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In 1764, Scots-Irish settlers organized Alamance Presbyterian Church along Little Alamance Creek on property owned by William Cusach. The first church building, a small log structure, had been constructed on the site two years earlier. Although without an official minister, the early congregation was led by Andrew Finley, a “devout man and leader in worship.”
David Caldwell became pastor to both Alamance and Buffalo Church in 1768, a post he held for nearly 52 years before retiring in 1820. In 1813, Caldwell helped oversee the formation of the Synod of North Carolina at Alamance Church as well as the construction of both the second and third church buildings in 1800 and 1844 respectively. After his retirement, Eli W. Caruthers was appointed to administer Alamance and Buffalo. In 1846, the union between those two churches was dissolved, and Caruthers remained with Alamance Church.
Fifteen years later, in July 1861, Caruthers gave a sermon pleading that those among his congregation who had joined the Confederate army “might be blessed by the Lord and returned in safety, though engaged in a lost cause.” Later that afternoon, angry church elders formed a congregational meeting and asked for his resignation. Caruthers assented to their request, but maintained close ties with the congregation until his death four years later.
After the Civil War, Alamance Church continued to expand. In 1874, the third church sanctuary, a small brick structure, was deemed unsatisfactory, and construction began on the fourth. That structure subsequently became too small for the growing congregation, and in 1955 the building currently standing was constructed.
References:
E. C. Murray, A History of Alamance Church, 1762-1918 (1919)
"Centennial Address, Synod of North Carolina," delivered at Alamance Church, Greensboro, North Carolina, October 7, 1913
Jethro Rumple, The History of Presbyterianism in North Carolina (1966)
William S. Powell, ed., Encyclopedia of North Carolina (2006)—essay by George Troxler
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