Dr. Harold J. Dudley: General Secretary Synod of North Carolina

A new book is out on the history of Presbyterians in North Carolina! A History of the Sources and Development of Presbyterianism in North Carolina by the Rev. Harold J. Dudley, D.D., covers briefly the growth of Presbyterianism in Europe, and then details the earliest Presbyterian settlers in North Carolina, the first ministers and churches, and the trials and gradual expansion of the denomination to 1813 when the Synod of North Carolina was established. The final chapter is an overview of the history of that synod from 1813 to 1983. The appendices include chronological and biographical listings of all Presbyterian ministers who worked in or visited the state before 1813; a chronological list of Presbyterian churches organized from the beginning to 1967; and a listing of churches that have been dissolved over the years. Also included are an outline history of the courts of the church, a list of synod moderators and clerks, a bibliography, and an extensive index. In all, it comes to almost 500 pages.

Its author, Harold J. Dudley (1902-1999), grew up in Richmond, Va., with a great love of history. Born a Baptist, he attended Hampden-Sydney College and became convinced that the Presbyterian Church was “the most Biblical of any of the denominations, as to both form of government and doctrine.” After graduation from Union Theological Seminary, he served churches in Virginia, Alabama, and North Carolina, including Kinston, Snow Hill, Jason, and First Presbyterian in Wilson.

From 1951 to 1971 he was the first Executive Officer/General Secretary of the Synod of North Carolina (PCUS). Synod had just reorganized and would eventually have its own small office building on Wade Avenue in Raleigh. This position allowed him to expand on his great interest in the historical development of the Presbyterian Church and its establishment and growth in North Carolina. He began to collect church histories and often included historical material in the Presbyterian News, which he edited and published at Synod Office. In 1963, for the sesquicentennial of the Synod of North Carolina, he wrote a three-part history of the synod for the Presbyterian News. He also oversaw the reprinting and first indexing of William Henry Foote’s Sketches of North Carolina (1846) and John P. Hale’s Trans-Allegheny Pioneers (1886).

In 1964 Dr. Dudley organized the North Carolina Presbyterian Historical Society as an organization within the Synod of North Carolina. It was not until 1981 that our society became incorporated as a separate entity. He began our yearly visits to historic churches in North Carolina, and after his retirement he led more than 30 tours to church-related historic sites in Europe and the Holy Land.

In the 1980s Dr. Dudley finally began to organize all the information he had gathered for decades and began writing about the sources and development of Presbyterianism in North Carolina. Our Society gave him assistance and encouragement for the project. It was a huge undertaking without a computer or the internet, and he was still working on it at the time of his death in 1999. He listed 84 churches that were established or existed briefly before 1813, and he included some historical information about almost all of them. Many of his secondary sources were outdated even by the 1990s, but the book as a whole does offer the reader a detailed account of early Presbyterianism in this state.

The publication of this book was paid for out of the Dudley Fund, set up years ago by the Society for this purpose. Two churches with which Dr. Dudley was associated, the First Presbyterian Church in Wilson and Snow Hill Presbyterian Church, donated to the fund, as did individual members of the Society. When the offices of the Synod of North Carolina were closed after reunification, some of the remaining funds were assigned to the North Carolina Presbyterian Historical Society and were added to the Dudley Fund in his honor.

Presbyterian Newspapers

For many years in the 19th and 20th centuries, Presbyterians in North Carolina could read their own weekly newspapers. There were a lot of Presbyterians in the state, and they constituted a pretty big market for a newspaper. The first one was North Carolina Presbyterian, published from 1858 to 1898 in Fayetteville. Then came Presbyterian Standard, published in Charlotte from 1899 to 1931, when it merged with Presbyterian of the South (Atlanta, Ga.). These were private, for-profit businesses. In 1935 the Synod of North Carolina decided to put out its own monthly newspaper, Presbyterian News. This was published by the synod here until 1988 and then was published by the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic until 1993. The Africo-American Presbyterian was published weekly or bi-monthly in Wilmington from 1879 to 1938. Rev. Daniel J. Sanders of Chestnut Street Presbyterian and Biddle University founded and edited this newspaper until his death in 1906.

