Historic Walker's Creek Presbyterian Church VA and James Bane Jr.
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Historic Walker's Creek Presbyterian Church VA and James Bane Jr.
This has interesting historical information. http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Giles/NR_Gile... The following is an excerpt from pages 9-11
"Historic Context
The White Gate community, of which Walker's Creek Presbyterian Church is a part, was settled by James Bane Jr. in 1791. Bane named the area Rye Meadows but when the community received a post office in 1837 it was renamed White Gate. For much of the nineteenth century, the community's Presbyterian families worshipped at churches in adjoining counties such as New Dublin Presbyterian Church in Pulaski County and Kimberling Presbyterian Church in Bland County (three miles west of White Gate), and at Pearisburg Presbyterian Church in the Giles County seat. This changed on November 2, 1873, when a group of eleven women and two men met in White Gate's Walker's Creek Baptist Church to organize Walker's Creek Presbyterian Church. The congregation elected Thomas Reid Shannon Jr. and James Bane Miller as ruling elders. Miller was the great-grandson of James Bane Jr. and Shannon's son-in-law. Shannon was one of the county's wealthiest landowners and a legislator in the Virginia General Assembly in the 1850s. Eight of the church's eleven women founders had previously worshipped at Kimberling Presbyterian Church, as had James B. Miller.
One of the first orders of business for the young congregation was the construction of a combination church and academy building at White Gate. Construction began in the spring of 1874 and the two-story brick building was completed the same year. The church met on the ground floor and the White Gate Academy, formed in 1868, met upstairs. Shortly after completion of the building, ten church women donated five silver dollars each to be melted down and incorporated into a brass bell that was being cast for the church. The silver is said to give the bell--which hangs in the belfry of the present church--a sweet, clear tone. In the early years the congregation was almost entirely white, but in 1877 two African American women joined the church, and in 1906 a third black woman became a member. A substitute pastor during the early years was J. M. Humphreys, whose main occupation was headmaster of the academy.
By the mid-1890s, the congregation had grown to fifty-seven members with an additional forty-five non-members attending Sunday School. In April 1894 the Reverend Bolling Hobson, who preached part-time at Walker's Creek and two other Presbyterian churches in the county, convened a meeting that resulted in a decision to build a new church. Apparently a design concept had already been prepared by July 1896 when the windows for the new building were received, but actual construction did not begin until the following year. In January 1897 church members Andrew J. Bane and his wife Nannie Allen Bane donated a little over a tenth of an acre to the church trustees for the erection of the building. The membership selected elder George Lloyd Bane (another great-grandson of James Bane Jr.) to build the church; member James B. Miller donated building materials for the job; and George Bane's brother S. Henry Bane sawed the lumber at his nearby water-powered grist and saw mill on Walker's Creek. From a letter written by the Rev. Hobson in 1948 it is known that Hobson, George L. Bane, Andie Bane, and James B. Miller laid the stone foundation. Work began in the spring of 1897 and was completed by early fall of 1898."
Here is a different link, with similar information, I think it may have been the original registration form http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Giles/035-042...
Does anyone have more information about the Bane family mentioned in the above mentioned document? I'm curious to know if they are related to my Jesse Bane (1755 PA - 1831 VA).
"Historic Context
The White Gate community, of which Walker's Creek Presbyterian Church is a part, was settled by James Bane Jr. in 1791. Bane named the area Rye Meadows but when the community received a post office in 1837 it was renamed White Gate. For much of the nineteenth century, the community's Presbyterian families worshipped at churches in adjoining counties such as New Dublin Presbyterian Church in Pulaski County and Kimberling Presbyterian Church in Bland County (three miles west of White Gate), and at Pearisburg Presbyterian Church in the Giles County seat. This changed on November 2, 1873, when a group of eleven women and two men met in White Gate's Walker's Creek Baptist Church to organize Walker's Creek Presbyterian Church. The congregation elected Thomas Reid Shannon Jr. and James Bane Miller as ruling elders. Miller was the great-grandson of James Bane Jr. and Shannon's son-in-law. Shannon was one of the county's wealthiest landowners and a legislator in the Virginia General Assembly in the 1850s. Eight of the church's eleven women founders had previously worshipped at Kimberling Presbyterian Church, as had James B. Miller.
One of the first orders of business for the young congregation was the construction of a combination church and academy building at White Gate. Construction began in the spring of 1874 and the two-story brick building was completed the same year. The church met on the ground floor and the White Gate Academy, formed in 1868, met upstairs. Shortly after completion of the building, ten church women donated five silver dollars each to be melted down and incorporated into a brass bell that was being cast for the church. The silver is said to give the bell--which hangs in the belfry of the present church--a sweet, clear tone. In the early years the congregation was almost entirely white, but in 1877 two African American women joined the church, and in 1906 a third black woman became a member. A substitute pastor during the early years was J. M. Humphreys, whose main occupation was headmaster of the academy.
By the mid-1890s, the congregation had grown to fifty-seven members with an additional forty-five non-members attending Sunday School. In April 1894 the Reverend Bolling Hobson, who preached part-time at Walker's Creek and two other Presbyterian churches in the county, convened a meeting that resulted in a decision to build a new church. Apparently a design concept had already been prepared by July 1896 when the windows for the new building were received, but actual construction did not begin until the following year. In January 1897 church members Andrew J. Bane and his wife Nannie Allen Bane donated a little over a tenth of an acre to the church trustees for the erection of the building. The membership selected elder George Lloyd Bane (another great-grandson of James Bane Jr.) to build the church; member James B. Miller donated building materials for the job; and George Bane's brother S. Henry Bane sawed the lumber at his nearby water-powered grist and saw mill on Walker's Creek. From a letter written by the Rev. Hobson in 1948 it is known that Hobson, George L. Bane, Andie Bane, and James B. Miller laid the stone foundation. Work began in the spring of 1897 and was completed by early fall of 1898."
Here is a different link, with similar information, I think it may have been the original registration form http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Giles/035-042...
Does anyone have more information about the Bane family mentioned in the above mentioned document? I'm curious to know if they are related to my Jesse Bane (1755 PA - 1831 VA).