Providence Methodist Church & Schoolhouse

Providence Methodist Church and Schoolhouse. . , Side 1 , In 1828, Reverend John Wesley Norton left his native South Carolina with his family and a wagon train of followers, crossed into the Creek Indian Nation and just into the edge of what was then Pike County, settling near the present town of Clayton, Alabama. He was then in the bounds of, or in proximity to, the Chattahoochee Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was quite an acquisition to the young and struggling circuit in that newly settled section on the borders of the Indian tribes. (Continued on next side). Side 2 , In 1835, Rev. John Wesley Norton located near Batesville and established the Providence Methodist Church and School which thrived for many years until his death in 1862. Located four miles south, only the Providence Cemetery remains where Rev. Norton, his wife Nancy Phillips Norton, and many of his church members and neighbors rest in peace. He was a man of few tears, solid piety, true benevolence and spotless character. He was a real pioneer and his death inflicted an irreparable loss upon those he left behind.