Cotton Chapel and St. Joseph CME, 1898–1938

When the mortgage on Cotton Chapel, a Black Methodist church in Chapel Hill, was foreclosed in 1933, the congregation was left with no place to worship. Chapel Hill members of the CME church who had worshipped at Hamlet Chapel in Pittsboro had formed it in 1898, naming it for its founder, Henry Cotton. Its pastor, the Rev. J. S. Miller, appealed through the Weekly for help in buying a new site and building again. Between 1933 and 1938 Henry Baldwin, Margaret Burnette and Kennon Cheek mortgaged their homes for the down payment on a lot on Rosemary Street, where a frame church went up under Miller and was dedicated as St. Joseph CME Church.

The events, date by date

Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.

1898 Cotton Chapel CME Church, the forerunner of St. Joseph CME, was organized Chapel Hill members of the Colored Methodist Episcopal church, who had worshipped at Hamlet Chapel in Pittsboro, formed their own congregation named for founder Henry Cotton. Its first building later burned and was rebuilt as a frame church. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Henry CottonFrom the Rock Wall: St. Joseph C.M.E. Church

by June 9, 1933 Cotton Chapel, a Black Methodist church, loses its building to foreclosure The mortgage on Cotton Chapel, the Black Methodist church in the northwest part of Chapel Hill, was foreclosed and the church sold, leaving the congregation with no place to worship. Its pastor, the Rev. J. S. Miller, appealed through the Weekly to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and to members and friends for help in buying a new site and building again. Place: Cotton Chapel, northwest Chapel Hill · Also named: J. S. MillerSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 9, 1933, p. 5

August 3 and 4, 1933 The Durham district conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church meets in Chapel Hill The Durham district conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church held its two-day meeting in Chapel Hill at a Black Methodist church at the west end of Franklin Street. The host pastor, the Rev. J. S. Miller, invited white as well as Black townspeople to look in and learn the church's methods. Place: Methodist church, west end of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: J. S. Miller · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 4, 1933, p. 2

1935 St. Joseph CME builds its first church on West Rosemary Street The Weekly reported on June 9, 1933 that the mortgage on Cotton Chapel, the congregation's church in the northwest part of the village, had been foreclosed and the building sold, and that the pastor, Rev. J. S. Miller, was appealing for help to buy a new site and build anew. Henry Baldwin, Margaret Burnette and Kennon Cheek mortgaged their homes for the down payment on the Rosemary Street lot, which Black leaders had judged too small for a new high school. A frame church went up under Miller and was dedicated as St. Joseph Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. In September 1935 the Weekly reported that Black Methodists had almost completed a new church on West Rosemary Street near the town line, and by 1937 it was naming St. Joseph's C. M. E. church. People: Kennon Cheek Place: 510 West Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Henry Baldwin, Margaret Burnette, Joseph S. Miller, J. S. Miller · Also mentions: Rosemary Street, West Rosemary StreetThe Marian Cheek Jackson Center: Saint Joseph CME Church historical sketch, 118th anniversary journal (2016) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 9, 1933, p. 5; Chapel Hill Weekly, September 6, 1935, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 12, 1937, p. 5

H. G. Jones follows the fortune of Mary Ruffin Smith (1814-1885), the unmarried heiress whose Orange and Chatham County lands passed at her death to the University of North Carolina and the Episcopal Church. Chapters profile her grandfather Francis Jones, then trace the bequest through a quarrel among Episcopalians over Price Creek, the Chapel of the Cross and the university's buildings. A December 1885 New York Times report called the gift money; Jones shows it was land. Published by McFarland in 2014, 231 pages.

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Church in the Old Fields: Hawfields Presbyterian Church and Community in North Carolina

Turner, Herbert Snipes · 1962

Herbert Snipes Turner's history of Hawfields Presbyterian Church and its community from 1738 to 1960. Hawfields lies in what is now Alamance County, land that was part of Orange County until 1849, and the book gives a place to Henry Pattillo, the congregation's eighteenth-century minister. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1962, 297 pages with illustrations.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1963).

