Black Primitive Baptist churches in Wilson County were covered by a number of Associations, including Turner Swamp, Radicue, Union, Bethlehem, and Contentnea. In the 1930s, Contentnea Primitive Baptist Association included two Wilson County churches — Black Creek (now known as Bunches and still active) and Bellamy Chapel (formerly Sharpsburg P.B., now defunct — and in the Wilson County sector of Sharpsburg, not Nash.)
Jones Hill Primitive Baptist Church anchored a community that included Jones Hill School. The church’s cemetery is now separated from the church by Interstate 95. The current building is heavily modified, but retains what appears to be an early 20th-century structure at its core.
I have been able to find little information about Jones Hill’s founding or early years, but by the early 1950s, the church was a member of Union Primitive Baptist Association.
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2025.
In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.
We been here.
LITTLE UNION PRIMITIVE BAPTIST
Established before 1914. Member of Turner Swamp Prim. Bapt. Assoc. led by Elder Jonah Williams. Original church destroyed by Hurricane Fran in 1996. Rebuilt on site with donated funds.
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2024.
Our discovery of the remains of Barnes Primitive Baptist Church began with a search for a slave cemetery and a school believed to be in the same vicinity. I’m fairly certain Barnes School actually was once near by, but L. Paul Sherrod Jr. said he had heard conflicting information about the cemetery, and we saw nothing that suggested a graveyard. This burial ground would have been associated with the plantation of Dr. Edwin Barnes, whose family cemetery I featured in a post Friday.
Today, a chance find that confirmed we’re on the right track:
Wilson Daily Times, 23 April 1955.
David Ruffin‘s funeral was conducted at Barnes Primitive Baptist, and he was buried “in the Barnes cemetery near the church.” So there is, or was, a Barnes cemetery near Barnes Church. But where?
Here is Barnes Church in a 1940 aerial photograph. The light gray area below and southeast of the church, showing few trees, is worth exploring in a search for the cemetery.
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In the 1900 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farmer Isaac Ruffin, 52; wife Chania, 55; and sons Isaac, 22, Dave, 17, Grey, 7, and William, 5.
On 31 December 1903, David Ruffin, 21, married Celie Barnes, 19, in Stantonsburg township, Wilson County.
In the 1910 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farm laborer David Ruffin, 24; wife Celia, 18; and children Clara, 7, and Daisy, 2.
In 1918, Dave Ruffin registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 6 January 1870; his nearest relative was Celia Ruffin; and he farmed for E.B. Graves.
In the 1920 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: tenant farmer David Ruffin, 41; wife Cellie, 33; and children Daisy, 22, Dessie, 10, David Jr., 6, and Lula, 4.
Larsey Ruffin died 6 August 1926 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 18 years old; was born in Wilson County to David Ruffin and Celie Barnes; and worked as a tenant farmer.
In the 1930 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farmer Dave Ruffin, 50; wife Celia, 45; daughters Clara, 28, Daisy, 19, and Lola M., 16; son-in-law John Hales, 39; grandchildren John, 10, Dave, 7, and Maizie Hales, 5; and son Dave, 19.
In the 1940 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farmer Dave Ruffin, 50; wife Celia, 45; and [grandchildren] children David, 17, and Mazie, 15.
In the 1950 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: Dave Ruffin, 78; wife Celia, 67; sons [sic] Walter Lee, 16, and George, 12; and sister Anna Artis, 77.
David Ruffin died 20 April 1955 at Route 3, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 2 August 1893 in Wilson County to Isaah Ruffin and an unknown mother; was married; was engaged in farming; and was buried in Barnes Cemetery. Carrie Hayes, 202 Pettigrew Street, was informant.
Ten days later: Celia Ruffin died 30 April 1955 at 202 Pettigrew Street, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 61 years old; was born in Wilson County to Calvin Barnes and an unknown mother; was a widow; was engaged in farming; and was buried in Barnes Cemetery. Carrie Hayes, 202 Pettigrew Street, was informant.
Last week’s highlight was the discovery of the rusted tin, charred beams, and old brick that mark the site of Barnes Primitive Baptist Church, a congregation formed by freed slaves shortly after Emancipation. Yesterday, I received digital copies of three precious Polaroid photographs of Barnes Church taken in 1977 when the church closed and moved south to Watery Branch Church Road in Wayne County.
In the first photo, Barnes Church’s long-time pastor, Elder Kemmy A. Sherrod, stands with Deacon Douglas Barnes between the church’s two entrances. Elder Sherrod, a Wayne County native, was a grandson of Jack and Cassie Exum Sherrod and also pastored Turner Swamp Primitive Baptist Church in Eureka, N.C., and New Center Primitive Baptist Church of Reidsville, N.C., and served as moderator of the Turner Swamp Primitive Baptist Association and Durham Primitive Baptist Association.
The second photo, taken over the long hood of a car, shows the church’s southern elevation. That’s the chimney whose broken base we found standing in the woods.
The third hones in on the church’s simple, porchless, front-gable form. Fire consumed Barnes Church after it was vacated, and we found no sign of its plank siding, doors, or windows.
My unending gratitude to Leonard P. Sherrod Jr. for sharing these priceless photographs with me and to his cousin Cheryl Sherrod Pope for granting me permission to post them here!
Three years ago, I asked, “Where was Barnes Church?” Today, I have an answer.
Founded just after slavery, Barnes Church was one of the earliest African-American churches in Wilson County. Its simple double-doored, gable-front building is believed to have been erected shortly after the church’s establishment.
