eligion,

There are no records of worship services along the Tryon River from the time Holland came with the first settlers in 1769 until 1792. The first clergyman known to visit the Tryon River area was a Methodist Evangelist, Rev. William Gmndin. He held services in 1792 in Nathaniel Wright’s log house that was on land where Steven Clement now lives. The Methodist people held services in their homes until a log church was built adjacent to the Acadian Cemetery, now the Tryon Peoples Cemetery.1 Dr. James MacGregor, a Scottish Presbyterian, arrived in 1794, and Alexander Crawford, a Scottish Baptist, brought the Baptist faith to the area about 1814.2

North Tryon Presbyterian Church. Hazel Robinson collection.

Four worship houses were built overlooking the river, three in Tryon and one in North Tryon. The Tryon Methodist Church was built in 1817; the Tryon Baptist in 1833; and the North Tryon Presbyterian in 1858. A fourth church, the Christian Church, was built to the west of the present Tryon Baptist Church. The date this church opened and closed is not known; however, the cemetery associated with this church is across from the Tryon Consolidated School. The church building was sold, moved, and converted into a barn.3

The Methodist congregation included members of the Dawson, Ives, Lord, Leard, and Wood families; the Baptists congregation included members of the Thomas, Callbeck, Leard, Gouldrup, and Lefurgey families; and the Presbyterian congregation included members of the Howatt, Morrison, Muirhead, Chisholm and Thomson families. The

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