Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, out in Cherokee County. Pull over if you need to, because this one goes back a ways. All the way to 1854, when a group of people gathered together and organized a congregation.

Not a building yet, just a congregation, just a commitment. That is where this story starts. The Reverend G.

W. Slover stepped up as the first pastor, and under his leadership that community of faith took root. They needed a place to worship, and Green B.

Hill donated the land right here, right on this spot, so they could build one. The first church building went up, and it stood. Then the Civil War came and went, and when the dust of that long terrible chapter finally settled, the congregation built again.

A frame sanctuary this time, replacing what had come before. Life went on. Sunday School was added.

Other church facilities came along over the years, one by one, as the congregation kept growing and kept serving. Some of the people who were there in those earliest days, those founding members and the generations that followed them, are buried in the nearby Pleasant Grove Cemetery. Their names, their families, their stories all tangled up with this place.

Over the years the church counted several area civic leaders among its membership, people who carried whatever they found here out into the wider community. And here is the thing that the marker wants you to take away: Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church is still here. Still providing spiritual guidance for this part of Cherokee County.

One hundred and forty years of Sundays, give or take, and the doors are still open. Some things, you plant deep enough, they just don't quit.

What the marker says

This congregation was organized in 1854 and represents one of Cherokee County's oldest Baptist churches. The Rev. G. W. Slover served as first pastor. The first church building, erected here on land donated by Green B. Hill, was replaced with a frame sanctuary after the Civil War. Sunday School and other church facilities have been added over the years. Several early church members and their descendants are buried in the nearby Pleasant Grove Cemetery. The church, whose past membership has included several area civic leaders, continues to provide spiritual guidance for the area.