The author, Steve Bailey, is outreach coordinator at the Anson County Historical Society. Information for this article comes from the Oct. 16, 1888, issue of the Messenger-Intelligencer which was published in Wadesboro from 1888-1923.
Polkton Baptist Church, originally known as Piney Grove Baptist Church, was in its prime in the 1850s and 1860s when church membership was in the hundreds. The Rev. Edmund Davis was one of the first pastors of this church and while he had hardly any education, he was a man of great spiritual power and personal magnetism. As proof, he baptized more people than any other minister in North Carolina in his day.
He seemed born to influence a crowd and is remembered for his energetic delivery of a Sunday morning sermon or an evening revival church service. At those great revival meetings of long ago, Davis would jump over the pulpit to get closer to his congregation.
What if Davis had been an educated man? They believed that God called him just as he was; a rough diamond, an ordinary man preaching in the wilderness, filled with the spirit of God. Bear in mind, the plan of that era was to pursue educated ministers of the Gospel.
The old Piney Grove Baptist Church has disappeared from Baptist history and Polkton Baptist Church has taken its place. It stands on the same lot as a beautiful grove of four acres donated years ago by John Williams to the Baptist cause because there were no other Baptist churches nearby. The ministers in those days – the 1890s and early 1900s – were the Revs. J.K. Fant, C. H. Martin, G.O. Wilhoit and Tom Wright.
Polkton Baptist Church was organized on Aug. 19, 1853, with eight charter members: Thomas Polk, James Moore, John Boyd, Sampson Caudle, Benjamin Ponds, Mary Boyd, Lucretia Ponds and Eliza Grace. In the 1870s the membership increased so much that the elders of the church decided to build a new church building on the present site and by 1877 a Sunday School Missionary Society was organized.
In the church minutes of September 1886, there’s a vivid description of the Charleston earthquake which states that on Tuesday evening during a revival meeting, the Rev. N. B. Cobb delivered a sermon with much spiritual power. The church service ended and the members and visitors went home and suddenly the earth begin to tremble, houses rocked, windows rattled and people began screaming and kneeling asking for God’s mercy. They thought that the end of time had come. The following Sunday, 12 people professed religion and were baptized.
Former pastors of Polkton Baptist Church include the Revs. A.E. Bennett, Edmund L. Davis, J.E. King, N.B. Cobb, J.L. Bennett, W.B. Harrell, W.G. Rollings, G.O. Wilhoit, S.P. Morton, J. Bivens, J.P. Boyd, J.W. Little, C.H. Martin, A.B. Caudle, C.J. Black, B.M. Hobbs, J.B. Shinn, G.H. Church, H. Morton, W.K. Hogan, J.W. Nobles, M.D. Preslar, J.R. Pentuff, Ray Little, J.C. Meigs, Clayton Pope, C. Richard Roberts, John Beukema, Belvin Cox, E.M. Chilton, Steve Mabry, Rex Burleson and Tony Cowlick.
Author’s note: Keep in mind that this church history was contributed in 1995 to be included in “Heritage of Anson County NC.”