Mt. Nebo Church

Mt. Nebo Church. Blackstone, Virginia. , Mt. Nebo Church was founded shortly after the Civil War, in 1867. A Northerner named Mr. Rickets bought this place in the woods, then called Oak Hill, and began preaching to a group of African American. The audience increased as people from the surrounding communities came to hear him. They built a brush arbor under which to worship. As the crowd grew, Mr. Rickets gave the congregation one acre of land on which they built a log church and named it Mt. Nebo., P.F. Fitzgerald, a young man who was born in Mississippi and sold as an enslaved person in Virginia, told the Mt. Nebo congregation that if they would pay for his education, he would come and preach to them for the rest of his life. The congregation found the money for his education, and the young man kept his promise. The Rev. P.F. Fitzgerald became the first pastor of Mt. Nebo. People came from near and far to join Mt. Nebo, and the need arose for a new church building to accommodate them all. A march was held in which everyone was asked to give 25 cents, and the new structure was built with these funds., The congregation continued to grow, a Sunday school was organized, and again the need for a new church building became apparent. A third structure was built and remains standing today. In 1967 Mt. Nebo celebrated its centennial. The congregation worshiped in its third building until 1978, when they moved to the new edifice across the road. Also located across the road were Mt. Nebo schoolhouses. The last standing structure, a two-room schoolhouse, stood until the 1970s.