HISTORY of SANDY GROVE CHURCH
Abstracted from History of Sandy Grove Church
September 1854: At the eighty-third Session of the Presbytery of Fayetteville, held at Tirza Church, Cumberland County, N.C. September 1st, 1854 the following Minute is found. viz:
A petition was received from Sandy Grove in Cumberland County requesting Presbytery to organize a church at that place, which was granted, & Rev. Messes. N. McNeill and Rev. N. McLean with Messrs. John McLaughlin & William McDiarmid were appointed a committee to organize the church if the way be clear, at their own convenience.
At the eighty-forth Session of the Presbytery, held at Montpelier Church, Robeson County, N.C. April 5th 1855, the organization of the church was reported as follows, viz:
Rev. N. McNeill reported that the committee appointed to organize a church at Sandy Grove had attended to the duties assigned them, received, and organized a church consisting of twenty members and three Ruling Elders. This report was accepted and adopted and the church ordered to be enrolled. Mr. Peter Monroe, Ruling Elder from said church being present his name was ordered to be enrolled. Archibald McLeod & John L. Campbell were the other Ruling Elders. Sandy Grove Church is mainly an offshoot from Longstreet Church. It is situated in the sandy plains (hence its name) in the western part of Cumberland County, nearly equi-distant from Longstreet, Bethel, and Bethesda, about eleven or twelve miles from each. It is located on the Fayetteville and Albemarle Plank road, near where it crosses Rockfish Creek. The old field in which the church is located was know then as "Egypt", and is said to be above the residence of the late Lauchlin McLeod.
While the congregation was as assembling with Mr. J. C. Currie as chairman, to organize Sandy Grove, 'the report of a gunshot was heard nearby'. Soon one of the number was seen hauling a fine deer, having proved his skill as a rifleman. As late as that, the forests abounded with game.
It is to be regretted that the early records of Sandy Grove Church fell into the hands of Sherman's raiders, and were destroyed. Many facts and incidents of its early history were thus lost beyond recovery.
The people of this section are the descendants of those early Scotch settlers. Among the first settlers and those now resident, we find the names of McNeill, Smith, McLean, Johnson, McCrimmon, Shaw, Beton or Bethune, Graham, McLeod, Gillis, McDonald, McCaskill, McIntyre, Lamon, Lamont, McMillan, Campbell, Ray, McRae, McCraney, Martin, McCall, McNatt, McGill, Wilkinson, McFayden, McFarland, McDuffie, Monroe, McKenzie, Blue, McGougan, Leslie, Currie, McDougald, McPherson, Peterson, Clark, Patterson, McKeithen, CAmeron, McArthur, Buchan, Black, Wilson, McLaren, Finlayson, Kennedy and Ferguson. All names indicate an unmistakable Scottish origin.
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