Location: US 64 at SR 1311 (Camp Ground Road) east of Horse Shoe
County: Henderson
Original Date Cast: 1974
Modern Henderson County was created in 1838 from sections of Buncombe County and was first settled shortly before the Revolution. One early settler, James Johnson, arrived in the area of Shaw’s Creek, near present Hendersonville, after the Revolution. Johnson, a native of Ireland, had lived and traveled throughout the colonies before deciding on North Carolina’s frontier as his home around 1793. He and his wife, Ann, were devout Christians and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. As such, they sought to assist missionaries in the development of a church near their home.
The church that the Johnsons helped to establish is now known as Shaw’s Creek Campground and Church. The congregation of Shaw’s Creek began to meet on Johnson’s property and, around 1800, he donated twenty-five acres of land to the church for a campground, church building, and cemetery. The campground was completed first and has been used continuously for family reunions and revivals. Camp meetings usually lasted a week and were well attended with the Johnsons often providing food and supplies to visiting worshippers. A small Gothic Revival church building, built around 1905 and damaged by fire in 1997, replaced an earlier structure that had served the congregation since the early nineteenth century. The cemetery has been used mainly by descendants of the Johnsons as well as other members of the congregation. The burial place of founder James and wife Ann may be found there.
References:
James T. Fain, Jr., A Partial History of Henderson County (1980)
Catherine Bishir, Michael T. Southern and Jennifer F. Martin, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Western North Carolina (1999)
Sadie Smathers Patton, The Story of Henderson County (1982)
Johnson family history: http://www.obcgs.com/johnson.htm