Sharon Presbyterian Church records

As an area settled predominantly by Scots and Scotch-Irish, Charlotte is a city with a strong Presbyterian history. The origins of Sharon Presbyterian Church can be traced to a petition addressed to the Concord Presbytery on April 7, 1830. This petition was presented by Presbyterians residing mainly in south-central Mecklenburg County who traditionally had been served by Providence Presbyterian Church and by Steele Creek Presbyterian Church. These planter and farming families had determined that they needed a more convenient meeting house —hence, the petition to the Concord Presbytery. Evidently, religious services for a brief time were led by Presbyterian missionary Dougald McIntyre in local homes or possibly in the open air. In the fall of 1831, the Sharon Presbyterian Church congregation began holding worship services in their newly-constructed meeting house. On October 22, 1831, congregational seats were distributed and the congregation elected five ruling elders - Paris Alexander, Robert Kirkpatrick, Dr. Joseph W. Ross, William Ross and William Walker. William Lee, Jr. was elected treasurer. Sharon Church was “regularly organized by the ordination according to our Confession of Faith” and church elders Joseph W. Ross, William Ross and Paris Alexander ordained and installed, on November 4, 1831. Uniting with Providence Presbyterian Church, Sharon’s congregation thereby obtained “one third of the ministerial labor” of Providence’s pastor Rev. Samuel Williamson. The Sharon Church congregation elected their first deacons - Joseph Weeks, Robert Kirkpatrick and Augustus Alexander - in December 1840. The church had been established on land eventually owned by founding elder Dr. Joseph W. Ross. In November of 1857, Ross formally deeded to the church approximately 185 acres “with appurtenances” for the nominal fee of ten dollars. Dr. Ross was a very prominent and influential man in his community and his church. As the Southern states began seceding from the Union in 1861, the Synod of North Carolina met in Raleigh in November of that year to approve a bill that broke its connection with the General Assembly. Subsequently, the Southern synods convened in Atlanta to establish the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America. Though sectional politics were a major issue of the preceding decades, it does not appear in the Session minutes. Moreover, the Sharon Church’s session minutes do note those members who fell in combat for the Confederate cause. After the war, the Sharon Church held a day of fasting on August 10, 1865. The Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America reorganized itself as the Presbyterian Church of the United States, remaining separate from the Presbyterian Church of the USA until 1983. During the late nineteenth century, three new Presbyterian congregations were established at the outer boundaries of Sharon Township. These were Pineville Presbyterian Church, Amity Presbyterian Church and Ebenezer Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. In 1874, the Sharon congregation built on their church property the first of two manses. The congregation in 1891 completed a Gothic Revival-style brick sanctuary, simultaneously razing their original meeting house. Prior to World War II, the 1891 sanctuary was expanded to include space for Sunday school classrooms. Following the war, a brick manse complete with indoor plumbing replaced the 1874 wood-frame manse. The Sharon Church congregation by 1990 had grown to such an extent that plans for a new sanctuary were initiated. The Sharon session voted to establish a building committee to hire an architect and a contractor to build a new facility; and a finance committee to determine the cost and devise a way to finance construction. The congregation dedicated the new building on Sunday, September 11, 1994, by processing from the sanctuary of the 1891 building to the new one, carrying with them the communion table cross and the pulpit Bible. The completed structure features a rounded sanctuary intended to create a feeling of inclusiveness among the worshippers, and unlike the previous building, this one has a center aisle. The 1891 structure has been preserved as a chapel. The membership of this church produced several ministers over the years, including Rev. John Cannon, Rev. Robert L. Brown, Rev. C.C. Brown, Rev. Wilbur Nicholson, Rev. Lunsford Reed, Rev. Clayton Alexander, Rev. Eugene Alexander (who served as a chaplain in WWII), Rev. Walter Garrison, Rev. Oscar Sample, Rev. John Yandell, Rev. Conrad Caldwell, and Rev. William W. David, Junior. [Sources: Brockmann, Charles Raven, Mecklenburg Presbytery: A History. Heritage Printers, Inc., Charlotte, NC, 1962 ; Sharon Presbyterian Church records, 1840-2006, Mss 385, UNC Charlotte Library ; Sharon Presbyterian Church, Sharing Our Heritage: 175 Years of Faith, Fellowship and Food. Published by the Sharon Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, NC, 2006.]