For the first time since the passing of the old Indian trails, since many years before the Civil War, there is no church building overlooking the old Cherry Grove cemetery just west of Lynn. Sold to a contractor about three months ago, the almost-immemorial Cherry Grove church has been torn down and hauled away.
One of Randolph County's oldest landmarks and one of the most popular meeting houses in the late nineteenth century, the church was sold after standing empty for almost four years.
Although the building which was hauled away was comparatively new, built in 1922, this is the first time any living person has been able to travel along the gravel road in front of the Cherry Grove cemetery without passing a church.
This building was erected in 1922 to take the place of the original Cherry Grove church, built almost 130 years ago on the hill overlooking the cemetery.
Of Friends denomination, the original church was built by a group of pioneers on the hill and named Cherry Grove because of the large number of wild cherry trees growing nearby. At the time of it's construction all travel was on horseback or on foot, and the one-room building was large enough to accommodate the limited number of members able to make the trip from their homes to the church each Sunday morning.
As was the custom at the time, the church had no regular minister, depending on traveling preachers for the Sunday morning services.
The original church building was sold in 1922 after being struck by lightning and burned, but many of the older residents of the community can remember the now old-fashioned methods of conducting the worship services.
The building was designed with a large partition near the middle of the room which could be lowered or raised by ropes. Before the start of the worship service the partition would be lowered between the men and the women, sitting on their respective sides of the room, and would remain lowered until all group business had been transacted. Then it would be raised for group worship. The old partition was used until about 55 years ago.
At that time the church supported and operated a school in conjunction with the church. Although the school was managed by Friends teachers, virtually all neighboring children attended regardless of their religious affiliation.
The school was abandoned following the introduction of public schools. Arthur Pegg, 73 years young, who lives within stone-throwing distance of where the church stood, purchased the school building and now uses it for a workshop.
Although travel was difficult following the construction of the first church, that section of Randolph County was covered almost completely with timber, meetings were held in the church each Sunday and "fourth day" meetings each Wednesday. The church members built many of the nearby roads to facilitate Sunday morning travel.
The church finally failed when more churches were built and travel became easier, splitting the congregation among several other memberships.
The cemetery, started with the first church, was plotted when the town of Lynn consisted of a store and a crossroads. When the first person, a young woman, was buried in the cemetery, the people of the Lynn community were still trying to decide between the names of Lynn and Lynnville for their town.
The Cherry Grove church possibly had as long a record of ministers as any church in Randolph County. Among the recent ministers were Ed Howell, Elvin Thornburg, Olive Harris and Roe Amburn, but few former members can tell you about the sermons of Jonathon Hodges, Armon Kenworthy, Eldwood Ozbun and the many, many other ministers who helped build the late Cherry Grove church.
Photo is Cherry Grove Friends Church. taken by Willard C. Heiss, 1947
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