Nellie Mooney, left, Jerry Logan, center, and Fred Logan, whose families helped establish Shaws Creek AME Zion Church in Horse Shoe in 1865, look over the church cemetery, which has not been cared for in years.
MIKE DIRKS/TIMES-NEWS
Published: Sunday, July 21, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, July 19, 2013 at 9:12 p.m.
Every time Hendersonville resident Shirley ?Nellie? Mooney visits her family graves at Shaws Creek A.M.E. Zion Church in Horse Shoe, she is filled with a mix of gratitude, nostalgia and sadness.
She's grateful for the way things have changed in the world since her great-grandfather helped organize the church, founded just two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation by executive order in 1863.
She's nostalgic for the days when she attended the small wooden church with her 14 siblings, recalling ?leisurely? carefree days of singing psalms, sharing testimonies and saying prayers for those living and dead.
But perhaps the strongest feeling these days is sadness, as Moody watches the graves of her siblings and ancestors continue to be overrun by uncut grass, un-pulled weeds and overgrown brush, year after year.
The church, cemetery and grounds were always tended to by the parishioners, said Mooney and her nephew, Arthur ?Jerry? Logan, but the church was officially closed more than two years ago due to a steady decline in membership.
Since then, Mooney and her family have tried to keep up the grounds by mowing the lawn, cleaning up gravesites ? some of which are unmarked slave graves ? and cutting back brush. But it appears to be a losing battle. They say they just can't keep up with the 2.5-acre property, let alone the church building that is need of general upkeep, but to which they have no access.
That keeps Mooney up at night.
?I pray every night that God would let that church be what it was intended to be,? she said. ?If there are not enough people to attend, not enough funds to keep it open, at least let the state have it and make a historic place where kids can come and learn about our history.?
And Shaws Creek is steeped in history. The oldest African-American church in Henderson County, the first service was held in 1865 with parishioners sitting on logs in a small clearing that belonged to a white land owner, J.R. Leverette, who loaned the parishioners the land for worship. When winter approached, they built a ?brush arbor? to protect themselves from the elements as much as possible.
It took the original worshipers more than 25 years to save $50 to buy the land from Leverette, who encouraged the group to build a church.
Mooney's great-grandfather, John Wesley Logan, who was born a slave, helped fellow church trustees Alex Maxwell and Frank Gash hew the trees that formed the church's walls and floor.
?The womenfolk cooked and helped in whatever way possible,? wrote Mooney's sister, Hannah Logan Edwards, in a history she prepared of the church in 1976. ?With hard work and long hours, the walls were raised for a meeting house.?
Mooney's great-grandfather, from Horse Shoe, served as the church's first full-time pastor for 18 years, during which the church was named Logan's Chapel. After his death in 1929, the church was renamed Shaws Creek, after the name of a nearby stream.
Today, the gravesites of John Wesley Logan and his wife, Mary Angeline, are tended to by Mooney, her brother, Fred Logan, and her nephew, Jerry ? as best they can. But they need help, Jerry said.
The ground on which his ancestors' graves sit are on property owned by the A.M.E Church in America, and he's mystified as to why the national church isn't taking care of the grounds. A call to the church was unreturned at press time.
?Every church takes care of its property,? he said. ?But not at Shaws Creek.?
Reach Tanker at 828-694-7871 or nancy.tanker@blueridgenow.com.
Source: http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20130721/articles/130719758
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