Bascom's Chapel Methodist Church of Moore County
North Carolina



Bascom's Chapel Methodist Church, Located not far from the Montgomery and Moore Line, bears scars of strife and trials after an existence of far more than 112 years. Its membership has never been large, but they are stubborn, determined people. They have fought for survival of their church and won even with 23 members now on roll.

Although no accurate histories are available to provide accounts and details of its beginning or existence, the present deed is dated 1858. Names of two church trustees, William Hair and A.A. Maness (grandfather of Mrs. Dan Dunlap, a 50 year member of the church) from near Browns Chapel appear on the deed. Land for the building was donated through Neil Melton whose home stood nearby. The donor (grandfather of Neil Freeman of Star) was also the citizen who gave the land for the old Melton Schoolhouse located in the edge of Moore County.

In reality the church was organized many years before the present date on the deed, according to interviews with Mrs. Eunice Kennedy Brewer Wife of the late Isaac Brewer) and Doc Brewer who remembers his late father telling about the site of the first Bascom's Chapel.

It had its initiation as a simple brush arbor just off Browns Mill Road on the left below the Isaac homeplace where Mrs Eunice Kennedy Brewer, lived. It seems that restlessness caused several area families to decide that a place of worship should b available at a convenient location. Browns Chapel was not far away, but too far for women and children to walk to services.

Doc Brewer remarked, "My Father, Martin Brewer who lived to be almost 100, said that as long as he could remember, he had been seeing Bascom's Chapel but he pointed out to me where the first building stood on Browns Mill Road."

So plans were formulated and only a handful of folks formed the list of charter members. According to Mrs Eunice Brewer, some of these were Sampson Brewer (1818-1906) and his wife Bethania Sheffield Brewer, (this is my gg grandfather daughter, Stephen Sheffield) both of whom are buried at Bascom's Chapel; Jonaths Sheffield and wife Deliatha (called "Lythia") Freeman Sheffield who was a great aunt of T. Anderson Saunders of Star but who was reared in the Spies community; members of the Enoch Brown family who lived nearby; and several of the Melton Family.

Before long a small framed building made from rough lumber was erected in the mill of thick forests of scrub oak and pines. For a while couple of years this simple structure served its purpose well, but members realized a need for more adequate and centrally located facilities. The small edifice was torn down, plank by plank as the story was told, and brought by wagons to the location of the present church after Neil Melton offered a new site for the church.

Isaac Sheffield, (this is Martin Sheffield son) it seems, was one of the more financially secure farmers of the area but chose to live a meager and simple life. His descendents say today that he agreed to furnish the necessary Lumber for the new church building if a porch was designed that would help protect the structure against wind and weather and rain.

Therefore, Bascom's Chapel is the product of community effort of Moore County residents blacksmiths, carpenters, sawmillers and Lumbermen, they all had a share. The building itself is a materpiece of preservation for its more than a century existence, one large airy room with slender windows shortened from the original design. Two beautiful carved center posts enhance the interior of the church, and the dark, narrow-slatted benches, polished from years of wear, still sit in rows on either side of the wide aisles. The first flu, a thin, spindly chimney in the center of the roof, has been replaced with a side element black flu.

Outside, the original wooden shingled roof was long ago removed and replaced with sheets of tin that now bear marks of time. A rusty old bell still hangs beside wide steps that beckon visitors as they step through the double wooden doors.

It is hard to explain the small number of bodies that been planted in the quaint cemetery adjacent to the church. Several weathered stones with no legible markers designate burial sports, and it is well to assume that several have been laid to rest with no markers showing the spot today. You could not help but notice the beautifully spoken names in keeping with the past century citizenship, name that roll easily from the lips, soft spoken names that sound as if they have been lift from an old family album Bethania Brewer, Seamore Freeman, Mariner T Sheffield, Aretta m Ellison, Malsie Jane Maness, Louese S Williamson. Some of the earlier date noted on the stones are 1880.

The church as a body today is the product of unity and determination on the part of the small membership who support it and its program of evangelism. With Rev Kjersti DeVries as pastor, worship services are held the first and third Sundays of each month with Sunday school conducted every Sunday morning. Mrs. Dan Dunlap recalls that some of the previous pastors have been H. A. Lance, Rev Woods and J.C. Cummings, Rev John Casey.

Like we said, the membership of Bascom's Chapel is very small, but with the stubborn tenacity to hold on to something their ancestors established, the church program is moving forward. Can any church, large or small, ask for more than that?