Julie's Mecklenburg, Virginia Discoveries

Rehoboth Church today is situated on the north side of Nellie Jones Rd, so when reviewing maps from the 1860’s I wondered why Rehoboth Church is shown on the south side of Nellie Jones Rd. I wondered if perhaps the path of the road changed, but after checking, the road doesn’t look like it has changed there. I also wanted to know how old the church was. I looked in the Mecklenburg County, Virginia deed book index and was surprised to see three listings for Rehoboth Church.

The first listing for Rehoboth Church in the deed books is in Mecklenburg deed book 32, page 329. Robert Joyce sold two acres on 11 October 1847 for one dollar, to the trustees which included himself, Wm. Rainey, George Williams, Roderick Temple, and Robin Thomas. The two acre plot was on the corner of Kidd’s Road (now Nellie Jones Road) and Blacks Road, (now Blackridge Rd.) The church was authorized to build a meetinghouse by the Methodist E conference.

The second listing is in Mecklenburg deed book 48, page 166 which shows Rehoboth Church is selling their church building to the county school system for a “Public Free School”. Tax records list this as a white school. I believe the word “free” meant that you didn’t have to pay to go to school, which was still a rather new idea in this area in 1888. The church was sold for 250 dollars and included “furniture, benches, stoves, etc.”. John R. Cole, L. Rose, C. T. Jones, C. W. King, and D.T. Ridout were the trustees for Rehoboth Church in July 1888. The church is listed as “Rehoboth Episcopal Methodist Church South”. Charles W. King, H. C. Taylor and John C. Sims were school trustees for the South Hill District, which is the area colored blue on the map above. (Click on the image to see the full map on the Library of Congress website.)

Burwell Pattillo and his wife Charity were African Americans who purchased land around the area of present day Rehoboth church, on the northern side of Nellie Jones Rd. I haven’t yet found that land transaction, but I did find Burwell Pattillo’s will written 16 November 1887. I was surprised and happy to see my great…grandfather Alvy Dortch witnessed the will with Dr. E. H. Riggan. Alvy Dortch had nine children at the time, and I did not know he was living in this area at that time. Charity Pattillo, her son Edward Pattillo, and daughter Mary Jiggetts who married to Henry Jiggetts sold land to Rehoboth church, where the current church is today. I’m trying to learn more about a cemetery that I believe belonged to this family. My findings will be published in a post as soon as I can get figure out a few of the land purchases and Pattillo family relationships.

The third listing in the deed books shows that eight months after the sale of their first meetinghouse, the Rehoboth trustees bought land to build a new church. Deed book 48, page 440 shows that almost an acre (15/16ths acre) was purchased for ten dollars. The Rehoboth church trustees in March 1889 were L. J. Rose, Charles W. King, David T. Rideout, and Charles T. Jones.

The first building was used as a church for 41 years before it was sold to become a school. I don’t see a record stating when construction was finished for the second church building. That second church building stood until Christmas 2004 when there was a fire. In October 2005 I took this picture of the church being restored after the fire. A man saw me taking this picture and gave me a tour of the new building. Peter Gittman saw this picture in my picture book when I was photographing his family cemetery. He told me he helped with the rebuilding of the church.

This gallery below shows both the old and the rebuilt church. Pictures are followed by a button/link with information about the Rehoboth church cemetery.

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