In the early 19th century, Rev. John Alien of Orange County, became distraught over the need for a church following a visit in this area. He began preaching and was soon followed by preachers from different parts of the county. Their preaching was attended with power to the awakening and conversion of many souls. Rev. Nicholas P. Barum first began to preach at Martin Staley's house and Pleasant Hill Church may have been organized there. Six members began the church in 1823 and they were Martin Staley, Shubel Evans, Susanna Tyson, Elizabeth Coble, Mary Murchison, and Celia Way.

In 1824, Martin Staley got subscriptions for the purpose of building a meeting house. Five acres of land were deeded by Martin and another 5 acres were deeded by Lovina Vestal. The first meeting house was a one room frame structure and was located opposite the cemetery from the present building. It was completed in 1825 and may have originally been called "Ponds Meeting" because of two ponds located just south of the building. Soon after it was named "Pleasant Hill" possibly after a nearby school with the same name. 

Benjamin Way and Shubal Evans were the first deacons and were ordained in 1827 by Rev. Alien. Until 1829 no regular services were held, but a motion was finally made to hold regular services on the first Sunday of each month. For the first eight years, Lewis Craven, John Alien, Shubal Evans, Martin Staley and Alfred Isley preached regularly at Pleasant Hill.

Camp Meetings

Hiram Vestal deeded a parcel of land east of the meeting house for the purpose of a camp ground. A stand was built and tents were moved and erected in a square around the stand. A brush arbor was built around the stand to protect the congregation from the sun. Most seats were made by splitting logs. Camp Meetings were held for many years until the campground began to fall in disrepair. It was decided in 1844 to build a new brush arbor. The Friday before the third Sunday in August, 1844, camp meeting began on a regular basis at Pleasant Hill.

Every morning around sunrise, William Nelson would blow a small tin horn and the "tenters" would assemble for morning

prayer. There would be four sermons which took place at intervals during the day and into the night, with tallow candles being lit for the evening sermons. When mourners came to the altar there would often be loud singing, shouting, and clapping of hands that could be heard for miles away. According to Abel Way, " The women used to shout very loudly at these meetings and sometimes men would shout. The 3:00 meeting on Sunday was the usual time for shouting to began and would last until the meeting broke. My mother was a great shouter as was my grandmother, and I cannot condemn it because they were good women." Singing was an important part of the camp meetings and hymns were

memorized. Rev. Alfred Isley liked to sing "There's a happy land", Jesse Cole sang "Old Ship of Zion", and Martin Staley's favorite was "Attend Young Friends While I Relate the Danger You Are In". Unfortunately, due to the war of 1861, camp meetings ceased to exist at Pleasant Hill. "These camp meetings were grand times for small boys, for they had nothing to do but carry water and keep the hogs away. I don't believe I ever saw a happier time I my life." .....Abel Way in 1912.

Sources: Mr. Abel Way "Reminiscences of the Past" written in 1912 and "The Christian Sun" 1925

Other Important Events

1833 - Temperance Society began.

1871 - The first Sunday School was organized.

1883 - A new meeting house was built and dedicated the first Sunday in September.

1912 - It was decided to hold regular revival

the first Sunday in September.

1913 - Sunday School rooms and entrance way at the front of the building were erected.

I920's - Women's Fellowship was organized; Christian Endeavor organized; one room was built on each side of the meeting house.

I940's - First parsonage built.

1953 - A block building was erected as a Boy Scout Hut in memory of Henry Overman.

1959 - On February 1st the meeting house burned.

1960 - The present church building was completed, and the first service was held on May 1st.

1966 - Present Parsonage Built

Pleasant Hill Christian Church was organized in 1823, when the Rev. John Allen, a member of the Christian denomination from Orange County began preaching in a school building near the present location of the church. The next year a subscription paper was started by Martin Staley and a church was begun. It was completed in 1825 and called Pleasant Hill by the Rev. Nicholas Barron. Regular services have been held since then.

Besides the first two ministers, these served until 1841: Lewis Craven, Subal Evans, Martin Staley, and Alfred Isley.

The Rev. M. A. Pollard and his wife moved into the new parsonage located near the church on September 3, 1947, The Pastor dedicated the parsonage on June 6, 1948. In 1950, for the first time of its history, Pleasant Hill Church had a minister for full-time service. Rev. Pollard served until shortly before his death in 1958. The Rev. Thomas F. Shreve is now serving as Pastor.

