Barbecue Church
loden. Nevertheless, he continued
preach in
г
to them until one Sabbath
when he essayed an earnest prayer for
the success of the patriots.
After the services n rabid Tory
named Mimn sought him • >ut .
“Dominie." rumbled Munn, liis
voice hoar*e with ppnt-up fury, “just
let me hear you pray one more prayer
like you did todav for them *
«;
• • ! !
Whigs, and I'll put a ball through
your skull if it sends mv soul to
hell
Г
Reverend Campbell prudently- -
and promptly— suspended all services,
mooning around his home, until one
day he undertook to reprove a young
woman for using profanity.
“How do ye expect us women to
keep from sweerin* when the de’il
stops preachers from preach in’?” she
retorted.
Through all kinds of strenuous
and !i€*c*lic limes, this famous old
church in llarnett County has
survived and upheld the Chris¬
tian faith for a period of 183
years.
К
ft MALCOLM FOWLFIt
Founded it:. 7.
That’s what the lettering on the
white painted sign in front of the
building tells the reader. For one
hundred and ciglity-threc years Bar*
Locue Church has stood as a symbol
of Christian faith call it Presbyte¬
rian if you insist on splitting hairs.
Through famine, pestilence, war.
good times and bad, the church has
stood there. Plain, substantial, no
slender spire* reaching skyward; no
gargoyles grinning sardonically down
from imposing; stone cornice*; no
windows of costly stained glass. "Lord,
1 cannot read Thy light when sifted
down through tinted window panes,"
may well have been the prayer of its
builders.
Just a plain, white painted wooden
building, Barbecue Church stands on
till* Johnson villo I toad about twelve
miles from I.illingtou in the western
part of Harnett County. The present
structure is the third building to house
the church ministering to the religious
m< d< of a community settled by Scot*
along in the seventeen-thirties. In
the middle of the century they pe¬
titioned the synod of Philadelphia to
send them a Presbyterian minister.
Hugh Me Aden rode down on horse¬
back in 1755 to look over the ground,
so to speak, and on hi* return to Penn¬
sylvania be interested Reverend
Лате*
Campbell, who came down in 1757
and organized the churches at Bluff,
(below Dunn), Long Street, (now
part of the Fort Bragg reservation),
and Barbecue, thus making it the old¬
est church in Harnett.
In the Register of Deeds olliee at
Fayetteville- Harnett was part of
Cumberland at that time — is regis¬
tered the contract between the Rever¬
end Campbell and twelve men from
those places. It is dated 1758, and call*
for the payment to him of one hundred
pound* yearly- -which sum is said to
have drained the thrifty Scots a* dry
a* the bleached hone* of a skeleton.
Reverend Campbell was a remark¬
able man in wav*. Born in Scot¬
land about 1700, he came to Pennsyl¬
vania, and in the innu ing new world
he began to doubt hi* calling, lie even
quit preaching for a time hut resumed
the pulpit after hearing Whitfield, the
great evangelist.
During the Revolution he quit
again. Reverend Campbell was a
Whig, devoted to the cause of liberty,
but most of the members of the kirk at
Barbecue were hot-headed Tories,
still under the «pell of famed Flora
McDonald and the Blood Oath of Cul-
Moved to Alamance
Reverend Campbell disappeared
from the community, and when next
heard from he was preaching again.
Not. however, in Barbecue, but in
Alamance, where Whigs were more
plentiful. Ho died shortly after this
incident in 17S0 and was buried at
Bluff Church.
Dougald Crawford succeeded him
in 17S0. Tradition says that he fell
in love with the lovely daughter of
one of the church elders, was rejected
by her and became mentally unbal¬
anced. “Crazy as a coot," was the
judgment of one dour old Scot after
listening to him preach.
Maybe Reverend Crawford's mental
illness had n lot to do with a habit of
the Barbecue worshipers which was
feelingly described by the great
preacher John Campbell. They read
their Bible plain and took their re¬
ligion straight, did those early Pres¬
byterians. They believed in a Kot hell
for the wicked and eternal paradise
for the good, and should the preacher
.-tray from the printed word they had
no hesitancy at all in rising and re¬
minding him of his deviation.
“Phew!" gasped the Reverend
Campbell after one such ex|>erience.
“I'd rather preach to the most learned
congregation in Edinburgh than to
the critical ears at Barbecue."
The worried Scots finally persuaded
Reverend Crawford to return to his
native Scotland in the hope that in
the scenery of his childhood he would
regain his mind. However, he was
drowned before reaching his home¬
land.
Liquid Refreshments
Angus McDnirmid next occupied
the Barbecue pulpit in I7I>3. The Rev¬
erend Angus was addicted to the use
of alcohol— particularly the various
to
