Thursday, February 20, 2020

Stokesland Baptist Church (Danville, VA)

Stokesland Baptist Church, formerly known as State Line Baptist Church, was the outgrowth of a bush arbor revival held by C. C. Chaplin at a school house not far from the site of the first church building located near the rock quarry at Pelham, Caswell County, NC, on old Route 29 South. A congregation was constituted October 18, 1874, through the ministry of the First Baptist Church of Danville. The land for the church and a one-room building was donated by William D. Coleman, granduncle of Kenneth, Herbert, Grace, and Bertie Coleman. State Line Baptist Church joined the association with other Baptist churches in 1876.

Fifty years after the church was founded a stone company began blasting at the quarry. As this was a great risk to the church, in 1924 the membership decided to move to what then was known as "Stokesland Village" and changed the name to Stokesland Baptist Church. The two lots used for the church remain in use today. One lot was purchased, and the other was donated to the church by Mrs. Ella Coleman Gatewood, aunt of the Coleman's in 1925. A frame building of one large room and two small rooms (at the rear of the pulpit) were built. The current church dates from 1956. A fellowship building was erected in 1978.

Source: Stokesland Baptist Church History (1993), which was written as part of the 200th anniversary of churches in Danville, VA.

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