St. James United Methodist Church

Saint James United Methodist Church History:

 

In 1871, six (6) years after slavery ended, our ancestors felt it necessary to have their own place of worship.  The church was built in eastern Lincoln County, near the township of Catawba Springs, in an area called “Lil Egypt”.  Lil Egypt was a place where many Negro farmers found it easy to put down stakes.  It was an area considered, “…so far back in the country, it was like going back to an African county”.  Therefore it was called Lil Egypt, because there were so many Black families were living there.

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Around 1861, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted laws giving willing individuals up to three thousand acres of land to forge iron.  Property thought unfit for cultivation encouraged an upsurge in the Iron Industry profits along with slave labor.  Jonas Derr a white land owner was one of the recipients of that free land here in Lil Egypt.  He is buried in Lil Egypt behind church member Stanley Roseboro’s home on what we called the ‘old Indian graveyard’, quotes Rudolph Young, local historian and author.  On July 13, 1871, a deed was drawn up for the purpose of building a Methodist church.  “A Negro church (CME then) “.  The land was then given/sold to the church, by Mr. Derr, as the Iron Industry failed, and slavery ended.

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The land to start Saint James UMC, noted as one (1) acre, cost about one hundred dollars ($100.00).  Church members names named as trustees on the deed to the property include, Solomon “Soul” Derr, a former slave here in Lincoln County; also Silas Hull, and Mert Hill. All were former slaves, who migrated to Lil Egypt from Catawba County, after the Emancipation Proclamation.

 

The first church was “…a brush arbor log structure and the second a plank building.”  Sometime later, members from Saint James, and Brevard Chapel purchased five (5) acres. The land was purchased from Mr. and Ms. Hugh Sherrill, a white landowner with property adjoining the church’s land.  In 1965 this allowed for the erection of a new brick church building which the classroom portion of our current church.  In 1967 another church addition was built under the leadership of Reverend Robert McDowell.  In 1991, a fellowship hall and sanctuary were added to the standing structures under the guidance of Pastor Reverend Albert Perkins.  Families of the original church include the Derr’s, the Nixon’s, the Hunter’s, the Johnson’s, the Longcrier’s, the Munday’s, the Anderson’s, the Roseboro’s, the Thompson’s, the Shipp’s, the McCorkles, the Clark’s, the Gregory’s, the Lowery’s, the Caldwell’s, and the Robinson’s.  Our current membership roster includes offspring’s from many of these families.  We are proud to acknowledge that eight-nine (8-9) local pastors, and lay speakers are form/current members of Saint James United Methodist Church.  Until the early 1960’s, Lil Egypt blacks owned approximately fifteen hundred (1500) acres of land.

Previous Saint James ministers include:  Reverend A. W. Stowe, Reverend Marcus Laughlin, Reverend Bynum, Reverend McCorkle, Reverend Robert McDowell, Reverend Albert Perkins, Reverend Emmanuel Morris, Reverend Alexis Anthony, Reverend Paul Revere, Reverend Louise D. Learson and now Pastor Brandon K. Miles.

We have come “a mighty long” way since 1871; from former slaves to the college educated, from share croppers to land owners; to business owners, numerous ministers, and oh so much more to be proud of.  For how well we know, “Had it not been for the Lord on our side, where would we be?”

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