Chesterfield Baptist Church 1928
Chesterfield Baptist Education Building 1945
A Church Building Used First by the Methodists and Then the Baptists
Former Chesterfield Baptist Ministers
Back: Jean Greer, Raymond DeArmond, Chester Molpus, J. D. Hughey
Front: Kirk Smith, Ryan Eklund, and John Cann
The Chesterfield Baptist Church was organized in 1877 with the following names as charter members: Reverend and Mrs. A. B. Hursey, William A. Mulloy, Mrs. Laney Redfearn, Mr. and Mrs. Green Catoe, John Catoe, Mary Catoe, Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Sellers, James Johnson, Elizabeth Johnson and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Myers.
Reverend A. B. Hursey was the first pastor. This organization met for worship in the small building belonging to A. B. Hursey. The building had been erected as a drug store for Dr. Ned McBride. This building was located across the street from our present parsonage property. The building had no flooring, and one side was without weather-boarding. Mr. W. D. Craig furnished the material for the floor and siding at no cost because of his friendship with A. B. Hursey, W. A. Mulloy, and Green Catoe.
William Mulloy, a Baptist, was for some time the superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School, but he became the first superintendent of the Baptist Sunday School when it was organized.
Some years later the organization moved to the present location, purchasing the old Methodist Church building for a sum of $400. The church had been used as a courthouse since Sherman burned the Courthouse in March of 1865, and it was not rebuilt until 1884. The Baptists, after using this building for a few years, sold it to the Trustees of the School who moved it to the lot later occupied by the residence of S. M. Jackson.
The present building was begun, and the minutes show that the Reverend A. B. Hursey tendered his resignation. The Reverend F. Hickson was elected to take his place as pastor. On January 20, 1884, R. A. White, J. Catoe, A. F. White, Dudley Evans, and W. W. Mulloy were appointed to a committee for purchasing church property. It seems this committee continued for some time. The responsibility for the erection of the present building rested largely on E. J. Kennedy, Robert E. Rivers, Julian Redfearn, and Elijah Redfearn, although the latter was never a member of this church.
It was during the effective ministry of B. S. Funderburk that the church outgrew its quarters, which made it necessary to add Sunday School rooms at the rear of the present church.
For a number of years this church remained in the Welsh Neck Association, as it was through the Association the church received aid from the State Mission Board. During these years the church has always been loyal to the denomination and co-operated in the Baptist Seventy-five Million Campaign for the spread of the Gospel throughout the World. It is now the only church in the Chesterfield Association that has full-time preaching .
At the close of B. S. Funderburk’s pastorate, the church was without a parsonage and had no home in which to house a new pastor. Under the leadership of the Board of Deacons, the church bought the property on the corner of Craig and Main streets. The ladies of the church deserve much credit for their splendid co-operation in helping to pay for and remodel that parsonage property. The church constructed a modern parsonage on Park Drive in 1951. It remains in use today.
John Craig once owned this property, and his daughter inherited the property all the way to the By-Pass. I went to see Mr. Craig about buying the lot where Julian Curtis had a station on the By-pass, but he would not sell it.
The church bought this property from Mr. Craig’s daughter who had inherited the property from her father.