FIRST INSTALLMENT ON THE SEARCH FOR CENTENARY'S EARLY HISTORY "The Mulberry Tree Society" by Rev. G.W. Bumgarner (date unknown)
The search for the sites of Centenary United Methodist Church's beginnings has been like a hound dog sniffing out a day old trail. However, the search has been concluded with the game somewhat cornered.
To put this first chapter in proper perspective let us list the various stages of Centenary's history. The church began as the MULBERRY TREE SOCIETY. That is what this present installment is about. The next stage was when the society built its first building and took the name NEW JERUSALEM METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH." While the society was formed, as this paper will seek to show, between the Children's Home property and Kent Road, the JERUSALEM CHURCH was located about one and one-half miles away on the east side of present day Cherry-Marshall and along present day Fourteenth Street. This has been fully documented and will be described in the next quarter's issue. The deed for the latter is dated August 11, 1832. In the early 1850's the church relocated in the new town of Winston. In the 1880's the congregation built its third sanctuary and named it CENTENARY. West End Church was formed largely out of Centenary while it was located at Sixth and Liberty Streets in the first decade of this century. The two churches merged in 1927 to form the present Centenary on West Fifth Street.
Before speaking of Centenary's beginnings as a "SOCIETY", it may be helpful to give just a word of explanation on the nature and origin of that form of religious organization. Moravians and other "free church" and sectarian groups in England and other European countries gathered in societies. This was a form used when beliefs, disciplines, and activities of the group were not acceptable to the "established" or state church.
When the founder of Methodism and his followers were not accepted in the Anglican Church or in the Moravian societies, he, John Wesley, formed his own society in 1739. This was the first of hundreds of Methodist societies in the British nations. Wesley never intended to form a church and remained an Anglican priest until death. Yet, when it became obvious that the societies would never be accepted into the corporate life of the Anglican Church, the connection of societies began to act like a church and in time was no longer thought of as a sect.
When Methodist began to gather in American, in 1766 in New York, Maryland, and Virginia, they naturally formed societies. This was good strategy at that time because the colonies had established churches. In the South the favored church was the Anglican. When the Revolutionary War was over, around sixty of the eighty Methodist circuit riders gathered in December of 1784 and organized the Methodist Episcopal Church. Nevertheless, the local form of the members remained that of the society for around a century.
Societies were made up of classes, and sometimes even smaller units called bands. Class leaders were the key persons i the societies. They kept watch over the moral and stewardship life of the members in their classes. They reported any deviations from the rules and moral standards of the members to the circuit riders and presiding elders (district superintendents) when they came to preach. The rise of the Sunday School and the unwillingness of members to have their lives disciplined so closely caused the church to move toward the organizational structures of today.
Centenary came into being as a SOCIETY, certainly by the summer of 1832. It was the first Methodist group to come into the very heart of Wachovia, although Bethel had preceded it in 1820 on the southern side as the first Methodist society within the Wachovia tract. Six other Methodist congregations, besides Bethel, were in existence prior to 1832 in the area now included in Forsyth County. These were Love's, Doub's Concord, Clemmons, Sharon and Bethlehem (Walkertown). There were other homes and schoolhouses used as preaching places.
Returning to the main subject for this paper, let us note that there are two accounts of the location of the MULBERRY TREE SOCIETY. While these at first seem to be in conflict they turn out to be complimentary. One account was given in a written history of Centenary by Eugene E. Gray in 1903. The other is an oral account by Mrs. Maude Williamson.
Mr. Gray, writing from the perspective of "Old Centenary" wrote that the MULBERRY TREE under which the society, which was the beginning Centenary Church was formed, "stood beyond the site of the Davis School,near where David Brown now lives." It was easy to discover that the Davis Military Academy stood on the grounds now occupied by the Children's Home. To locate where David Brown lived, even the proximity of where he lived, required lots of help from other people and considerable time in the Register of Deeds office.
"Beyond the site" of what is presently the Children's Home means generally to the "north". The Winston-Salem City Directory of 1904-05 informs us that David Y. Brown was a farmer whose residence was near the Davis School. The Directory of 1908 indicated that he was retired and lived in "Chatham Heights". A map of Forsyth County, drawn by C.M. Miller in 1907, showed some Browns living near a wagon road northwest of the Davis School and on the east side of what is now Reynolda Road. The following information on that road offered some clues.
