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History of Mount Sinai
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Mount Sinai African Methodist Episcopal Church is located in the county of Chatham in the town of Pittsboro, North Carolina. Pittsboro was established as a town in 1785. It became the county seat in 1787. Mount Sinai African Methodist Episcopal Church had its beginning in the early 1870’s, when the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Female Academy of the Town of Pittsboro, bargained, sold and conveyed to Anthony Reaves, Benjamin Thompson, Morris Ragland and Thomas Taylor, a parcel of land known as Lot #105 which, at the time, stood for the Female Academy of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The cost of the land was $25.00 per acre.
On August 1, 1871, Burton Cotton, Madison Harris, George Lee, Morris Ragland and Alonza Rives were duly sworn in as trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Pittsboro. The deed was filed officially November 14, 1871, and the small membership started to build a physical edifice for the purpose of worship. The first structure was completed, in 1877, under the Administration of Reverend W. J. Jordan.
In 1900, there were only 424 residents in Pittsboro. It is not clear what percentage of the population was of African descent. The population of those of African decent has been numbered at upwards of 30%; however, currently, those of African descent make up approximately 19% of Pittsboro residents. At the turn of the twentieth century, church life and church culture was central to life in the town of Pittsboro. Those descended from the community’s African population, comprised of both free and formerly enslaved people, lived primarily within walking distance of Mt. Sinai.
Many old records of Mt. Sinai were destroyed accidentally with the exception of a picture of the original structure alongside some of the church’s earliest members and the church’s first pastor, Rev. Jordan. The current church building was constructed in the 1950s. The groundwork for this structure was done under the administration of Rev. J. D. Treadwell.
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The members, both young and old, met with Rev. Treadwell after school and worked on the renovation project. Members, after many hours of digging, hand carried rocks out of the basement of the church. A “Brick Rally” was held and persons were allowed to purchase bricks in order to ensure the completion of the church’s renovation. Once the needed bricks were secured, Vick Construction Company of Raleigh, North Carolina, was employed for the renovation project. The bricks were laid around the old frame building and for a period of time services could no longer be held at the site of Mt. Sinai. During this period of time, the members met and held service in the auditorium of the Old Horton High School building, now George Moses Horton Middle School. In 1963, under the administration of Rev. B. S. Foust, the building was completed.
Mount Sinai is a church that always placed an emphasis on education as a means of discipleship and forming Christians who are able to transform the practices and behaviors of the larger community. As such, in the early 1970s, the first Headstart Program in Chatham County had its headquarters at Mt. Sinai in order to meet the needs of the communities African American population that continued to be unmet in Chatham County’s post-Segregation worldview. In later years, Mount Sinai housed the Chatham County Child Development Center (Day Care). Both of these programs were directed by Clara B. Dark.
In anticipation of the church’s future growth, on March 16, 1961, Mount Sinai’s trustees, Isaiah Taylor, June Reaves, William Leach, John Hadley, Bishop Leach, Henry Leach and Elbert Ramsey, acted on behalf of the church and purchased the lot across the street from the church that serves as a parking lot. In addition, under the leadership of the Reverend Casimir Brown, Mount Sinai purchased property on Small Street to serve as an annex ministry site in the church’s future.
Many additions have been made over the years to position this house of God for everything destined for Mt. Sinai including: the front steps, the vestibule, Pastor’s Study, entrance to the basement from the inside, choir rooms, back steps and handicap ramps.
Some of the ministers who served the church are: Reverends W. J. Jordan, Henderson, Crowell, J. D. Cowan, Leak, Cornish, Rice, Slone, C. C. Scott, C. A. Stroud, L. W. Parker, J. D. Treadwell, B. S. Foust, D. H. Ford, A. M. Hall, P. O. James, Howard Johnson, Christopher Robinson, Casimir Brown, Barbara Barbour (Mt. Sinai’s first female minister), Randolph Lynch, Shirley J. Decoster, and Camelia Pierson Eaves.
Currently, Mount Sinai is under the pastoral leadership of the Reverend Shontea L. Smith who set the vision for the church in this season as “Together We Grow” based on Acts of the Apostles 2:1. Truly, it does not yet appear everything that Mt. Sinai shall be.
Research and information was furnished by the late Mrs. Joanna Leach, the late Mr. Bishop Leach and the late Mrs. Bertha Bruton. The later updates were furnished by Helen Ann Dark.
