hand. Letter of dismission was granted to Sister Bettie Williams & N. A. Wombel. The conferance adjourned. Rev. W. S. Olive Morderator W. G. C. cc The original spelling is retained in both the roll and the minutes in the interest of authenticity. PASTORS OF MOUNT CARMEL BAPTIST CHURCH Robert T. Daniel N C. A. Upchurch 1898 William P. Worrell ) W. D. Bostic 1900 Patrick W. Dowd J J. C. Hocutt 1901-03 William Hooper f R. McNabb v George W. Purefoy 1 Enoch Crutchfield 1 > 1803-1858 A. J. R. C. C. E. Hamby Hocutt Clark 1904-05 1906-07 1908-09 B. J. Hackney O. B. Mitchell 1910-15 M. D. Andrews / O. L. Riggs 1916-17 Oren Churchill 1865-68 H. G. Dorsett 1919-20 James P. Mason 1869 J. B. Davis 1921-22 W. R. Gualtney 1871-72 J. F. McDuffie 1923-26 W. T. Farrow 1873 S. A. Wilkinson 1926-27 R. A. Patterson 1874 c. H. Henderson 1928-29 G. P. Moore 1874-79 A. C. Hamby 1930-35 C. C. Newton 1880-84 F. D. Hemphill 1936-38 D. D. Edwards 1886 J. C. Shore 1939 W. S. Olive 1887-88 W. B. Cone 1940 J. W. Watson 1888-89 M. A,, Pegram 1941-43 W. A. Smith 1890-92 C. E. Byrd 1944-46 A. C. Cree 1893-94 T. A. Bland 1947-48 W. A. Smith 1895-96 W., R. Wagoner 1948-51 W. H. Edwards 1897 H. A. Morgan 1951- [23] BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Purefoy, George W., "A History of the Sandy Creek Baptist Associa-tion from its Organization in A.D. 1758, to A.D. 1858." 2. Johnson, "Ante-Bellum North Carolina." 3. Knight, "History of Education." 4. "The Hillsborough Recorder." 5. Minutes of the Sandy Creek Baptist Association. 6. Minutes of the Mount Zion Baptist Association. 7. Hutchinson, R. L., "History of Mount Carmel Church," as printed in the Minutes of Mount Zion Baptist Association for 1952. 8. Minutes of church conferences of Mount Carmel Church. .c. [24] STATE LIBRARY OF NORTH CAROLINA 3 3091 00636 9516 DATE DUE GAYLORD PRINTED INI US. A |
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