At the northwest corner of the Children's Home property, located at 1325 Reynolda Road, is the Parsonage of the Winston-Salem District Superintendent. Just beyond the parsonage, as one travels northwest on Reynolda Road, is Fenner Road which leads to the home of Lindsay S. Wall. Just past that road, traveling in the same direction, is the alley behind the homes which face Wendover Court. The original Fenner Road ran the course of that alley and continued in a northeasterly direction until it intersected with what is now Arbor Road, near the entrance to the Triad United Methodist Home. The end of the road is now named Biltmore Avenue and leads to the Wachovia Arbor Moravian Church. Originally a drive branched off the old wagon road to the Wall home, and yet another branch led to the little Moravian church. Mr. Wall purchased a strip of land on the edge of the Children's Home property to make the present drive to his home and closed the old road after it passed the end of Wendover Court.
According to the map of 1907, already referred to, the Browns lived on the north side of the old wagon road and beyond the northeast ends of Wendover and Deepwood Courts. The exact site of the mulberry tree may never be known, but we may claim a general section of land with some certainty.
Before we follow up on the oral tradition from Mrs. Williamson, there is an interesting note with regard to the old wagon road which was named Fenner Road in 1930. The name appears first on a deed of trust which Thomas Lysett had on the property now owned by Mr. Lindsay S. Wall. While there was a company in Winston-Salem from the late 1920's for some years known as Fenner and Beane, neither of those persons ever lived in this area. Their company, based in New Orleans, was managed by Thomas Lysett. It would seem logical to think that Mr. Lysett, having to provide the name of a street for the deed of trust, used the name of his boss.
There is another interesting side light coming from the search. Someone, after listening to the above account, turned to the phone directory and pointed to the firm of "Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith, Inc." Upon calling the firm's local office there was an outpouring of help including friendly calls from their New York office giving information and names and addresses of persons which finally led to a nice letter from a Fenner descendant. The letter confirmed that the Fenner of Fenner and Beane had never lived in this area. The latter company dealt at first in agricultural products, then in stocks, and finally merged with Merrill Lynch.
Now, turning to the oral tradition from Mrs. Maude Williamson, we find that it strongly confirms the written account of Mr. Gray. The tradition is that the MULBERRY TREE SOCITY was formed under a large mulberry tree on the land of John Miller. Mrs. Williamson is the latter's descendant, he being her great grandfather. Mr. Eugene Gray, while not speaking of the land in relation to the tree, related how Mrs Williamson's grandfather, Calvin Miller, walked barefooted on the mulberries. This is to confirm to folks in the early 1900's that it was indeed a mulberry tree and not an apple tree as some had thought.
Much research, in the Register of Deeds offices in Forsyth and Stokes Counties, confirms that John Miller owned, at one time or another, land on both sides of present day Reynolds Road, but mainly on the east side and between the northwest end of the Children's Home property and Kent Road on to the northwest.
Mrs. Maude Williamson has said that the John Miller home was somewhere in the land on the south side of Kent Road. The land on which David Brown presumably lived was once owned by John Miller. The distance between Deepwood and Wendover Courts and Kent Road is only two short blocks. Vanhoy Avenue is a short street in between these points.
It has not yet been determined how long the Mulberry Tree Society was in existence prior to the purchasing of three plus acres in August of 1832 for the building of the NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH. It may well have existed for a year or more. However, there is no doubt about the 1832 date.
John Miller was a Lutheran, and according to Mrs. Williamson, came from the Old Organ Church community near Rockwell, N.C. His wife, the former Elizabeth Holder had relatives in the society and in the church of later years. David Brown was a member of the Wachovia Arbor Moravian Church and he and his wife, and other relatives are buried in that church's cemetery.
It is interesting to note how Methodists have been attracted to the general area of Centenary's beginnings. First there was the Children's Home property, although only on adjoining land. Norvan V. Stockton, Sr. raised his family on Kent Road. The Nading family at one time owned most of the land which John Miller had owned. There are numerous Nading descendants in Centenary today. In recent years the Triad United Methodist Home has been building on former Chidlren's Home property along Arbor Road. As of this date in October of 1986, the Triad Home plans to build a large number of duplex apartments on the west side of their property and very near to former John Miller land and the site of the "mulberry tree". The location of the district parsonage has already been noted. It is probably within two or three hundred yards from the site of the founding place of Centenary Church.