Hopewell Church Land Deed, Burke County, July 1873 State of North Carolina, County of Burke. Be it remembered that on this 17th day of May 1873 before me the undersigned Judge of Probate, personally appeared James Farr and wife Mary the grantors to the foregoing deed and acknowledged the full execution of the same, where upon the said Mary Farr was by me examined seperate an apart from her touching her signature then said dded when she declared that she signed the sfreely and of her own will and consent and does still voluntary assent there to. Let the said deed together with the certificate be registered. D.C. Pearson, Judge of Probate Registered the 5th day of July 1873 Mr. Farr and his wife who were Methodist, were members of Gilboa Church which he helped to build. He and Mrs. Farr are buried in Gilboa Cemetery. The church was named during the building. The local men built the church. One day a neighbor came by and asked what the name of the church would be, one workman remarked, that no name had been selected, but all the people "Hoped it would do well" so "Hopewell" was approved. In addition to the one acre of land given by Mr. and Mrs. Farr, later some land was given for the cemetery by Mary Patton, John Beach, R.T. (Bob) Williams and Horace Williams. Logs were cut on the land given to the Church and dragged to the Church site by two oxen owned by Jim Deal. The church was built of hewn logs, and scored to a thickness of 9 inches for the walls and daubed with mud, no lumber was used except for shingles, floor and gable. The shingles were hand hewn. Byard Grady had charge of the board making. Joe Grady made the seats. The only money given was by a physician, Dr. Laubacker living near the Cullen Propst homeplace; that money was spent for making the nails and benches. There is no record of any other money being given or spent on the church. The following is a list of 17 original members (although there were supposed to be 37 when the church was established.) Joe Simpson Monroe Pless Jim Deal Joe Poole Jacob Mooney Stephen Ross John Epley Joe Grady David Mooney Joe Baker Rube Miller Jamison Queen Byard Grady Martha Tallent Ambrose Williams Harriet Williams Pearson Alfred Tallent 1871 Jamison Queen was named church clerk and P.A. Whitener was called as pastor. 1870-1874 Jesse Tallent and Jamison Queen were sent as delgates to the Catawba River Association. ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Margaret Clarke [mclarke@hci.net] on October 12, 1999 ====================================================================