Bethesda Presbyterian Church, Session House and Cemetery is a historic

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

, session house, and

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

located in Chambersburg Township,

Iredell County, North Carolina Iredell County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 186,693. Its county seat is Statesville, and its largest town is Mooresville. The county was formed in 1788, subtracted from Ro ...

. It was built in 1853, and is a one-story, three bay by five bay, rectangular vernacular

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style frame church. It has a pedimented, temple form, front gable roof and an unusual front recessed balcony. It is the oldest church building in Iredell County. Also on the property is the contributing session house, also built in 1853, and church cemetery with about 200 gravestones. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1980.

History

The Bethesda Presbyterian Church was organized on August 23, 1847 near Amity Hill in Iredell County. The original fourteen members of the church had come from the Third Creek, Back Creek,

Thyatira Thyateira (also Thyatira) ( grc, Θυάτειρα) was the name of an ancient Greek city in Asia Minor, now the modern Turkish city of Akhisar ("white castle"). The name is probably Lydian. It lies in the far west of Turkey, south of Istanbul ...

, and

Fourth Creek The River Torrens , (Karrawirra Parri / Karrawirraparri) is the most significant river of the Adelaide Plains. It was one of the main reasons for the siting of the city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It flows from its source in the ...

Presbyterian churches in Iredell and Rowan Counties. The first pastor in 1848 was the Rev. Thomas E. Davis. Until the first building was built, the congregation met in brush arbors and a nearby school house. The membership was 85 in 1855, including 46 white, 36 slave, and three free black members. Initially, slaves and black members sat in the balcony of the church. The church was still in use in 2022. Northeast of the church building is the cemetery existing in an open field with no fencing. The cemetery contains roughly 200 gravestones from the 19th-century.

References

External links

Presbyterian churches in North Carolina Cemeteries in North Carolina Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Greek Revival church buildings in North Carolina Churches completed in 1853 19th-century Presbyterian church buildings in the United States Churches in Iredell County, North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Iredell County, North Carolina Cemeteries in Iredell County, North Carolina {{IredellCountyNC-NRHP-stub