HISTORICAL SKETCHES

CANE CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH

Number 11: September 2005 www.canecreek.org 6901 Orange Grove Road., Hillsborough, NC 27278

CANE CREEK AND CHESTNUT RIDGE

The quotes below come from a little autobiography called Footprints of A Human Life by James Cheek. We have this book thanks to Virginia Perry. James Cheek was born near New Hope Presbyterian Church in 1874. His father moved the family back to the community in 1876 and settled on James’ grandfather’s place which I judge to have been somewhere along Toms Creek not far from Oak Grove Baptist Church. They stayed there 10 years before moving to Saxapahaw. As a young man, James moved to Minnesota and worked in the timbering business until his wife took sick. They went to Oregon to seek a cure. At some point, James decided to return to his Christian roots and worked with an organization called Pisgah that ministered to the poor around Los Angeles. Later, he began a religious publication called the Herald of Hope, which was sent out all over the country and to foreign countries. Around 1949 he published this life story from which I excerpt part of Chapter 7, called “Church Life.” (I will get some more historical sketches from this interesting book!)

“When I think of grandpap Moore, I remember the old Chestnut Ridge Methodist Church of which he was a prominent member. In my early boyhood they still had camp meetings there. A row of log cabins was built fifty to one hundred yards from the church. In these cabins, some of the families would stay through the meeting, one member going back and forth to take care of the stock at home.

“I thought it was great to spend the night there with Cicero Jones. His folks had a cabin and stayed during these fall meetings. Mother was a member of this church and father was a member of Cane Creek Baptist Church. They would go to camp meeting for the day and I would sometimes stay over with Cicero. We ate at the camp table, which had a charm for me that I cannot express.

“Not far from the church there was an arbor under which they held meetings when the weather was suitable. It had a high pulpit, mourners’ bench, and straw all around in front of the pulpit. One day, Cicero Sykes, Mr. John William Sykes’ son, had been to the mourners’ bench and had prayed through and had shed enough tears to wet his handkerchief, which he showed to me as we walked down the long hill to the spring. A great many of us would go to the alter every year and get renewed. Somehow, the circuit riders did not preach about a faith that would hold good from one end of the year to the other.

“In my mind’s eye, I can see those old circuit riders mounted on their horses, with their saddlebags. They would ride up to a tree, dismount, hitch their horses to a swinging limb and walk slowly and reverently through the grounds shaking hands with the brethren. I especially remember one preacher whose name was Pickens. His general appearance and preaching style appealed to me. He was popular with everybody at the Ridge. We had another preacher who was very peculiar, called “Monkey Dick Mischeaux.” He was well liked and was one of the cleverest men in the Conference. His brother, John, also a preacher, was more precise, but Dick, with all his peculiarities, was considered a better preacher and was popular amongst Methodists and Baptists alike …

“The old Cane Creek Baptist Church was about four miles from our house over a rough hilly road. The circuit riders came once a month, preaching Sunday morning with a business meeting on Saturday before preaching.

“David Sykes was clerk of the church and I remember so distinctly seeing him sitting at the little table with the church book before him. He had a resonant voice and it resounded in the church as he called out ‘John Dodson, Charles Kennedy, William Cheek, Billy Cates, Anderson Cates, John W. Holmes, Chesley Andrews, Henry Lloyd,’ and many others. It was a rule of the Baptist church in those days that if a member missed three meetings, he would be ‘brought up before the church.’ Sometimes they would ‘bring them up’ for being drunk or going to dances.

“In the late summer months we would have our protracted meetings at Cane Creek Church. The people throughout the district would come, walking, or riding in wagons and buggies or on horseback. Many took dinner, and two of the main dishes served were fried chicken and fried ham. When morning service was over, an effort was made to see that everyone on the grounds had something to eat.

“The buggy used in the days of slavery was made with pieces of iron extending over the rear axle. On this was a wooden seat where the servant boy rode, in order to serve his master and to look after the horse.

“Cane Creek Church had the old fashioned high pulpit, about three feet high with four or five steps leading up to it. The front seats were reserved for those who responded to the alter call. A space was partitioned off in the back for the slaves.

“As boy of about fourteen years old, I was convicted of my sin and when the call for seekers was made, I came to the alter. Some of the church leaders came and talked to me and I surrendered to Jesus. I especially remember Mrs. Wilson Dodson who was one of them. I rose with a light heart, and as I looked around on the swarthy faces of our neighbors, they looked better than I had ever seen them. The dingy unpainted walls of the old church looked better than they ever had before… I was baptized in Thompson’s millpond.

“The church where I was saved was one of the prominent landmarks of that section of Orange County and had the appearance of being close to a hundred years old at that time. It was torn down years ago and has been replaced by two other church buildings.”

COMMENTS. Our records show that James was not 14 but at most 13 years old when he joined our church. The “rough hilly road” he had to travel over to get here would have been the Greensboro Stage Road which had to climb and then descend Thunder Mountain (earlier called Thompson’s Mountain) and cross Cane Creek below Mae Crawford’s house. His discription of our 1874 church is the only one we have. It was torn down in 1890 following the completion of the church that stood where the basket ball court now is. Jame’s notion that the church “had the appearance of being close to a hundred years old” is contradicted by the fact that we bought our current tract in 1852 and would probably have built the church soon thereafter. James was baptized in Thompson’s mill pond. This is the mill pond on Buckhorn Road where I live. Ed Johnson