The 10.5-acres of church land was deeded to the trustees and their successors in office; one plot was deeded by Martin Staley for 5 acres and 4 rods, the other lot of 5.2 acres was deeded by Lovina Vestal and heirs. The Martin Staley deed was executed in 1833 and the Lovina Vestal deed in 1859. 

Six charter members began the church in 1823: Martin Staley, Subal Evans, Susanna Tyson, Elizabeth Coble, Mary Murchison, and Celia Way. 

In 1833, ten years after the church was organized, a temperance society was organized. Regular meetings were held on or near the Fourth of July each year and mid - year sessions are held in December at Cane Creek Friends Church. 

In April 1871, a Sunday School was organized and today has a membership of ___. W. E. Overman, Jr is Superintendent. Seven

members of Pleasant Hill have gone into the Christian ministry. They are: Martin Staley, Subal Evans, Archibald Nelson, Joseph

Evans, Walker Fogleman, J.W. Fogleman, Norman Carter, and Martin L. Fogleman.

In 1953, a 40 by 60 foot block building was erected on the church grounds as a Boy Scout Hut, and was dedicated to the late

Henry Overman, a member and Boy Scout worker. The church burned February 1, 1959, and the Hut has served as a meeting place for the church services since that time. A $130,000 building is now being constructed. Mr. Twiman Andrews is serving as Finance

Chairman of the Building Programs, Mrs. Juanita Euliss, Chairman of the Planning Committee, and later Mr. Alvah Ashley; and Mr. Bernard Hinshaw, Chairman of the Building Committee.

Pleasant Hill has a very active Christian Endeavor Society, and has produced three state presidents: Miss Doris Teague, Mrs. 

Juanita Euliss, and Miss Lucy Ashley.

A centennial meeting was held on the 1st Saturday and Sunday in August, 1894, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the organization of the Christian Church.

The Memorial Association has charge of the cemetery. A collection is taken once a year at the annual meeting for this purpose.

Pleasant Hill has the largest membership of any rural church in the Western North Carolina Conference.

Compiled by Mrs. Juanita Euliss

March 13, 1912 "Reminiscences of the Past No. 2"

The winter of 1855 - '56, was more severe than the present one, though some may disagree with me on that point. Snow began to fall in December and the ground was not free of snow until March. Like the present

winter, it would fall on Saturday evening at night or Sunday morning. I remember one Saturday afternoon in January '56, it began to snow and fell very fast till about midnight, then came a thunderstorm with hail and rain mixed. Next day there was a slick crust on the snow that made walking very difficult and tiresome. 

I was going to school at Pleasant Hill, George Albright being the teacher. I was boarding in a house built by Martin Staley for his son George Washington, at the time George Washington had died. His first wife Margaret Hinshaw, died before he did, and his second wife Louise Wells, had married Ira Hinshaw. The house I slept in was being moved away and Pidelius Hornaday is now using it for a barn. Henry Staley was my companion while going and coming from school. He lived with his grandfather Martin at the time. When his mother Margaret died she left two sons, Henry and William. Wm. was taken by his aunt Betsey Coble, but was accidently shot. Henry at this time had no father or mother. I was nearly grown but he was a small boy not half grown. 

Martin Staley died July 19th, 1859, and his wife Nelly died May 2 1860, and I lost sight of Henry till the summer of 1870. I was at the house of Freeman Nelson in Wayne county, Ind., one Sunday we saw a buggy coming up the road towards the house. I said it was my buggy but I did not know who was in it. When it come close it proved to be Henry Staley. Henry had married Mary, daughter of Isham and Lav-ina Cox, Freeman Nelson married Dinah Hinshaw and she was Henry's aunt. They went from Indiana to Kansas and settled there, naming their place "Primrose." I saw both of them about a dozen years ago. They were on a visit to their people in North Carolina. In August 1903 I received a letter from Henry. (Note JMC: Only copied the first half of this letter, since nothing else in it pertained to N.C.)

-CORNHILL

[...] were Durham, William, Mila, Irving, and Solomon. John Moran lived north of Joe 's. He married _____, a daughter of David Walker. His children were Delia, Jesse, Caroline, Ary, and _____. Ratcliff Smith also lived near here. He married Nancy Dorsett, a daughter of Russell Dorsett. I boarded with him in the summer of 1858. Nancy was a good woman. Their children were Daniel, David, and Joe.

