The Story of Pilgrim Grove
The Colored Presbyterian Church of Newton County
Table of Contents
Preface
- Why Pilgrim Grove Matters
- Sources, Memory, and Method
Chapter One
From Enslaved Worship to Purchased Ground: The Origins of Pilgrim Grove
- Worship Under Watch: Mt. Moriah Presbyterian Before Emancipation
- A Mixed-Worship Past After the Civil War
- What the Deeds Reveal: Land Was Bought, Not Given
- The 1876 Purchase in Section 18, Township 5, Range 11 East
- Sena Evans Reconsidered: Purchaser, Owner, Steward
- Black Women and Post-Emancipation Landownership
- When Memory and Deeds Disagree
- From Plantation Ground to Sacred Ground
Sidebar: When Memory and Deeds Disagree
Chapter Two
Those Who Gathered First: Early Souls of Pilgrim Grove
- Sena Evans: A Purchaser and Steward of Sacred Ground
- Nancy Bolton Evans: A Mother of the Church
- Nathaniel “Nathan” Evans: One of the First Elders
- Arch G. Evans: A Pillar of the Mid-Century Church
- Joe Mosley: A Man at the Crossroads of Two Churches
- Rural Worship and Shared Congregations
- Evans Cemetery and the Geography of Memory
Sidebar: Infant Loss in Rural Black Communities
Chapter Three
Building the First Sanctuary on Sena’s Acre
- Organizing the Colored Presbyterian Congregation
- Early Church Governance and Elders
- The Role of Rev. C. B. Scott
- Worship, Discipline, and Community Life
- Maintaining a Church With Limited Resources
Chapter Four
Rev. G. W. Baldwin and the Field of Churches
- Presbyterian Mission Work Among Freedpeople
- Pilgrim Grove Within a Network of Rural Churches
- Fundraising, Language, and Racial Paternalism
- Education, Schools, and the Church’s Broader Mission
Chapter Five
Growth, Struggle, and Survival (1900–1950)
- Economic Hardship and Faith
- Migration, Labor, and Changing Families
- Maintaining Worship Through Jim Crow
- Cemetery, Church, and Community Ties
Chapter Six
Rebuilding and Renewal: The 1955 Church
- The Decision to Rebuild
- Community Labor and Dedication
- The Church in the Mid-20th Century
- Remembering the Old Sanctuary
Illustration: Pilgrim Grove Church (1955)
Chapter Seven
Moving Forward: The Pecan Road Church (1996)
- Why the Move Was Made
- Continuity and Change
- Carrying the Past Into a New Space
Chapter Eight
Pilgrim Grove in Context
- Comparison With Altare, St. John, and Other Institutions
- Shared Families, Shared Land, Shared Faith
- What Pilgrim Grove Reveals About Black Church History in Newton County
Epilogue
Still Standing: Faith, Land, and Legacy
Appendices
- Appendix A: Land Deeds and Legal Transcriptions
- Appendix B: Evans Family Lineages
- Appendix C: Early Pilgrim Grove Members and Elders
- Appendix D: Evans Cemetery Burials Connected to Pilgrim Grove