Pilgrim Grove: The Story of the colored Presbyterian Church of Newton County
A Beginning on Mt. Moriah Road
On a quiet rise along Mt. Moriah Road in Newton County once stood one of the earliest centers of Black faith and community life after the Civil War—the Pilgrim Grove Colored Presbyterian Church. Though its sanctuary was small, and its congregants were rural farmers and laborers who lived with little means, Pilgrim Grove stood as a powerful symbol of freedom, land ownership, education, and the right of African Americans to worship independently after generations of enslavement.
But the story of Pilgrim Grove does not begin with a building. It begins much earlier—in the days when enslaved men, women, and children were required to worship under the watchful eyes of those who owned them.
A Mixed-Worship Past Before 1895
Long before Black Presbyterians in the Bethel–Mt. Moriah community had a church of their own, they worshiped wherever circumstance placed them. For many, that space was Mt. Moriah Presbyterian Church, the white congregation nearby. One early newspaper clipping captures this reality:
“During slavery, and for several years afterward, the parents of some of the Negroes attended church at the Mt. Moriah Presbyterian Church (white) southwest of Newton.”1
Inside that church, enslaved people likely sat apart from whites—perhaps in a balcony, or on benches at the back—listening to sermons but not participating. The message was clear: faith was permitted, but freedom within faith was not.
After emancipation, some freed families continued worshiping at Mt. Moriah for a different reason: they had nowhere else to go. With no land, no buildings, and few resources, they relied on shared worship until they could establish a spiritual home of their own. Yet the desire for independent worship, free from white oversight, grew steadily in those years.
Pilgrim Grove would eventually rise from this longing for autonomy—born out of faith, and anchored in land.
What the Deeds Reveal: Land Was Bought, Not Given
For decades, local memory and newspaper accounts offered a simplified version of how that land was obtained. The story often repeated was that a former enslaver, Catherine Evans, gave land to her former slaves.
The courthouse tells a different story.
On September 20, 1876, a deed was recorded in Book one, page 42-43, Newton County transferring land in Section 18, Township 5, Range 11 East. The sellers were Nancy Evans, Mary Evans, and Emily J. Evans, heirs of Catherine W. (“Kate”) Evans (1845-1875), and daughters of the original enslaver Catherine McInnis Evans (1809-1887). Emily J. Evans also signed on behalf of Mary L. Evans, a minor, whose precise relationship remains under investigation.
The buyers were explicitly identified as “colored”:
- Sena Evans
- Emanuel Evans
- Delany Evans
- Emma Evans
The consideration paid was $400—a substantial sum in 1876, especially for people only a decade removed from slavery.
This was not a gift.
It was a purchase.
The land that would eventually anchor Black Presbyterian worship in the Mt. Moriah community was acquired through pooled resources, legal navigation, and financial sacrifice by formerly enslaved people.
Sena Evans: donor and Steward
Later newspaper accounts remembered Sena Evans as a slave of Mrs. Catherine Evans who “gave” land to the church.2 The deeds show something more complex—and more powerful.
Sena Evans was one of the purchasers of land from the Evans heirs in 1876. By the late 19th century, she held an individual interest in Section 18. Then, on June 23, 1898, she conveyed one acre of her land, located in the southeast corner of Section 18, to be used by the Black Presbyterian congregation.
Sena did not donate something freely given to her.
She gave from land that had been paid for, at cost, by formerly enslaved people navigating a legal system not built for their benefit.
Her act was not charity—it was stewardship.
Sisterhood and the Protection of Sacred Ground
Later records expand this story further.
In 1902, Sena’s sister Delany Evans Mosley sold her eight-acre tract to her brother-n-law Spencer McAdory. Crucially, the deed included a restriction reserving one acre for Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church, legally protecting the church land during the transfer of surrounding property.
This was not incidental language.
It was intentional preservation.Together, the actions of Sena Evans, who formally donated land, and Delany Evans Mosley, who later protected it by deed, reveal that Pilgrim Grove’s site was secured not by a single moment, but through sustained family commitment.
Black Women and the Geography of Ownership
Further records deepen this story. Tax assessments from 1883 show Millie Evans, widow of Emanuel Evans, Sena’s brother, owning 80 acres of land in the same section. Subsequent deeds confirm that Millie Evans and Sena Evans were distinct individuals, both landowners in Section 18.
This discovery strengthens, rather than complicates, the narrative.
It reveals a pattern: multiple Black women from the Evans plantation acquiring and holding land in the post-emancipation period. These women were not passive recipients of white generosity. They were economic actors—purchasing, managing, and later leveraging land to support families, churches, and community institutions.
Land ownership was not incidental.
It was the foundation upon which independence rested.
Memory, Morality, and the Newspaper Story
Why, then, did later newspapers frame the land as a gift from an enslaver?3
Such accounts were often written decades after the fact, shaped by:
- fading memory
- moralized storytelling
- a desire to highlight reconciliation over conflict
- and a tendency to center white benevolence rather than Black agency
The newspaper version captured a moral truth—that Pilgrim Grove emerged from the wreckage of slavery—but it obscured a legal and economic reality: freedpeople paid for their future.
Understanding this distinction does not diminish the church’s story.
It clarifies it.
From Plantation Ground to Sacred Ground
Section 18, Township 5, Range 11 East was once plantation land—worked by enslaved hands, marked by cotton rows, and governed by ownership that denied Black humanity.
After emancipation, that same land changed meaning.
It became:
- land that Black families purchased
- land where women held deeds
- land where children were raised
- land where a church was built
What had once been plantation ground became sacred ground, not through generosity from above, but through determination from below.
Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church rose from this soil—not as a gift, but as a testament. A testament to faith practiced freely, land secured lawfully, and a community built by people who understood that freedom required both belief and ownership.
The church that would stand on Sena’s acre was not merely a house of worship.
It was proof.
sources
- The Newton Record, Colored Presbyterian Church, Thu, Apr 07, 1955 ·Page 1 ↩︎
- Ibid, p.1 ↩︎
- The Newton Record, Presbyterians Show Progress During Tackett Pastorate, Thu, Jun 27, 1957 ·Page 2 ↩︎