-CORNHILL

"Reminiscences of the Past No. 17" August 12,1912

Pleasant Hill was the closest church to go to when I was a boy and the one that I attended the most, and I believe I was carried there when I was an infant. This church belongs to the denomination called; Christians and was established about the year 1824. Nicholas P. Barum first began to preach at Martin Staley's house and I believe the church was first organized there. Shubal Green Evans, a young man who was living with Martin Staley and learning the blacksmith's trade, was licensed to preach in 1824, and became a popular preacher and preached in a great many places in the state. He married Mary Nelson, but had no children. Martin Staley was also licensed to preach and he was known far and wide for the eccentricity of his character and the many anecdotes he used to relate. He was a blacksmith, millwright and wagon maker and a man of considerable property. He married Eleanor Bennett. His children were: Haywood, who married Abigail Hinshaw; Mary, who married Malcolm Murchison; Elizabeth, who married George Coble; Eliza, who married Isaac Fogleman; George Washington, who married Margaret Hinshaw and Eliza Wells; James Madison, who married Kezia Teague; and Sarah,who married John Smite. 

Ashbel Stodrick Nelson, a young man who married Rosanna Kimes, was licensed to preach. After his wife died in 1849, he married Martha Williams on and moved to Moore county; his children by his first wife were James, Roxana, Mary Jane, and John Holt. All three of these were ordained and remained faithful till death. A meeting house was built about the year 1825, and was called the Ponds Meeting House on account of two ponds of water just a short way south of the church. I was told by John Overman that a tent meeting was held after the house was built, the tents being built of logs on the north-west and west side of the meeting house. This was about 10 years before I was born. John Allen succeeded Nicholas P. Barum as traveling minister and he proposed calling the church Pleasant Hill and it has been called that ever since. 

Hiram Vestal deeded a parcel of land east of the church land for a camp ground. A stand was built and the tents were moved and erected in a square around the stand; A brush arbor was built around the stand to protect the congregation from the sun's rays and most of the seats were made by splitting logs, called puncheon seats. 

When I was a boy going to school, the camp meeting had ceased, tents and arbors had rotted and a great many of the poles had been carried to the school house and burned. This was when George Daffron taught school. Instead of a camp meeting they had a protracted meeting which embraced the first Sunday in October just as long ago as I can remember. I expressed a desire to my mother to attend the protracted meeting but she said I had no clean breeches. As I had but one-pair and they were made of tow. I waited till dark and after supper I went to the spring, built up a fire, warmed water in the wash pot and washed them, brought them to the kitchen, built up a fire and dried them and the next morning my mother pressed them before I awoke, and although there was a white frost that morning I went to meeting bare footed with tow breeches and a flax shirt on and was as happy as if I was a prince. 

In 1844, a Christian Minister, Daniel W. Kerr, started a paper called the Christian Sun at Hillsboro, and in that paper I read that a camp meeting would begin at Pleasant Hill on Friday night before the third Sunday in August. A new brush arbor was built, new tents were built, my father's being in the northeast corner of the square. Oh, how anxious I was for the time to come when we would all move to the camp ground. As well as I remember the preachers were Joseph A. Murry, Alfred Apple, Lovick Lambert. The women used to shout very loudly at these meetings and sometimes men would shout. The 3:00 sermon on Sunday was the usual time for shouting to began and would last until the meeting broke. My mother was a great shouter and so was my grandmother, and I cannot condemn it because I believe they were good women. These camp meetings were grand times for small boys for they had nothing to do but carry water and keep the hogs away. I don't believe I ever saw a happier time in my life.

August 28, 1912 "Reminiscences of the Past No. 12"

