Churches

Head Springs Primitive Baptist Church of Christ 1835

Head Springs was a community built around a church. A group of settlers of the same faithful convictions, with the same purpose, and a determination to prosper, provided a solid foundations for the beginnings of the Head Springs community. They came from Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virginia in those early days.

Head Springs Primitive Baptist Church of Christ

This church was constituted on the Saturday before the third Sunday in September 1835. The history of the church states that the original members came to north Alabama from Kentucky.

The first business session was held Saturday, September 19, 1835 and after examination by Elders Samuel McBee and George Walker, pronounced a Baptist Church of Christ with the following members:

Hiram Bennett, David Dobbs, William Hughes, Michael Gray, Isaac Wilbyne, John F. Wilbyne, William Krays, John W. Chadwick, John Barnes, Joseph Bookout, John Hicks, Thomas Chadwick, Dasha Bennett, Fanny Dobbs, Elizabeth Hughes, Polly Gray, Polly Rowen and Tabitha Krays. On that first business day the Head Springs Congregation received Sarah Wilbyne for membership and appointed Brother Hiram Bennett church clerk at the "Head Springs Meeting House at Lookout Creek". After the church was constituted that third Saturday in September 1835, the doors of the church were opened and the following persons were received as members:

"Isaac by letter a man of colour the property of Elizabeth Packs."

"Brother Jehu Barnes by letter and Sister Marian Thomas by letter."

On the following Sunday, September 10, 1835 after evening service the following person was received into membership:

"Sister Caty by letter a woman of colour the property of Elizabeth Packs."

On September 24, 1853, Elijah Bouldin donated one acre of land to include "a meeting house" to the Predestinarian Baptist Church of Christ at Lookout Valley. This transaction was witnessed by William Graves and Enoch York, then filed with the Judge of Probate, R. Estes.

The Predestinarian Baptist Church of Christ at Lookout Valley was a member of the Sequachee Valley Association of Baptist until 1954.

Copied from the collection of V.B. Fillmore


Mount Zion A Southern Baptist Church Valley Head, Alabama

The Valley Head Baptist Church was constituted in 1845, the same year the Southern Baptist Convention was organized. From 1845 to 1898 the church was named Mount Zion. The churches in this area were members of the Cherokee Baptist Association until 1905 when the DeKalb County Association was organized. Early worship services were held in a frame building that was also used for the school on the hill across from the present city park. Brother C. Y. Culberson wrote a brief history that was printed in the DeKalb County Herald on December 6, 1921. Brother Culberson stated that an effort was made in the year of 1886 to agree on moving the church to town, but the matter fell through. It seems that from his account of the consideration that they discussed, they were without a building for some time. He says, "Finally, after much wild effort we settled on the old site and rebuilt." In 1892, Rev. S. R. C. Adams was called to the care of the church. During the years of 1894 up to and including 1905 we find the following names as pastors, A. J. Noblet, G. W. Carr, Thomas Hartline. In closing his history, Brother Culberson said, "The abiding faith of a few finally led them to a beautiful new home in the town of Valley Head; which is a living monument of the fact God works in a mysterious way his wonders to perform." The minutes of the Cherokee Baptist Association lists the church Mount Zion up to and including 1897. That year the Pastor was Rev. T. W. Hartline, the clerk was George Karr (Carr) and membership was 44. The 1898 Minutes listed Valley Head Church with the same pastor and clerk with a membership of 43. One letter had been granted. They had services two Sundays a month. The 1920 letter the DeKalb Association shows that Rev. W. P. Kelley was pastor. The church membership was 47. Sunday School enrollment was 63, WMV enrollment of 18. The offering given from June to October was $187. $112 was spent on local work and $75 on convention causes. Copied form loose papers at Valley Head Town Hall


History of DeKalb County Schools, Valley Head by Brownie A. Tuttle

"There is no written record and only scant pieces of information handed down to establish that a school existed in the area of the early settlement. This school was conducted in an unpainted building on the ridge back of the present home of E.N. Jones, Jr. A very old cemetery, serving both blacks and whites, occupies a part of this same area. The building itself served as a Baptist Church until 1920 when the local congregation built a beautiful brick structure in another area of the town. The date when the school ceased to function, remains unanswered, and the name of only one teacher emerges -- that of a Mr. Newman who later left the profession to become a minister" (page 261).

Mt Paron Primitive Baptist Church of Christ at Deer Head Cove 1851

Deer Head Cove is located in the extreme northeast corner of DeKalb Co Alabama about four miles from the Alabama, Georgia state line. A steep, winding dirt road snakes down Sand Mountain to a cove cradled by the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. This is rugged terrain, and one of the first places the to be seen by the new settlers searching for farm land. They came from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. They came from as far away as New York and Pennsylvania. Their families where from the Tidewaters of Virginia and Maryland, and the Ohio Valley. One of the first congregation was a group that organized and called themselves the Mt. Paron Primitive Baptist Church of Christ. The church was organized before June of 1851.


United Methodist Church 1852

John’s Chapel Baptist Church 1885

Winston Memorial Presbyterian Church 1872

The Valley Head Presbyterian Church was organized in the parlor of the William Overton Winston home in 1872. Today the home is know as Winston Place and the church as the Winston Memorial Presbyterian Church. By way of "Letters of Dismissal" from the Gadsden Presbyterian Church, the following became members of the newly organized Valley Head Presbyterian Church: John Sturat, Benjamin F. Paine, Maria L.B. Winston, James M. Hoge, Elizabeth Hoge, Mary Hoge and Auguste Hoge. On the following Sunday, John Stuart, James Hoge and Benjamin F. Paine were elected Elders. Rev. James Watson was pastor and preached the first sermon May 22, 1872. In the beginning services were held at Winston Place, and after a time the congregation shared a facility with the Valley Head Methodist Church. In about 1899 a white framed structure was completed. In 1903 a Miller organ was procured by Major F. Y. Anderson. By 1929 a brick building was built and dedicated as the "Winston Memorial Presbyterian Church." The 100th anniversary of the church was celebrated and the old church bell in a new bell tower was dedicated on the third Sunday in May 1972, with the following families present: Alexander, Atkins, Barnard, Chadwick, Davenport, Hall, Holt, Larmore, Lowry, Moorman, Paine, Thompson, and Winston. Copied from loose papers at Valley Head Town Hall

Whitehall Methodist Church 1888

Built as a Presbyterian church in 1888, was purchased by the Methodists in 1919-1920. The cemetery up the road from the church was established in 1835 on land donated by John and Clara Keith White and is known as White Hall Cemetery.

Davenport African Methodist Episcopal Memorial Chapel 1889


Violet Hill Baptist Church

Lea’s Chapel Church