All of these newspapers have been digitized, can now be found on the Internet, and are fully searchable. The first three are on the Internet Archive (www.archive.org). Many issues of the Africo-American Presbyterian have not survived, but those that have are available in the Pearl Digital Collection at the Presbyterian Historical Society website: www.digital.history.pcusa.org. These Presbyterian newspapers all have articles about individual churches and ministers, articles and advertisements about academies and colleges, and news of foreign and domestic missions and missionaries, as well as reports from meetings of the General Assembly, Synod, Synodical, presbyteries, and presbyterials. The contemporary articles are excellent sources when writing a history.

For example, the following appeared in the North Carolina Presbyterian, November 6, 1858:

WARRENTON, N.C.

A neat and beautiful little church has just been built in this place, through the liberality of a lady now gone to her rest. There are very few Presbyterians in the town or country. So far as I have been able to learn there are not a half-dozen Presbyterian Hymn Books in the county. Will not some warm hearted, liberal Presbyterian in N.C., box up and send four or five dozen such books for the use of this new church? They have a Bible presented by Weston R. Gales, of Raleigh, a number of years since; but no hymn books. Any one wishing to do good may do so by directing to J. Wilcox, Warrenton, N.C.

P. H. D.

Historic Churches Celebrating Anniversaries in 2021

This year our society is recognizing eight churches for having reached a significant anniversary of their founding. Usually Sam Martin has been able to present the certificates of recognition and congratulation personally, but he wasn’t able to do that last year and has to put it off for the time being this year as well. However, he has plans to start visiting these historic churches this summer and fall, to bring recognition and sincere congratulations from the North Carolina Presbyterian Historical Society. The following churches celebrate anniversaries in 2021:

200 years

• First Presbyterian Church, Salisbury
• First Presbyterian Church, Charlotte

150 years

• First Presbyterian Church, Durham
• Topsail Presbyterian Church, Hampstead

100 years

• Candor Presbyterian Church, Candor
• Lake Waccamaw Presbyterian Church, Lake Waccamaw
• Raven Rock Presbyterian Church, Harnett County
• William and Mary Hart Presbyterian Church, Leggett, Edgecombe County

Congratulations to all of these congregations! This anniversary year is a great time for each of you to begin or update the history of your church. It is truly worth recording the heritage on which you build. The records and the memories are too easily lost.

First Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, has a separate section in their website devoted to the ongoing celebration of their 200th anniversary: https://www.firstpres-charlotte.org/bicentennial/. They are including video recordings of events, interviews with older members, and recipes!

First Presbyterian Church, Durham, was organized on New Year’s Eve, 1871, so they will probably be celebrating late in this year.

Oxford Presbyterian Church celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2018. One of their present members is a descendant of their first minister, and she produced a one-woman show about the minister’s wife.

In Memoriam: Wilma Ratchford Craig, 1930-2020

It is with sadness that we report the news that Mrs. Wilma Craig died last June. Most of our members surely remember Wilma and her husband Bill from Union Church, Gaston County. Wilma and Bill were founding members of our society when it began in 1964, and they almost never missed a meeting. Both grew up in Gaston County where their families had lived for generations, and they were married for 68 years. Wilma taught in the Gaston County schools for 33½ years, taught classes in local history and genealogy at Gaston College, and published books on Ratchford and Craig genealogy. Both were very active in the Gaston County Historical Society, and Wilma edited their Bulletin for 50 years. Wilma also served on the Gaston County Historic Preservation Commission and on the board of the Hoyle Historic Homestead near Dallas. As a church organist and pianist, she loved playing for us to sing in the churches we visited. We miss them both, and our hearts go out to Bill and their family.