EDITORIAL NOTE: The following history appeared in the May 30, 1890 and June 6, 1890 issues of the Roanoke Beacon.
“Flipp” column
Mr. Editor: You made your notice rather broad about my writing up the history of our county. I will try to give a history of the Churches, Public building, etc., touching on such resources of the county as may be of interest to outside capitalists. I will take first the history of Grace church for which I am indebted to Col. Thos. E. ARMISTEAD, Junior Warden of the Vestry of that church. The history of this church is quite interesting and will perhaps take no more space than you care to give, but it is impossible to make shorter.
HISTORY OF GRACE CHURCH
It is shown by the parish register that the first Episcopal ministrations at this place began in 1837, by the Rev. Messrs. E.M. FORBES, Samuel J. JOHNSTON, D.D. and others, holding services and administering the rites and sacriments of the Church to its few followers who were then living in this town.
January 20, 1842, a meeting was held at the court house with Rev. Wm. B. OTISas chairman, and Benj. MAITLAND as secretary, at which meeting a vestry was elected to serve until Easter Monday, 1843. At this meeting the name of Grace Church was adopted to designate this parish, and it was further ordered that application be made to the next dioceasan Convention to be received into union with the diocese.
It is regretted that the record of this church for some cause is silent as to its history during those years which intervened between 1842 and 1848, though it is learned from members still living here, that frequent services were held by the Rev. Messrs. Wm. B. OTIS and E.M. FORBES, and that Grace church, a neat wooden edifice, was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. L.S. IVES, about the year 1845.
At a meeting of the congregation held on Easter Monday 1848, to elect a vestry, the name of the Rev. A.A. WATSON appeared as rector – though official acts were performed by him as early as 1845. He, assisted a portion of the time by Rev. Geo. PATTERSON, continued with the church for ten years.
A year previous to Dr. WATSON’s resignation as rector of the parish, which was offered Oct. 9, 1858, to take effect on the 1st of December following, the vestry had resolved to build a new church – this time of brick – which three years later, in Aug. 1860, their building committee contracted for a sum of seven thousand dollars the contract being awarded Capt. N.J. WHITEHURST of Portsmouth, Va., which contract was almost completed when the war began but further work was suspended, and its congregation dispersed as refugees in many widely remote places.
Whilst this church was being built the Rev. Francis W. HILLIARD, having been invited to take charge of the parish, accepted the call April 1st, 1859 and administered acceptably to the congregation in a free school building then standing on Fourth street, till the 2d of March, 1861, when he tendered his resignation to take effect when the Convention met. From this time till the close of the war the parish was without any regular minister of services.
Although no official record could be kept of the parish during the war for reasons already adverted to, still there is very much of unwritten history connected with the Church in those days, which coming from unquestionable sources and in many instances eye witnesses, cannot fail perhaps in the circumstances that marked the time and place, to interest Church people at least, and your readers generally.
As already stated, the church was incomplete when the Confederates evacuated Plymouth in 1862 and the Federal occupancy began. Its walls, tower, and the brick work generally, had been thoroughly finished; but the pews, windows, and chancel work still remained to be put in. Being a spacious and commodious building it was quickly appropriated by the authorities in command here to uses which the exigency of the times falsely assumed as sufficient warrant for prostituting its sacred mission, and no inconsiderable injury resulted there from. As an asylum for freedmen who flocked to this post in numbers during the war, it was subjected to hardest usage by such occupants; and afterwards as a government commissary where its stores were kept and rations issued – though for a short time only, I learn – it can scarcely be assumed that it fared any better.
To occasion of political significance it was also devoted inside of tis chancel railEdward STANLY, the military governor of the state at one time of the war, delivered a long address in advocacy of the Union and the suppression of “the rebellion” which was greeted with much applause by the great crowd who came to hear the speaker in the Lord’s holy temple, wherein it is commanded. “Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
Much of the damage done, however, up to the date of the battle of Plymouth in April 1864, when the place was captured by the Confederates under Generals RANSOME and HOOK, had been repaired through the efforts of an Episcopal chaplain attached to Gen. WESSELS’ brigade U.S.A., then in command here. A fund was raised through his exertions sufficient to supply the church with windows, pews and the necessary church furniture – General WESSEL’s leading the list with a contribution of one hundred dollars – and services were being held with some regularity. But another sad experience was soon to befall the church.
