Location: NC 150 and SR 1737 (White Road) at Millbridge
County: Rowan
Original Date Cast: 1937
The deed from John Linn to the church congregation for the lot on which Thyatira Church stands was filed January 1, 1753 in Anson County, just prior to Rowan County’s formation. The document indicates that the church, then called “the lower meeting house between the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers,” was already organized, and other land records for nearby properties indicate that the meeting house was in place by late 1750. In 1753 the Synod of Philadelphia sent two missionaries into Virginia and North Carolina with specific instructions to “show special regard” for the people between the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, the location of the nascent church. In 1755 another missionary, Hugh McAden, preached at the church that was at that time called Cathey’s Meeting House, described as “a small log building” situated about where the graveyard is now located.
The congregation adopted the name Thyatira Church in 1764. The first permanent minister on record for Thyatira was Samuel E. McCorkle, who was installed on August 2, 1777. Thyatira is the mother church of many Presbyterian churches in the vicinity. The Gothic Revival brick chapel that stands today was built between 1858 and 1860. The oldest tombstone in the graveyard at Thyatira is from 1755. Among the burials there is McCorkle, who died in 1811.
References:
Rev. Thomas W. Lingle, History of Thyatira Church, 1753-1925 (1925)
Robert W. Ramsey, Carolina Cradle Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, 1747-1762 (1964)
Catherine Bishir and Michael Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003)