Original Church - 1859	2nd Church 1897	Remodeled 1954 inside 1958 outside	Current Church 1967

More History

A Taped Conversation with Nettie Hampton. 

".....gave lumber for the old church - used water powered saw mill - "foebag"....Oxen were used to haul the lumber....Oxen came by themselves from saw mill..."  Click here to read the whole transcript >> 

You're Gonna' Love This!

I found this among the archives.  It's a very good written history of our church.  Maybe someone out there will volunteer to bring it up to date.

HOMECOMING

125th ANNIVERSARY OF

PINE GROVE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Sunday, July 29, 1984

Soon after Methodism was introduced into America, the new religion rapidly spread all across the nation. Traveling preachers called "circuit riders" carried the new religion to the colonies. The North Carolina Circuit was formed around 1780.

The circuit established in Western North Carolina was called the "Yadkin", which included Forsyth County. In 1851, the Forsyth Circuit was developed from the Yadkin Circuit. There were fourteen churches on this circuit between 1851 and 1858. In 1859 Pine Grove Methodist Church was the fifteenth church in the Forsyth Circuit.

It all began in the year 1858 when a man named Joseph Woosley signed a contract to build a log cabin on the property of Alfred end Catherine Kimel. The building was completed by May 1, 1859. Our first congregation, consisting of a dozen members, met in the log cabin church. It was 24 x 26 feet, made of pine, with five windows and a double door.

On July 30, 1859, Pine Grove Methodist Episcopal Church South was established before the Forsyth Circuit and Winston Station, at the Third Quarterly Conference, which was held at Mt. Tabor Church. The Conference appointed our first trustees at this meeting.

In September 1859 the trustees were authorized to buy the land on which the log church was located, from the owners, Alfred and Catherine Kimel.

In the log cabin church services were he2d only once a month because one preacher, or "circuit rider", served 15 different churches. Fine Grove had 49 circuit preachers until the year 1965 when we became a station church.

Six years after our Sunday School was established (1860) the membership at Pine Grove rose to 70 members.

The community and church grew together. The occupations of the members of Pine Grove were: blacksmith, shoe cobbler, wood craftsman, basket weaver and people who ran saw mills to saw lumber to build houses and barns. These people also were farmers. As you will note, today very few members make their living by farming.

During a drought in 1881, members came to Pine Grove to pray for rain. Sometimes it would rain on them before they could get home.

Due to hardship of travel and lack of facilities and teachers, it was difficult to get a good education. In 1896 Rev. J. H. Fitzgerald taught night school at Pine Grove for the benefit of adults who could not read. in 1912 a one-room school house was built called the Pine Grove School which included grades one through seven. The old school house is still on Pine Grove property. As you can see Pine Grove has always strived to meet the needs of the community.

In 1896, our congregation built a second church for its 74 members.

Circuit riders rode on horses, or horse-drawn wagons, to the first and second churches. Rev. J. H. Hiatt, who came to Pine Grove in 1907, rode his horse, Charlie from Davie County where he lived. He was just out of Divinity School, 21 years of age, and unmarried, when he first came to Pine Grove. He had several churches to preach besides Pine Grove. He held his services on Sunday once a month at three o’clock in the afternoon. Rev. Hiatt would preach at Bethel, eat lunch and come here to preach. He would visit and sometimes spend the night at the Nifongs and Thomas’, because of the distance he had to travel. He sometimes went fishing in Muddy Creek on Mondays with the Nifongs. In 1951, he came back to visit Pine Grove as Dr. J. S. Hiatt, with his wife, at the dedication ceremony of our first parsonage.

Mr. Joe Nifong was our first organist. Some of the hymnbooks Mr. Nifong used were "Best of All", "The Temple Star", and" Sweet Fields of Eden".

The first organ at Pine Grove was one similar to the organ in our church parlor today. Bynum and Ada "Woosley" Foster donated this pump organ around 1920. At that time they placed it in honor of John Thomas and Mary "Bodenhamer" Woosley.

We had a "Singing Choir" in 1910, which consisted of 29 members. They went around to different local churches to perform on Sunday evenings.

In 1929 a Helping Hand Circle was organized. It was a group of ladies from Pine Grove who met at different homes every second Thursday of every month. They made quilts, rugs, bedspreads, etc., sold them, and donated the proceeds to the church. Sometimes they donated their handwork to the church, or to one of the circuit’s parsonages. Some women from the Helping Hand Circle made aprons and sold them to help pay for six Sunday School Classes that were added on to the church in 1929. The Helping Hand Circle bought the first communion tables and chairs for Pine Grove.