Barnes Church circa 1960s.
My father’s classmate L. Paul Sherrod Jr. asked me to explore the little spit of woods that I knew had once been the site of the church, but in which I’d not found any traces of the nineteenth-century building. My earlier looks had been in summer, though, when I could barely get a glimpse inside the woodline.
We entered via an old driveway over the ditch and immediately spotted this stack. I was puzzled at first, as this is obviously newer brick. A walk-around, however, revealed old brick piers, the corners of a building came into view, and this broken stack may have been a later addition that vented a wood stove. Curled trips of tin roofing lay rusting underfoot.
And then I spotted this. Barnes Church burned down after it was vacated. Here was a charred length of sill beam — with a four-inch, square-cut nail.
The nail. It was not hand-wrought, but cut from a sheet, as indicating by only two sides tapering. The head would have been added by hand. The earliest machine-cut nails of this type date to about 1840.
A brick from one of the piers. It is unmarked, but probably made locally.
This sill beam, from the north side of the building, is charred but unbroken.
A section still resting on a pier.
The pollen, y’all.
Paul and Barbara Sherrod, my guides. We’ve met Mr. Sherrod here and here and here.
It’s heard to visualize, but I’m standing in front the church’s site, perhaps seven feet from its front wall.
Barnes Primitive Baptist Church did not own its building or the land on which it stood. When the landowner refused to allow the congregation to upgrade the building, members of the Sherrod family donated land for a new church a few miles south, just across the Wayne County line on Watery Branch Road. The “new” church is now occupied by Now Faith Missionary Baptist Church.
Friendship Primitive Baptist Church trustee Ransom Howell made two purchases on behalf of the church in just over two weeks in 1901.
On September 13, Isaac and Jackanna Rich sold the church for $12.50 an acre and a half on the north side of the railroad “except timber” rights. If the church later decided to sell the property, the Riches were to receive a right of first refusal.
Deed book 49, page 308, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.
On October 1, L.R. and Mary Lamm sold the church for $25 a one-acre parcel on the “road leading from Black Creek road to Wilson” “on condition that if said Church shall go down or cease to exist,” the land would go to adjoining property holder W.H. Tomlinson.
Deed book 49, page 316, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.
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In the 1880 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Ransom Howell, 31, farmer; wife Barbry, 28; children Alice, 3, Tobias, 8, and Diannah, 2; and Andrew Bass, 24.
In the 1900 census of Crossroads township, Wilson County: farmer Ransom Howell, 51; wife Barbara, 47; and children Dina, 22, William, 19, Mary A., 18, Janettie, 16, Lucinda, 14, James R., 9, Sarah E., 6, and John D., 3.
In the 1910 census of Crossroads township, Wilson County: farmer Ransom Howell, 61; wife Barbara, 58; and children Janettie, 26, James R., 19, and John D., 13.
Dinah Bynum died 4 June 1940 in Crossroads township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was born 6 March 1881 in Wilson County to Ransom Howell and Bobbie Howell; was married to Benj. Bynum; and was buried in Newsome cemetery, Wilson County.
James Howell died 28 October 1945 in Sharpsburg, Nash County, N.C. Per his death certificate, he was born 1 April 1893 in Wilson County to Ransom Howell and Bobbie Woodard; was married to Lena Howell; worked as a farmer; and was buried in Rest Haven. Nettie M. Howell was informant.
Like other white Primitive Baptist congregations, Saratoga’s White Oak Primitive Baptist admitted African-Americans to segregated membership — probably from the time it was founded in 1830. However, when they were able to form their own congregations after Emancipation, most Black Primitive Baptists left white churches to worship in less discordant settings, and White Oak’s members joined African-American churches in southeast Wilson County, including Bartee and Cornerline.
White Oak P.B. is no longer active. A small cemetery lies adjacent to the church, but its graves are relatively recent. (The oldest marked grave dates to 1927.) It seems likely that prior to that time, church members were buried in family cemeteries in the neighboring community.
White Oak Primitive Baptist Church, Saratoga, Wilson County.
On a recent visit to White Oak, I was surprised to recognize a feature in the graveyard. Up to then, of hundreds I’ve found, I had never seen a Clarence Best-carved marker on a white person’s grave. Here, though, was a little cluster, a single family whose small marble headstones I immediately recognized as Best’s work. They tell a terrible tale of loss, four babies who died before they reached the age of two.
Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, August 2023.
Corner Line Primitive Baptist Church’s land was surveyed in 1980, and the plat map was drawn and filed in 1981. In August 2008, church trustees, acknowledging that “Cornerline Primitive Baptist Church no longer uses the … property as its church,” determined that “it is in the best interest of the church that it be sold,” and, for a nominal price, transferred ownership to Elder Samuel Barnes, grandson of Cornerline’s long-time pastor Elder Wiley Barnes.
Lower Black Creek Primitive Baptist Church, founded in 1783, was the second church organized in what is now Wilson County. (It closed its doors in 2010.) The church’s nineteenth and early twentieth-century records includes names of enslaved and freed African-American members, who worshipped with the congregation as second-class Christians even after Emancipation.
This page is entitled “A list of Names & members belonging to the church at Black Creek Meeting House Wayne County.” It is not dated, but the left margin contains baptism dates (and suggests the page was compile from earlier data.) Additional info appears for a few members in the right-hand column. Four “servants,” i.e., enslaved people, appear in the list.
