Yanceyville Tigers Baseball Team

The Yanceyville Tigers was an all-black baseball team that played in the Caswell County, North Carolina, area during the 1930s and 1940s. Yanceyville resident (and former professional baseball player) Neal Watlington remembers seeing the Tigers play when he was a teenager. The team played on the old Bartlett Yancey High School baseball field and on a field near what became the Caswell County Training School/Caswell County High School. Mr. Watlington recalls that the team was very skilled and that he most likely acquired some of his baseball proficiency by watching the Tigers play.

David Williamson of Yanceyville, ninety-four, believes he is the only member of the team still living. He recalled all the names of the players, listed below, and that his brother, Walter Williamson, was the manager.

First Baptist Church of Yanceyville Pastors (Yanceyville, Caswell County, North Carolina)

Following is a list of men believed to have served as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Yanceyville (Yanceyville, Caswell County, North Carolina). Whether the list is complete is unknown. Nor are the order of the pastors before Robert Ward Prevost (1922-1925) or their pastorate terms certain. The first pastor would have served from around 1840.



1. John Joshua James (1842-1850) [lived 1814-1892]
2. John Henry Lacy (lived 1821-1881)
3. Thomas W. Tobey (1853/1855 - at least 1858) [lived c.1820 - aft 1880]
4. Samuel G. Mason (1860-1873) [lived 1813-1890]
5. F. H. Jones (1877-1885) [lived 1836-1911]

6. Charles Alexander Guard Thomas (served at least in 1887) [lived 1857-1925]
7. Samuel Branson Wilson (served early 1900s) [lived 1872-1959]
8. J. R. Jones (served in or after 1891 and before 1926)
9. Leroy N. Chappell (served in or after 1891 and before 1926)
10. Oscar Alonzo Keller (possibly served one year beginning in 1907) [lived 1877-1950]

11. D. W. Overby
12. Claudius Murat Murchison (1911-1918)
13. John Albert Hackney (1920) [lived 1867-1928; pastorate term unknow)
14. Robert Ward Prevost (1922–1925)
15. C. W. Hood (1925–1927) (resigned December 1927)

16. Paul Thomas Worrell (1928–1944) (served until May 1944)
17. William Troy Baucom (1945–1951) (was called December 1944)
18. T. C. Williams, Jr. (1952–1958)
19. Paul F. Hardy (1959–1963)
20. George M. Bishop (1963–1967)

21. J. Carroll Spivey (1968–1984)
22. Stanley H. Hare (1985–1998)
23. Claude Harrelson (2000–2003)
24. Phillip T. Kelley (2004-2012)
25. Britt Groom (2014-2020)

26. William Easter (2020-    )

Baynes Baptist Church (Caswell County, North Carolina)

"100 Years Serving the Lord"

The Caswell Messenger (Yanceyville, North Carolina), 1 August 2012
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Baynes Baptist Church

On Aug. 5 [2012], Baynes Baptist Church will celebrate 100 years of service to the Lord. A special worship service will be held at 11 a.m. with guest speakers Joe Grubbs of Semora Baptist Church and former pastor, Col. Larry McCarty, U.S. Army (ret). Rev. Grubbs grew up at Baynes and his parents [Joseph Elliott Grubbs and Willie Frances Roberts] were very dedicated members. McCarty served as the church’s pastor from December 1988 until January 2000. He then became an Army chaplain at Fort Bragg. While at Fort Bragg he served as senior pastor at the Main Post Chapel and the 82nd Airborne Memorial Chapel. He also deployed to Iraq with the 16th Military Police Brigade and the 18th Soldier Support Group. McCarty came off active duty in 2011, and began his ministry as senior pastor of First Baptist Spring Lake, N.C. that April. Following the worship service, “dinner on the grounds” will be held in the church fellowship building, followed by a concert by “Called Out.”

