Bethesda AME Zion Church
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History
Bethesda Church was organized around 1871. The exact date is not known as there are no written records of the church's history. There is evidence that blacks who were former slaves of the nearby Coddle Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church left that church after the Civil War and established the Bethesda Church. There are some notations in the Coddle Creek Session Minutes that help establish some information about the Bethesda Church. The slaves/servants had no last names, so many of them took the last names of their owners. The last names of the members of Bethesda Church and in the larger community are consistent with the names of families in the Coddle Creek Church. (There is a slave cemetery located at Coddle Creek location.) Bethesda is the first church established out of the membership of the Coddle Creek Church.
Buildings and Property
A stone in the church office notates that a building was completed on May 15, 1875. It was rebuilt in 1886 and remodeled in 1928. A cornerstone on the Fellowship Hall is dated 1960. This building formerly served as the Sanctuary. In 1964, the wooden building was bricked. The current Sanctuary was built in 1978. The former Sanctuary was remodeled and now serves as the Fellowship Hall and Sunday School rooms. There are records of a land purchase (one acre) on August 6, 1914 from J. H. Hill, J. L. Bradley, and W. G. Nicholson of the county board of education. Another half acre was purchased on April 15, 1916, from L. F. Christenbury and his wife, M. E. Christenbury.
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