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A celebration of the history of Philadelphia Primitive Baptist Church will be held Saturday, May 31 from 10am to 12pm at the church, 201 Philadelphia Church Road in Ellenboro.
Special speakers, Civil War artifact display, original church documents dating to 1850, old-timey hymn presentation by the Foothills Community Choir are among the activities planned for the free public celebration.
Additional information any community members may have about this historic structure and its role in the history of Rutherford County is encouraged to attend and share the information.
Bring a yard chair and sit in the shade of stately hardwood trees and share memories of the past. Several descendants of the families who chartered the church will attend, answer questions and share info about primitive Baptist churches.
The Ellenboro Community Restoration Association now owns the Philadelphia Church and gave it the new name - The Philadelphia Meeting House in honor of terminology used by the Primitive Baptist where they refer to this structure as the meeting house or often just house. Church documents with the building and grounds report the church is 175 years old, as it was organized February 23, 1850.
Using the minutes, the first building appears to be a log structure - as noted in the minutes on Saturday, September 21, 1850- "Church in conference... appointed Robert Green and James McKinney agents to receive and hold a title to the land on which our house now stands." (That is the land donated by John Edwards).
The next reference is February 10, 1893 minutes "Met and recovered our house with new boards, except a few short ones."
October 24, 1896 the church appointed a committee to determine if it was viable to sell the land and structure they were using and build a new structure. A decision was not made and continued to be discussed into 1897. November 20, 1897 the minutes state "In the spring of 1898, commence cutting and hauling timber for building a house. Brother S. J. McKinney rather leading in contracting for sawing and other articles to be used in building. The work is mostly volunteer labor." They had determined they would build a new structure on the land they owned.
August 24 and 25 1898 - Brother Adams preached for us in our new house, which is nearly finished, and without any aid whatsoever from Brother J. L. McDaniel."
Structure built in 1898 is the current church building. One of the last three church members - Ruth Edwards Keeter - will be 97 this year and in good mind - and the only structure she ever attended was the current building. Certainly, sheetrock and overhead ceiling tiles were added, new windows and sometime in the 1960's or 1970s the bathrooms were added. Some of the ceiling tiles have been recovered- and the lumber certainly looks over 100 years old.
In some of my research it was discovered Captain John Edwards is buried in a family cemetery on Hollis Road just a few hundred from Philadelphia Church Road.
A significant event happened at Philadelphia Primitive Baptist Church on September 2, 1861 when 95 men from Rutherford and Cleveland County met at the church to volunteer as soldiers in the Confederate Army. Jean Tisdale's book DEAR COMPANION tells the story about a few of the volunteers including that of her great-great grandfather Ancil Dycus through his correspondence with his wife Mary.
This group known as the "Sandy Run Yellow Jackets" would become Company B of the 34th Regiment NC Troops. For most of the Civil War the 34th brigade was one of the best in General Lee's Army and participated in all the major actions from the Seven Days battle in 1862 until the retreat to and surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Retired Colonel John R. Greene who also had relatives in the in 34th Regiment noted that 20 members of the company died in or from battle, 35 of disease, and 10 of unknown causes for a total of 65 deaths. Eight members who volunteered at Philadelphia were with General Lee when they surrendered at Appomattox.