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A Historical Sketch of New Hope Church, in Orange County, N.C

Craig, D. I. · 1891

Rev. D. I. Craig's history of New Hope Church, a Presbyterian congregation in Chapel Hill Township, Orange County, printed at Reidsville in 1891. A closing family history section covers the Strayhorn, Craig, Blackwood and Kirkland families.

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Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray

Rosenberg, Rosalind · 2017

Rosalind Rosenberg's 2017 biography of Pauli Murray (1910-1985), lawyer, poet and Episcopal priest, raised in Durham. Its six parts follow a Southern childhood, the move to New York, the 1938 application to the University of North Carolina that was refused because Murray was Black (the chapter is titled 'Members of your race are not admitted'), law school and the coining of the phrase Jane Crow, the Cold War years, the push toward 'an NAACP for women', and a late-life ordination. 494 pages with portraits.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2018).

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Journey to New Hope

Murphy, Barbara A. · 2006

A congregational history of New Hope Presbyterian Church in Orange County, written by Barbara A. Murphy and published in 2006 by Chapel Hill Press. Chapters take up the five successive church buildings, the land itself, the ministers who served, the cemeteries, members who went to war, the church's organization, its music, gifts and memorials, and its outreach to the surrounding community. It also covers Presbyterian experience of the Civil War. 126 pages with illustrations and portraits.

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Facing Tomorrow, Understanding Yesterday

1992

A history of Orange United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill since 1832, prepared by the congregation's History Committee and edited by Margaret A. Blanchard with Julia Blackwood, Mildred Stout, Wiley Williams, Kay Creech, Andrea Stark and Shirley Mallard. Published by Taylor Publishing of Dallas in 1992, 161 pages with illustrations, some in color, a facsimile, maps and portraits.

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Binkley: A Congregational History

Gardner, Andrew · 2023 · The University of Tennessee Press

Andrew Gardner's history of Binkley Memorial Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, named for Olin T. Binkley, covering the years between the late 1950s and the 2010s and tracing how a congregation with Southern Baptist roots came to be known for liberal Christianity. Published by the University of Tennessee Press in 2023, 213 pages with illustrations.

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Centennial Monograph

Habel, Samuel Tilden · 1954 · The Baptist Church

Samuel Tilden Habel's centennial monograph on the Baptist Church at Chapel Hill, covering its first hundred years from 1854 to 1954. It pairs a narrative of the congregation with membership lists. Published by the church in Chapel Hill in 1954, 58 pages plus sixteen pages of plates with illustrations, portraits and facsimiles.

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A History of the Chapel Hill Baptist Church, 1854-1924

Howell, Almonte Charles · 1945

A. C. Howell's history of the Baptist church in Chapel Hill from 1854 to 1924, published in 1945. Thirty-two pages with one plate; the story touches the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina as well as the congregation itself.

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The Church of the Atonement and the Chapel of the Cross at Chapel Hill

Henderson, Archibald · 1938

Archibald Henderson's history of the Episcopal congregation in Chapel Hill, the Church of the Atonement and the Chapel of the Cross, as the title names them. A short work of Chapel Hill church history and of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina, published in Hartford, Connecticut, by the Church Missions Publishing Company in 1938, 57 pages with illustrations and portraits. One copy carries the author's presentation inscription to the North Carolina State Library.

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An Historical Address Delivered in Saint Matthew's Church, Hillsboro, N.C., on Sunday, August 24, 1924

Cheshire, Joseph Blount · 1925

Address by Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough on 24 August 1924, marking the parish's hundredth anniversary. Printed in Durham in 1925 at the vestry's order, with a foreword by the rector. Cheshire discusses George Micklejohn, William Mercer Green and Moses Ashley Curtis.

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The first parish register of the Chapel of the Cross (1842-1881)

2024 · Chapel Hill Historical Society

Transcription of the first register kept by Chapel of the Cross, the Episcopal parish on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, with its entries from 1842 to 1881. Published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 2024 with an introduction and a bibliography, 142 pages with illustrations and portraits.

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