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EDEN — For years, as I returned from my travels throughout the area and across the country, the tall white steeple of Bethlehem United Methodist Church served as a beacon to me.

When I came down that long hill on N.C. 14 and saw the steeple, I knew I was almost home.

Then, on June 17, 1997,  lightning struck the steeple of the church, and the building was destroyed.

Later, as members searched through the ashes, they found the wooden cross that had hung behind the pulpit.

Although charred in places, it was still intact. It was cleaned up and now hangs in the fellowship hall of the new church, built through generous donations from many supporters.

Although the new structure has a steeple, somehow it never has given me the same feeling of homecoming that the other building did.

It is on the same lot as the one destroyed in the fire. It is a beautiful structure and has a nice fellowship hall and spacious classrooms. But it is just not the same as the one that welcomed me back to Eden for so many years.

In July, 80 people from the church — some of them third- and fourth-generation members — gathered for the 175th anniversary. Joining in the celebration were members of Wentworth Methodist Church.

A play written by church historian Michael Perdue highlighted the events.

In his play, Perdue explained that Methodism in Rockingham County began in 1786 and 1787 when Bishop Francis Asbury visited Newman’s Church in what would later become Reidsville.

Later, the church changed its name to Smith’s Chapel.

It wasn’t long before Lowe’s Church and Salem Church were established. Then Mount Carmel Church, founded in the early 1800s. Oregon Hill became the “mother” of Bethlehem in 1835.

Lloyd Waters, a leader at Mount Carmel, sold a parcel of land for a dollar to the trustees to establish Bethlehem Church.

That first building had two doors on the front, said lifetime member John Richard Jarrell, 84. The men went in one door and sat on the left side of the church. The women entered the other door and sat on the right side. The children met near the pulpit, Jarrell said.

“In the late ’40s, when the boys were coming back from the war and getting married, married couples began sitting together, but the older people still sat separated.” Jarrell said.

The building was heated by two wood stoves connected to a chimney on each side. The church was remodeled in the mid- to late ’30s, and Sunday school rooms were added on either side. The children and young people met in three rooms behind the choir loft, Jarrell said.

In 1838, Isaac Weston deeded a tract of land about 100 feet east of the first building to the trustees. A new church was built in 1892 at a cost of $1,200. The first building was sold to the local public school committee and became Bethlehem School.

Before the Civil War, Perdue said, the Wentworth Circuit covered all of Rockingham County.

In 1858, the Rev. David Rasbury Bruton was pastor to 13 churches.

“We can only imagine the difficulties of his position,” Perdue said. Bruton scheduled monthly visits to all the churches by having services on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. He made those visits on horseback.

By 1872, Bethlehem was holding services at 3:30 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month with the Rev. W.C. Norman as pastor.

Then in 1873, John Anderson, a local minister and an ancestor of current member Carolyn Anderson, began serving on the Wentworth Circuit. Although he filled in for many pastors and did many pastoral duties, he was never officially appointed to the position, Carolyn Anderson said.

John Anderson organized Bethlehem’s first Sunday school class in 1880.

Shortly after the turn of the century, the circuit was reduced to four churches, and that meant that Bethlehem could have services on the second and fourth Sundays.

During a revival in 1909, 13 people, including Nell Moore Gammon, joined the church, Perdue said. Three years later, Gammon began playing the church piano and continued as the church musician until her 89th birthday on Jan. 29, 1989.

The church was remodeled in 1940. In 1963, the facility was enlarged, adding six new Sunday school classrooms and a fellowship hall.

“This was a busy year for a new parsonage, for the Reidsville Circuit was also constructed near Salem Church,” Perdue said.

The Rev. Lowell Swisher was appointed in 1967, and every church on the circuit, including Bethlehem, benefited from his leadership. For the first time, services were organized so each church could have services on Sunday morning.

Jesse Burton was the first president when the Methodist Men was organized. Current members John Richard Jarrell, Ralph Williams, Fred Burton and Ronnie Hundley were among the 17 charter members.

Also in 1968, the United Methodist Women were reorganized. Barbara Burton and Helen Moore were among the 12 charter members.

A building committee led by Jesse Burton and Mildred Shreve with Ronnie Hundley, T.L. Knight, Virginia Gammon, Ruth Walker, John Richard Jarrell and Ralph Williams as members oversaw the remodeling of the sanctuary during 1976 and 1977.

Tragedy came in the late 1990s with the lightning strike that destroyed the church.

Members of the community and other churches made donations to help replace it. 

“When we started rebuilding, we installed a plaque commemorating 67 churches of different denominations which had contributed to the rebuilding from a wide area,” Jarrell said.

 “Now,” Perdue said as the church celebrated its 175th anniversary in July, “through the grace of God and the hard work of the Bethlehem family, Bethlehem Church is still a vibrant and faithful church.”

Ann Fish is Reidsville native but has lived in Eden since 1979. She is a retired newspaper editor and reporter. Contact her at annsomersfish@yahoo.com.