Dickerson Chapel AME Church

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1. 1845–1847 The Old Orange County Courthouse is moved up Churton Street to Queen Street After the county built a new courthouse, its commissioners advertised the old wooden courthouse for sale at the November 1845 county court, to be removed from the court square. The Baptist missionary Elias Dodson bought it, and by about 1847 it stood at the corner of Churton and Queen streets as a church. The building later became the freedmen's school and then the home of Dickerson Chapel AME Church. People: Elias Dodson North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation (National Register documentation, about 2013) · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, September 18, 1845, p. 3
2. 1851 Job Berry and Billy Payne begin the congregation that became Dickerson Chapel Dickerson Chapel AME Church dates its founding to 1851, when Job Berry, an enslaved painter and its first pastor, began gathering the congregation with Rev. Billy (William) Payne, enslaved by Dr. Edmund Strudwick. With state law barring Black preachers, they met in homes; the congregation moved into the old courthouse on Queen Street in 1866. People: Edmund Strudwick, Job Berry News of Orange County: Hillsborough church awarded $400k preservation grant (2025)
3. November 19, 1853 First Baptist Church of Hillsborough is organized in the old courthouse The First Baptist Church was organized in Hillsborough and met in the former 1790 courthouse building, now Dickerson Chapel, until 1862, while it raised its own church building on a lot acquired between 1854 and 1860. The historic district survey gives the organizing date as November 19, 1853; in 1952 the church itself told the News of Orange it had been organized on November 3, 1852, and held its centennial in 1953. People: Elias Dodson North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation (National Register documentation, about 2013) · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 24, 1952, p. 1
4. August 18, 1862 The Baptists sell their old courthouse church to George Bishop of New Bern Trustees H. C. Strowd, John Cheek and William Ward sold the old Baptist church lot at Churton and Queen streets, part of town lot 80, to George Bishop of New Bern for $750. Bishop later resold it to Philadelphia Friends working for freedpeople, and it became the home of Dickerson's Chapel. Pauline O. Lloyd and Allen A. Lloyd, History of the Churches of Hillsborough, N.C., ca. 1766-1962 (1963), scan p. 29
5. 1866 The AME congregation later called Dickerson Chapel begins worshipping in the old courthouse The AME congregation later known as Dickerson Chapel moved into the 1790 courthouse building on Queen Street in 1866, sharing it with the freedmen's school the Philadelphia Friends ran there. Lefler and Wager date its formal organization to 1873, and the Friends conveyed the building to the church's trustees in 1886. People: Job Berry News of Orange County: Hillsborough church awarded $400k preservation grant
6. January 28, 1886 Dickerson's Chapel trustees buy the old courthouse from the Philadelphia Friends Trustees of the Philadelphia Friends' association for the relief of freedmen sold the old Baptist church lot, with the former courthouse on it, to the trustees of Hillsborough's African Methodist Episcopal church for $800. The congregation had worshipped and kept school there for twenty years. Pauline O. Lloyd and Allen A. Lloyd, History of the Churches of Hillsborough, N.C., ca. 1766-1962 (1963), scan p. 61
7. January 20, 1888 Hillsborough's Black Independent Literary Society installs its officers at the A.M.E. church The Independent Literary Society, a Black society about three months old that met at the A.M.E. church in Hillsborough, installed officers with Rev. J. E. C. Barham as president and C. P. Turrentine as secretary. It set a public debate for February 6 on whether Black Americans should emigrate to a colony of their own or remain in the United States. Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), February 11, 1888, p. 3
8. 1891 Dickerson's Chapel remodels the old courthouse church The AME congregation remodeled its building, the county's former courthouse, five years after buying it. Pauline O. Lloyd and Allen A. Lloyd, History of the Churches of Hillsborough, N.C., ca. 1766-1962 (1963), scan p. 60
9. early May 1891 Hillsborough's A.M.E. church makes a second appeal for money to finish its repairs The pastor, P. J. Jordan, asked friends of the congregation for funds to complete long-needed repairs to the church. The editor added a note backing the appeal and saying the people who worship there deserved help. Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), May 2, 1891, p. 3
10. August 30-31, 1891 Black Methodists hold a two-day Grand Rally at Hillsborough and raise about $175 The Black Methodist congregation held a Grand Rally on Sunday and Monday, August 30 and 31, and raised about $175. Rev. J. E. Bristowe, pastor of the white Methodist church, was to preach in their church on Sunday afternoon, with seats set aside for white visitors. Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), September 5, 1891, p. 3
11. by December 10, 1892 Rev. P. J. Jordan is ordered away from the Hillsborough A.M.E. church after two years as pastor On leaving, the Rev. P. J. Jordan publicly thanked Hillsborough's white residents for their support during his two years as pastor of the A.M.E. church; the annual conference under Bishop W. J. Gaines had ordered him to a new charge. Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), December 10, 1892, p. 2
12. May 14-15, 1911 Bishop L. J. Coppin preaches and lectures on Africa at Hillsboro Bishop L. J. Coppin preached at Hillsboro's Black Methodist church on Sunday morning, May 14, 1911, and on the next night lectured there on Africa to a large audience. Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), May 18, 1911, p. 5

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