The desperate struggle made for the possession of this place, and its final surrender to the Confederates after three days of memorable fighting left melancholy marks throughout the town of the fierce contest it had experienced and naturally enough from its conspicuous position being within a few yards of the Roanoke River and in easy range of the guns of the Federal fleet, the Episcopal church received a liberal share of injury.
It was a beautiful evening in early springtime, with the Sabbath’s sacred stillness resting about all things, when the battle begun for Plymouth, and for three long days shot and shell hurled over the churchyard’s silent sleepers, whilst men fought and fell in the struggle almost within reach of the graves around them.
The place was won, but with the purchase of great suffering, and the church gave up its pews and gallery to make coffins for many who had fallen around her walls, and rested their bodies in death in the peace of her holy keeping.
During the Confederate occupancy reaching from April, 1864, to the following Oct., the Rev. T.B. HAUGHTON, Episcopal chaplain to the 50th N.C. troops, held occasional services here; but the town having been evacuated by the Southern troops after the loss of the iron-clad “Ablemarle” and re-occupied by the Union forces, the church fell into disuse and remained so till the end of the war.
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And so the church came out from the many trials and changes which the war had wrought in its history, and with the return of a few of its scattered flock – for there we many, alas! who left in 1862 never to come back again – work was begun to give it a new life and repair the waste places of the war. The parish was weak and impoverished, and of necessity therefore had to work slowly; yet by all helping some, and with the assistance of friends elsewhere, much of the damage it had sustained was repaired and the church again opened for Divine worship. The Rev. T.B. HAUGHTON was given charge of the parish and held monthly services until May 1875, when he was transferred to another field, and the day following the vestry called the Rev. H.G. HILTON.
Mr. HILTON served the parish until 1881 when he resigned to take charge of the church at Scotland Neck. His labors here were marked with happiest success and the regret at parting with a minister so devoted to his Master’s work and so faithful and affectionate in the ministration of his sacred office, was deep and universal. He lived among us and left us, beloved by all who knew him.
A short time prior to Mr. HILTON’s leaving the church had bequeathed to it by the will of the late Mrs. M.F. SPRUILL a pious and devoted member, a comfortable rectory already furnished, and some town property of no inconsiderable value. On the 1st of February 1888 the rectory was destroyed by fire with some of the property it contained, entailing a loss of $1500 on the parish, upon which there was no insurance.
During the interval between Rev. Mr. HILTON’s resignation and the call of his successor, Rev. R.B. DRANCE, Col. Robert S. GOELET, Senior Warden of the vestry, now passed into rest, was lay reader for the congregation and faithfully served in this capacity for some time.
Mr. DRANE served most acceptably until May 1885 when he resigned and Rev. E.R. SWEETLAND, of Wisconsin, accepted the call of the vestry and took charge of the parish. Mr. SWEETLAND’s resignation was tendered and accepted in October following and on November 1st, of same year, Rev. Mr. HILTON was recalled when he returned and ministered until his death, Nov. 21st, 1887, after a long and painful illness. His labors were marked with success, and he was laid away in the Church yard here beloved and revered by his people for his loving and devoted services, his untarnished christain life, so full of all gentleness, goodness and purity endearing him to the hearts of all who knew him.
Following the death of Mr. HILTON, the Rev. Luther EBORN, rector of St. David’s church, this county, was invited to take charge of the Grace church and accepting the call began his ministrations March 4th 1888, giving monthly services, according to arrangement. His incumbency continues to this date, and is marked with earnest, zealous work in the Master’s cause to hear witness of his loving care for the people among whom he serves.
Thus, through much of misfortune and severest trial, uneqalled perhaps by the history of any other parish in North Carolina, Grace church lives today great in its solemn memories of the vanished years and hopeful under God’s ordering of an increased and increasing usefulness for Christ and His kingdom in the years coming on.