Reminiscences of Miss Willie Lea

Lea, Wilhelmina. Reminiscences of Miss Willie Lea. Copied from Manuscript in Possession of Mrs. M. H. Moore (Weaverville, North Carolina). Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, North Carolina). June 1943. Mostly a narrative account of her family, with biographical data, dates, and relationships, written in the 1930s. Typescript was made in 1943 from a manuscript lent by Mrs. W. S. Dixon.
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"There have been numerous traditions about the Lea family. One was -- which has been believed by some Leas, but not by me -- that there were 3 brothers, who came from England -- that one of them changed his name to Lee and became the head of the noted Virginia Lees; another changed his to Leigh, while our family retained the original name.

"A document in my possession that professes to athentiic [authenticity], says that the ancestral home of the Lea family was Lea Hall on Lea River in Cheshire Co., England, (There is certainly a river of that name.), and that the family was descended from the nobility.

"All of which might have been verified or not, if we had thought to ask our grandfather, William Lea, who knew is grandfather, James Lea, Sr., and also his wife's grandfather, William Lea.

"However, we do know that the Lea family is noted for longevity and integrity.

"We have been thwarted in our efforts to trace the family back to England and when they came to the U.S., as the records of King and Queen Co., Va. where they first located were destroyed by the burning of the Court house by the Federals during the Civil war.

John Joshua James (1814-1892)

Reverend John Joshua James (1814-1892)



(for larger image, click on photograph, then click "Actions/View all Sizes")
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John Joshua James (1814-1892), buried at the First Baptist Church of Yanceyville. Believed called as pastor in 1842. Possibly the first official pastor. However, what role did Elder John Kerr play? Also, John Joshua James died in 1892 and is buried at the First Baptist Church of Yanceyville. Why did he return to Yanceyville? Did he serve as pastor more than once at this church?

Trinity Baptist Church historical sketch from Caswell County Historical Association (CCHA):

In 1840, some residents of southwestern Caswell County left the Yanceyville Baptist Church (Yanceyville, North Carolina) to from the Trinity Baptist Church, which was nearer their homes. Members also came from Wolf Island, Lick Fork, Dan River, Pleasant Grove, and other churches. William Pleasants was the first pastor; Calvin Graves, the first clerk; and Alexis Howard, the first treasurer. Alexis Howard, William Dupree, and John Stamps were elected deacons. Azariah Graves, Alexis Howard, and William Slade were trustees of the church property. Calvin Graves, William Dupree, and Alexis Howard were delegates to the Association held 1840 in Yanceyville. R. W. Lawson offered a site for church and school. In 1842, Zachariah Neal from Bethesda Presbyterian Church joined Trinity Baptist Church and applied for a license to preach, which he received in the fall of 1842.

Robert Ward Prevost (1890-1980)

Robert Ward Prevost (1890-1980)





(for larger image, click on photograph)
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Served as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Yanceyville (Yanceyville, Caswell County, North Carolina) 1922-1925.
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North Carolina, Birth and Death Indexes, 1800-2000
Name: Robert Ward Prevost
Event Type: delayedbirth
Birth Date: 20 Nov 1890
Birth County: Davidson
Roll Number: NCVR_BD_C032_68001
Volume: 7
Page: 64

Lea-Newman House (Leasburg, North Carolina)

Lea-Newman House. 1838. Pretentious, well-preserved story and a half frame house of transitional Federal-Greek Revival design, five bays wide, with four exterior end brick chimneys, flat-paneled entrance, original pedimented entrance porch with chamfered posts. One chimney has inscription believed to be "Luiz Pulliam 1838." Contemporary frame kitchen, dairy, and smokehouse remain. Family cemetery on east side.

Source: An Inventory of Historic Architecture: Caswell County, North Carolina, Ruth Little-Stokes and Tony P. Wrenn (1979) at 183. Photograph courtesy Carolina Caswell.

The cemetery beside the house is known as the Pulliam-Connally Family Cemetery and may be more associated with the nearby Stanfield-Connally-Kimbro house than the Lea-Newman house.

The above authors apparently dated this house based upon the "1838" found on a chimney. However, others believe this house was built much earlier by James (Cobb's Creek) Lea (c.1743 - 1816). The house at one time was occupied by the brother of James (Cobb's Creek) Lea, George (Cobb's Creek) Lea (aft.1755 - bef. 1830). James (Cobb's Creek) Lea sometimes is seen as James M. Lea, and George (Cobb's Creek) Lea sometimes is seen as George W. Lea.