The year was 1783. Mebane was
called Mebanesville and was part of Orange County. Members at Cross Roads were meeting regularly
and had been for several years. The
Revolutionary War had just ended, and the Treaty of Paris was signed. Cross Roads Presbyterian Church was organized
with the help of Hawfields pastor, John Debow and his brother-in-law, Joseph
Lake. By 1801 Reverend William Paisley
was pastor of both Hawfields and Cross Roads churches, traveling as many as 20
miles on horseback to serve both congregations on Sundays.
The Great Revival, a resurgence in religious fervor that inspired camp
meetings across the state and southeast United States, began at Cross Roads in
August of 1801.
The earliest church structure was a frame building with a slave gallery,
built in an oak grove just south of the present cemetery. In September of 1876, the cornerstone was
laid for the present building. Bricks
were made on site from clay that was said to be “as good as any in North
Carolina”. The first worship in the new
building was held in June of 1887, some eleven years later. Even then the walls had not been plastered,
and the woodwork not yet painted.
The sanctuary chandelier is the one original to the current church
building. It was a gift from the Sellars
family. Dr. W. N. Tate borrowed a
horse-drawn wagon from another member and drove to town to meet the train at
the old Mebane depot and pick up the chandelier. The stained glass windows were installed in
1940 as memorials by the families listed at the bottom of each window.
Sunday School, or Sabbath School, as it was called back then, was
originally held in as many as 4 different locations. The first Sabbath School documented by Cross
Roads was held in the abandoned still house of William Mebane in 1827. One hundred years later, in 1927, the
educational hut, a much used and much loved log building, was erected. The current educational building was constructed
in 1973.
In 1906, the first manse was built and still stands on Highway 119. It is now privately owned. The old Stainback store, an Alamance County
historical site, is just across the road from the cemetery. It was made from wood taken from the earlier
frame Cross Roads Church. John Wesley
Stainback bought the old church in 1891, disassembled it, and moved it across
the road to its current location. It
served the community as a post office and general store until it closed in
1973. It was even used to store coffins
on the second floor. The coffins were
made by the Murray Brothers Sawmill and Woodworking Shop across the road from
the store.
The cemetery has over 250 stones, the earliest dating from 1796. Because the slave graves are unmarked, there
are many more people buried than there are markers. Author Alex Haley of “Roots” fame visited
Cross Roads and researched his Orange and Alamance County ancestors. In 1977, one year after the mini-series
“Roots” debuted on television, a documentary entitled “Roots—One Year Later”
was filmed at Cross Roads.
Even though times have changed, the people are still the backbone of
Cross Roads. A lot of the names are
still familiar—Walker, Vincent, Tate, Barnwell, Sellars, Anderson, Mebane,
Bingham—and later Roney, Scott, Patton, and Wells. We don’t have a “mourners’ bench”
anymore. Neither are members suspended
for “un-Christian character”, but we do all say a regular prayer of
confession. The church and its pastors
inspire us to lead better lives, and we all pray that this will continue for
another 229 years.
