History of Cub Creek Presbyterian Church, Charlotte County, Virginia File submitted for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Larry Glen Harvey ************************************************************************ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ************************************************************************ The first log structure was known as the Caldwell Meeting House and was probably erected shortly after John Caldwell led a group of Scotch Irish to "the back parts of Virginia" and established the Caldwell Community on Cub Creek around 1738. In late 1727, John Caldwell, his wife and five children, landed at Newcastle in the Colony of Delaware (1), a part of "a considerable exodus of Scotch Presbyterians from Ulster County, Ireland. Looking for religious freedom and for exemption of taxation for the support of the Established Church."(2) Finding the choicest locations in Pennsylvania already occupied (3) they moved on to Virginia and when the Act of Toleration was passed in 1738 they were in Albemarle County, Virginia, having removed there about 1733 (4). On May 26, 1738, John Caldwell appeared before the Philadelphia Synod of the Presbyterian Church, asking the Synod to officially ask the government to ensure frontiersmen the right to worship as they pleased as there were a large group of Presbyterians planning to settle in the back parts of Virginia. (5) On May 30th, such a letter "To the Honorable William Gooch, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Virginia" was approved by the Synod (6), and James Anderson carried the letter to Williamsburg and received a favorable reply from Governor Gooch (7). There is evidence to suggest the occupation of the land was under way when Governor Gooch's reply was communicated to the Synod at their session in 1739 (8). The Caldwell Settlement occupied an area of about 5 or 6 square miles on Cub, Wallace and Turnip Creeks and was bounded on the south by the Staunton River. There appears to have been at least three buildings (9). The original meeting house was used until it was replaced in 1820 (10). The second building, if indeed there were three, may have been built at, or near, the original site and used until the last building was erected at an unknown date. At a meeting of the Presbytery at Cub Creek Church, October 13, 1774, the seed was planted for two schools of higher learning to be established in Virginia. "Thus was founded at Cub Creek Church, ‘Liberty Hall Academy', afterwards ‘Washington College' and still later ‘Washington and Lee University'." (11) The other was to be a seminary in Southside Virginia, ‘Hampden-Sydney College'. In 1937, in preparation for the 200th anniversary of the church in 1938, money had been given by David K. Bruce, Charlotte County philanthropist, statesman, etc., for repairs to the building. Work had begun when the contractor carelessly built a fire too close to the church steps; the steps caught fire and the church burned down. (12) The church was not rebuilt. In 1938 the Charlotte County Branch of the APVA (Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) erected a large monument on the site of the original meeting house. My grandfather, Luther Peyton Harvey, was Clerk of the Session from 1911 until 1931 and at the end of his time it was determined that a plot plan be prepared for all graves in the "new" (13) cemetery with names shown that were known. In 1931 (14) he and Carrol Franklin Adams prepared such a plan to scale. In June 2000, I prepared a sketch showing graves as they appear on the original plot plan, plus graves that have been added since that time. On the cemetery sketch, graves with numerical numbering are as they appear on the original plot plan; those with alpha markings are graves added since the preparation of the original plot plan. Those with the upper right corner shaded are the ones that currently have grave markers. Larry Glen Harvey End Notes 1. Per Katie Haensel, December 17, 1999, a descendant of John Caldwell. 2. "Cub Creek Church and Congregation" by Elizabeth Venable Gaines, p. 9. 3. Ibid. 4. Haensel. 5. Ibid. 6. Ibid. 7. "History of Hampden-Sydney College" by Herbert C. Bradshaw, p. 2. 8. Ibid. 9. Historical Sketch of Cub Creek Church, prepared as part of the histories of the churches of Roanoke Presbytery, pursuant to the order of Synod at its Spring session in 1887, for the Centennial celebration of Roanoke Presbytery to be held in 1888, p.52. 10. Haensel. 11. Bradshaw. 12. Conversation with Carrol Franklin Adams October 28, 1997. Carrol was involved with determining repairs needed and preparing to oversee the work. 13. An earlier cemetery is located near the site of the original meeting house and graves there are marked only with field stones. John Caldwell is said to be buried there. 14. The plot plan contains the grave of Luther Peyton Harvey's grandson, (67), who was born and died in April 1931, but does not contain the grave of his wife, (K), who died in November 1931.