Religion in Stevensburg

Religion in Stevensburg. Stevensburg Baptist Church. On October 23, 1833, Pastors Thornton Stringfellow and John Churchill Gordon organized Stevensburg Baptist Church. The congregation elected Stringfellow as the pastor for the new church and split from Mount Pony Baptist Church, which had relocated from the base of Mount Pony (Pony Mountain) to Culpeper Courthouse. At that time, new churches often developed from the division of older local congregations. Founded in 1774, Mount Pony began with 47 members and grew rapidly to several hundred members in the early 19th century. Both white and enslaved attended church there, and local records indicate that free blacks may have worshiped there as well., Stevensburg Baptist Church members initially met in a local Methodist meeting house known as the "Free Church." The church grew rapidly and, by 1847, listed 97 black and 88 white members in its congregation. The first church was a 40-foot by 50-foot brick building constructed in 1856. The congregation continued to grow with 124 black members and 67 white members by 1860. Blacks were the majority in the congregation, as well as in Culpeper County's population at that time., The building was used as a Confederate hospital from 1862 to 1863 and eventually burned. The following winter, the brick ruins were used as building materials for the 1863-1864 Union encampment on Hansbrough's Ridge., The church was not rebuilt until 1874 as Stevensburg slowly returned to a small town with a few community buildings. Remodeled in 1961 and veneered with brick in 1978, the late 19th century building approximates the original footprint of the 1856 church., Sidebar , Thornton Stringfellow , Born in 1788 in Fauquier County, Baptist Pastor Thornton Stringfellow was ordained in 1814. He continued to minister in Fauquier and Culpeper Counties throughout his career and advocated for domestic missions, the temperance movement, and Sunday School progams. He founded several churches, including Stevensburg Baptist Church., He was known for pro-slavery articles that used Bible passages as justification for enslavement. As slavery became a hotly debated issue, Stringfellow wrote a Brief Examination of Scripture Testimony on the Institution of Slavery in 1841, Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slavery in 1856, and Slavery: Its Origin, Nature, and History, Considered in the Light of Bible Teachings, Moral Justice, and Political Wisdom in 1861. Stringfellow, a slave owner, wrote on October 5, 1863, that his slaves fled as the Union occupied his estate known as "Belair," now demolished. His grave is located in the Stevensburg Baptist Church cemetery.