Stony Hill Church From 1800-1964

by Alberta Lowder Boggan © 2008

also the author of Our Children's Heritage.

Alberta Boggan

Stony Hill and The Albemarle Circuit

The Albemarle Circuit was organized around 1831 to serve the already existing Stony Hill, Randall and a new church, Central that was being organized at this time. The first Central Methodist Church building was erected in 1841, on land given to the Albemarle Circuit, by the Daniel Freeman family. Several members of Stony Hill families became members of Central. It has been said that Central began as a mission church of Stony Hill. The Huckabee, McCain and Lilly families had members at Central. Margie Mauney, granddaughter of Arthur Atkins became organist at Central in 1921 and served in this position for over fifty years. I remember Margie Mauney and a quartet including J. N. Lilly(Uncle Jim)coming to Stony Hill to render the music for funerals and special occasions.

A parsonage was built on Pee Dee Avenue in Albemarle to serve the Albemarle Circuit. The house is still in existence. Central became a station church in 1899, but the parsonage remained with the circuit, until a new parsonage was built on the Norwood Road, next to Union Chapel Church. At this time Union Chapel, Pine Grove and Stony Hill were on the Albemarle Circuit. The churches on the Albemarle Circuit changed from time to time, but Stony Hill remained constant until it became a station church. The Stony Hill parsonage was then built on Valley Drive.

Envelope System

Paul E. Kirk, Burse Mullinex, and Will P. Lowder were stewards during the 1930's. It was their duty to see that the church met its financial obligations. The church came up short each year. These three men divided the deficit and paid it out of their own pockets.

During the latter part of the 1930's, the decision was made to implement the envelope system. Each member was urged to put a dime in the church provided envelope each Sunday. This was sufficient to take care of the church budget.

Stony Hill only paid a portion of the preacher's salary as it was on the Albemarle Circuit with several other churches.