The year 1845 was known as the dry year and there was no camp meeting that year on account of the scarcity of water but from 1846 up until the breaking out of the war in 1861, there was a camp meeting every year at Pleasant Hill in August. Every morning about sunrise Wm. Nelson would blow a small tin horn as a signal for the tenters to assemble at the arbor for prayer; a song would be sung, a prayer would follow and then they would go back to the tent for breakfast. There would be four sermons during the day and night: at 9:00a.m. a short sermon and a recess; then at 11:00 or 12:00 a big sermon by some noted preacher; dinner would follow the sermon; at 3:00 another sermon and then supper about sunset. At dark the arbor would be lit up with tallow candles for people did not use oil then. A man would be appointed to keep these candles snuffed. The exercise at night would often be kept up till the late hour. The order of exercises would usually be first a song by the congregation from the Christian Companion, a hymn book published by J.T. Lemay, then the preacher would read a hymn from this book, then he would read two lines and then the congregation would sing them and so on till the hymn was ended, then a prayer would be offered up and then the sermon would be next. An exhortation would almost always follow the sermon an alter call by some minister who would be called to follow. If mourners came to the alter there would after be loud singing, shouting and clapping of hands that could be heard miles away; the saying, as noisy as a camp meeting. The shouting would not always be confined to the arbor but would break out sometimes at tents or on the road or at the homes of those that did not tent. Sometimes after the meeting would be over we would hear shouting in the neighborhood and we would take our song books out and sing for them. The Preaching was much louder than it is now and Joseph A. Murray was once heard by Alex Nelson who lived where Jimmy Jones now lives. I one heard Alfred Isley (JMC note: Alfred Isley was my great-grandfather and was ordained at Pleasant Hill in 1834), preach and could hear words distinctly though I was at home setting by a window upstairs or a mile away. 

I never saw any preacher use notes at any of these camp meetings. They used no instruments while singing and everybody took part in the singing that wished to. Some minister usually led the singing and there was no giddy young people invited up to the front to do the singing. I memorized almost all of the songs sung in those days and often a preacher would sing a new song and then nearly everybody would learn it. 

Jesse Z. Cole sang the "Old Ship of Zion," Alfred Isley sang "There's a Happy Land," Rev. Neuse Sang "In The Sweet Fields of Eden"

Ashbel Nelson sang "There is a Glorous Fountain," Shubal G. Evans sang "Show, Pity, Lord, Oh Lord, Forgive," and Martin Staley's favorite was "Attend Young Friends While I Relate the Danger You are In." 

In my last John Smite should be Daniel Smith, Rosanna Kimes should be Rosanna Kinney, and it was 1844 and not 1884 that Daniel W. Kerr started publishing the Christian Sun. 

October 2, 1912 "Correspondent of Grit Dead"

We regret to hear of the death of Mr. A.M. Way, of Route 2. He lived in a cottage alone, and was last seen alive Saturday afternoon. Monday afternoon he was found lying just outside his door dead, so it is not known when he died. The funeral was held at Pleasant Hill Thursday, conducted by Rev. T.F. Andrews. Mr. Way was an original character and a good man. He wrote a score of articles to the Grit dealing with Reminiscences of the Past, signed himself Cornhill and Via, and his letters were always quaint and interesting. The Grit has lost a good friend. Peace to his soul. His wife and two daughters died several years ago.

1883 The bell at Pleasant Hill Meeting House is from Dr. D. H. Albright. He bought it from the Oakdale School Building.

1883 New Meeting House dedicated 1st Sunday in September by Preacher Fleming.

04-19-1905 Meeting House painted.

16-10-1906 Sunday School had their pictures taken today by Ed Stroud.

06-13-1906 Ice Cream Supper at Pleasant Hill

08-17-1909 Pulpit built by Paul Coble for $1.50 a day and Bill Stout for $1.25 a day

1918 L. I. Cox preached at Pleasant Hill for 8 years. The last year his salary was $175.00.

04-1924 Meeting House covered

03-1925 Sunday School rooms are being built

11-1925 Christian Endeavor started at Pleasant Hill

10-02-1927 Pretty day, 200 at Sunday School, collection was $6.00.

09-1930 Mr. Pender taught a singing school for 10 nights

1930 Rev. Luther Nail helped in meeting. 12 joined the church, 5 were baptized in Asa Fogleman's pond. They were Jabin, Carrie, and Charlene Hinshaw. Also Virginia and Virgil Fox.

01-1932 Rooms painted and two windows put in small rooms.

1933 Mart Fogleman sexton $25.00

1933 Flowers and shrubs planted.

09-1934 Junior Choir organized by Beatrice Andrews and Ruth Day.

12-1935 The church bought a new Bible

02-28-1937 Big snow with only 8 present. Howard, Amy, Mart, Eva, and John Henry Fogleman. Beatrice and Twiman Andrews. Alvah Ashley.

03-24-1940 Easter Sunday. Snow 6" deep. 192 at Sunday School

08-25- Colon Carter and Henry Overman wired the church at a cost of $90.00 

Church Treasure

1917 P. E. Coble

1920-1924 W. E. Overman Sr.

1925-1927 W. G. Teague

1928-1929 C. B. Pike

1930-1932 Charlie Euliss

1933-1946 W. D. Hinshaw

1946 - R. C. Carter