The Importance Of Religion

The Importance Of Religion. . , The Scots-Irish Presbyterians who first came to Mecklenburg County began to hold religious services in brush arbors until log churches could be built. Their family and social lives centered around their churches and personal faith. Before the Revolutionary War there were "even sister" Presbyterian churches: Rocky River - 1750, Sugar (Sugaw) Creek - 1755, Steele Creek - 1760, Hopewell - 1762, Poplar Tent - 1764, Centre - 1765, Providence - 1767, plus Philadelphia - 1770, all of which exist today. Almost all early leaders came from the membership of these churches. The first minister for Rocky River and Sugaw Creek was Alexander Craighead, the fiery clergyman who preached independence from Great Britain died in 1766, but his influence helped ignite Mecklenburg citizens to declare their independence.

There was a Methodist congregation in Pineville as early as 1785. The Anglican Church designated Mecklenburg as St. Martin's Parish in 1768, but there was no Anglican service here until 1824 when a mission that became St. Peter's Episcopal was begun. St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church laid its cornerstone in 1855. First Baptist Church evolved from Beulah Baptist Church of Christ in 1855. Enslaved African-Americans were generally made to attend church with their owners and sit in the balcony. After the Civil War, the freedmen established their own churchest, many of which still exist. Such as First United Presbyterian (originally the Colored Presbyterian Church of Charlotte) organized in 1866.