Church and Family History Research Assistance for Rockingham County, Virginia
CHURCHES:
SMITH & LINVILLE'S CREEK (BROCK'S GAP)(BROADWAY/TUNIS)(1756)
Linville's Creek Church was organized on August 6, 1756, with seven charter members, viz., John Alderson Sr., Jane Alderson, Samuel Newman, Martha Newman, John Harrison, William Castleberry, and Margaret Castleberry. The following day, John Thomas and James Thomas united with the church.
(Note: The Minutes of the Philadelphia Association show the church as Smith's Creek, because it was at first called Smith's and Linville's Creek Church; and the minutes also show that the church was organized August 16, 1756, with eleven members, and that Elder John Alderson was its first minister.)
The church united with the Philadelphia Association in 1762. The Ketocton Association was organized in 1766, with four churches, some of which had been members of the Philadelphia Association prior to this time. They were Ketocton, Linville's Creek, Broad Run, and Mill Creek (Opeckon). The minutes of the Ketocton Associaton (organized in 1766) for 1772, show that its churches included Mill Creek (in Berkeley County), Linvill's Creek (John Alderson being one of the two messengers), Broad Run, New Valley, Little River, Chappawamsic, Potomac, Buck Marsh, Great Bethel, Burch Creek (and two others whose names we could not read).
The minutes of the Ketocton Association for 1792 show that Linville's Creek Church (in Rockingham County) was a member in good standing, represented by Elder James Johnstone and Bro. Benjamin Talman, who reported 21 members in fellowship. The minutes of Ketocton Association for 1793 show that Elder James Johnstone and John Lincoln (President Abraham Lincoln's great-grandfather) were the messengers from Linvill's Creek Church to the Ketocton Association. The minutes of Ketocton Association for 1801 show that Linville's Creek Church was dismissed from the Ketocton Association, by her request, to join the Culpepper Association. Minutes of Linville's Creek Church continue to 1820, and the names of members at that time (being the same people) prove that Brock's Gap Church (whose minutes begin at the time of the change of name, in 1843) was the same church as Linville's Creek Church. In fact, Linville's Creek Church had met at Brock's Gap part of the time, prior to 1820.
The transcription of minutes of the Brock's Gap Church, of Rockingham County, begin thus: "The members composing the old Regular Baptist Church called Linville Creek met at Brock's Gap meeting house on the 18th day of February in the year of our Lord 1843, and mutually agreed that they would in future be known by the name of the Old School Baptist Church called Brock's Gap." The church was sometimes referred to as the Tunis Church at Brock's Gap.
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
Alderson, Anderson, Andes, Bacey, Bare, Barrett, Basey, Bealer, Beaver, Biann, Biller, Bland, Bowen, Bowman, Briggs, Britton, Brumfield, Caplinger, Castleberry, Custer, Davison, Dedrage, Denham, Dundore, Dunlap, Eaton, Elger, Elliott, Estep, Evans, Falk, Fawley, Fegans, Flagals, Ford, Fulk, Garretson, George, Graves, Gum, Hawk, Harrison, Hart, Henton, Hepner, Hess, Homan, Jeffreys, Jenkins, Lamb, Latham, Lewis, Lincoln, Lockard, Lynn, May, Messick, Miller, Mitchell, Moffett, Morris, Needham, Newman, Nicholas, North, Ozban, Pack, Peterson, Porter, Price, Ray, Riddle, Riggs, Ruddell, Runyon, Runion, Sager, Silveus, Smith, Smoke, Smuck, Sprinkel, States, Tallman, Taylor, Terry, Thomas, Trumbo, Turley, Tusing, Tussing, Warren, Williams, Wright, Yates.
WHITE HOUSE
The Life of Elder James Ireland, published in 1819, includes the following written by Elder Ireland himself: "From my residence on Smith's Creek, I used to pursue my course into what is now called Rockingham County, from thence take a transition across the Massanottin mountain, and attended statedly at a place called the White House, where I was instrumental in planting what has been since called the Menonist Baptist Church; from that across the Ridge to the meeting house built for me in Culpeper, where under my ministry another church was planted; from thence to Fauquier county, where I constituted another church; thence across by Goose Creek and Berry's Gap to Shenandoah River, where I preached up both forks of the river statedly, continuing so until I arrived at my settled residence. "
PLEASANT RUN (1790)
Pleasant Run Church, according to David Benedict's History of the Baptist Denomination, 1813, was formed by members of the White House Church, in about 1790, and moved as a body from this county to Fairfield County, Ohio, in about 1801 or 1802. See Fairfield County, Ohio.
NAKED CREEK
Naked Creek Church was organized on July 17, 1869. Elders Paul W. Yates and F. M. Perry assisted in the organization. The membership at that time was composed of Philip Koontz, Minerva Koontz, W. D. Covington, Bettie L. Covington, Martha Sanford, Christian Burner, Hannah Deering, Milton H. Drummonds, Catharine Drummonds, and Peter Sherman (colored). Elder Charles Yates served as the first pastor, and W. D. Covington as church clerk.
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
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