A group of teenagers, called the Missionary Society, went around in the community asking people to donate money to the church.

Revival week services were held at 11:00 o’clock in the mornings and again in the evenings. People stopped whatever they were doing to go to Revival.

Because of economic reasons church members wore overalls and sometimes came barefooted. A group of men sat together in the "Amen Corner" which was at the side of the church. Members filled up the front rows first, so that the late corners could not be seen. TODAY, the back rows are filled up first so the late corners CAN be seen.

A bell, which was in the second church, was rung 30 minutes before preaching. It could be heard in practically the whole area of Jonestown. It was also used to get men’s attention in case of house or barn fires.

In 1909 the land for our cemetery was bought from Mr. and Mrs. Noah Kimel and Mr. and Mrs. J. Adam Nifong. In 1937, additional land was bought from Mr. Nifong for the cemetery. The money used to pay for the land was interest derived from the Trust Fund left to the church by Newton and Pauline Vest. Sallie Bodsford helped to maintain the churchyard and graveyard. At Easter she used to scrub the stones. Ralph Shutt used to bring sand to put over the graves at Easter so that the red dirt wouldn’t show. Mrs. Bodsford would then gather wild flowers from the woods to put on each grave.

In 1938 when Mr. C. W. Kirby was pastor, church services were held every Sunday. Only three churches were left on the circuit. They were Marvin Chapel, Mt. Tabor and Pine Grove. In order to preach to all his churches Rev. Kirby preached three times each Sunday.

In 1941 Mt. Tabor and Marvin Chapel became station churches and Pine Grove was placed on a new two-point charge with Mt. Carmel. In 1949 Mt. Carmel became a station church and Pine Grove was placed with Bethel and Clemmons. The charge was then named the Pine Grove Charge. The first pastor of this new charge was Rev. P. F. Snider who lived in our first parsonage, which was built in 1950.

In 1958 Pine Grove built an educational building, which included several classrooms and fellowship hall.

In 1965 Pine Grove requested and was granted permission to be removed from the two-point charge with Clemmons and to be furnished a full-time preacher, and become a station church. Cur first full-time preacher was Rev. Roy L. Grant.

The second church was torn down in 1967 after the present sanctuary was built.

In 1967 our congregation moved into the third sanctuary. The cornerstone in this sanctuary has the old cornerstone from the second church incorporated into it. The cornerstone gives two previous dates that this congregation has built buildings — the first in 1859, and then in 1897.

The first log church was moved to Mr. Joe Nifong’s farm in 1897 where it was torn down in 1979. Mr. Nifong used it as a shop where he built our present pulpit in 1897.

We have on record pictures of every Pine Grove church and every preacher who served Pine Grove. Recently a camera was purchased to help record history for the future generations of our church. Already, we have many pictures taken of our church members and activities.

This history has told how hard Pine Grove members have worked spiritually and physically. Let us continue to strengthen our growth.

COOKBOOKS ARE STILL AVAILABLE – $15.00 each.  You can purchase one from any UMW lady or come by the church office.

Do You Have a Message You'd Like to Put on Our Electronic Sign?

If you do, then click on the link below or go directly to the "Latest News" page on the Navigation Bar (to the left)

UPPER ROOM PRAYER LINE

Would you be interested in answering the Upper Room Prayer Line? It is an enlightening experience. Just ask anyone who has already participated!! Pine Grove answers that Prayer Line the third Thursday night each month from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. We work in one hour shifts with two people present. While one person is answering the phone the other person is praying for the person answering the calls. Please contact Erin Brown if you are interested in participating in this very important ministry of our church.

HEY KIDS don’t forget that Kingdom Kids meets every other Sunday in the Fellowship Hall from 4:30-6:00pm.  It’s always lots of fun, so bring a friend.

RECYCLE MATERIAL – Any group using the kitchen should take your own recyclable material home.  The church does not have recycling pick up service.  Thank you for helping to keep the recycling bin empty.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED – There is a need for volunteers to pull attendance sheets on Sunday after Worship and also volunteers needed to bake bread to take to our first time visitors.  We also need volunteers to make a brief visit to the home of first time visitors.  Please call the church office.

More History

.....gave lumber for the old church - used water powered saw mill - "foebag"....Oxen were used to haul the lumber....Oxen came by themselves from saw mill..."  Click here to read the whole transcript >> 

More History of Pine Grove UMC....

Check Out The "Old" Photos in Our Virtual Archives

Click on the "History of PG" link to read about the history of Pine Grove or "Piney" Grove as we were first known.  Also check out the "Digital Vault" link.  There you'll find scans of some original documents. Several are over 100 years old!  Here's a sneak peak ......