Whitaker's Chapel Collection

1850-1988
Church Collection #CR0003
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Creator(s)
Whitaker's Chapel
Physical description
1.754 Cubic Feet, consisting of Roanoke Quarterly Conference Journals, daybooks, roll books, copies of other roll books, church programs, genealogical material, photographs, periodicals, clippings and correspondence.
Preferred Citation
Whitaker's Chapel Collection (#CR0003), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Repository
ECU Manuscript Collection
Access
No restrictions

This collection (1850-1988) includes records pertaining to Whitaker's Chapel, a Methodist Church near Enfield in Northeastern North Carolina, and minutes (1848-1939) of the Methodist Protestant Church's Roanoke Circuit to which it belonged.

Biographical/historical information

Whitaker's Chapel near Enfield, NC, was established as an Anglican chapel (1740), became Methodist (ca. 1776), and was the birthplace (1828) of the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church in which it remained until 1939 when the Methodist Protestant Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, reunited. The church remained open and functional until 1948 and the building was restored for periodic commemorative services, the first of these taking place on December 20, 1964. The present building was erected in 1850 and it is the third building to serve as the congregation's place of assembly. The United Methodist Church designated the building as one of two shrines in North Carolina (1970).

Scope and arrangement

The collection contains the original minutes of the Methodist Protestant Church's Roanoke Circuit (1848-1939) and typescripts of minutes (1848-1931) are also included. The minutes primarily concern matters of routine circuit business such as ministerial examinations, buying and selling of church property, Sunday School, and attendance statistics. Sporadic references to heresies, temperance, and memorials of prominent Methodist Protestant ministers and laymen within the Roanoke Circuit are included. One significant theological disagreement over water baptism is reflected in these minutes (1880). Another entry reflects cooperation between Methodist Protestants and Free Will Baptists in a Sunday School project (1930).

The collection also contains photocopies of two Sunday School Registers (1883-1901) covering Whitakers' Chapel primarily but also other Roanoke Circuit chapels; and a set of minutes (1902-1903) for the Beneficial Literary Society, an intellectual social group that met for the purpose of sharing works of literature, poetry, and developing skills of debate. Found with the minutes are the organization's by-laws which include debate procedure and other rules of decorum.

Miscellaneous material includes essays about the horrors of war; American relations with European nations; a handwritten chronology of the Spanish-American War; a poem about the failure of the Confederate States and their currency; and an essay concerning whether liquor or war was the greater evil.

Other materials include a daybook of Enfield dry goods merchant Wilson Gary Whitaker (1859); United Society of Christian Endeavor chapter records (1897-1911); a Christian Workers' Band minute book (1913-1914); Whitaker's Chapel membership books (1923-1948); a dessert recipe and home remedies book (1887); and a scrapbook of published poems about death and dying.

Most of the correspondence in the collection is largely that of Dr. Ralph Hardee Rives, former English professor at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, concerning efforts to re-open the Chapel for periodic services (1960s). Much of the correspondence pertains to the scheduling of speakers, the Chapel's maintenance, and the developments, rivalries, and problems within the Methodist Church on the local, conference, and denominational levels (1960s-1980s). Several letters (Mar. 17, 1969; Jan. 19, 1971; Nov. 6, 1978; Jan. 8, 1987) document tensions between a local United Methodist Church and the Chapel. Frequent regional denominational and academic correspondents were Paul Garber, Robert Blackburn, William Cannon, Arthur Wenger, Bruce Whitaker, S. Bruce Petteway, and Thomas Collins.

Other correspondence pertains to memories of teaching Czechoslovakian children in New York City in the late 1930s (November 3, 1970); the history of the Holme house in Lancastershire, England, and a description of the parapsychological methods used forassessing ghostly activity in the manor house (Dec. 28, 1971); and a description of an 1889 wedding at Whitaker's Chapel (Mar. 26, 1981).

Miscellaneous materials concerning Whitaker's Chapel include items chronicling its history; speeches given by Dr. Rives; assorted publications; church service programs; the guest register for the re-opening of the church (December 1964); guest speakers' resumes and biographical information; interior and exterior photographs of the Chapel; and newspaper clippings (1950-1986). There is also a folder of Whitaker family genealogical material and more information on the family can be gleaned from the correspondence.

Administrative information
Custodial History

February 17, 1970, ca. 200 items; Correspondence, church history, programs, clippings, etc.

April 24, 1970 (addition 1), 2 volumes; Sunday school registers (1883-1901).

March 10, 1976 (addition 2), 50 items; Correspondence, clippings, and miscellaneous.

May 20,1980 (addition 3), 62 items; Papers (1969-1979), including correspondence, clippings, programs and miscellaneous.

July 2, 1984 (addition 4), 7 volumes; Roanoke Quarterly Conference journals, Methodist Protestant Church, (1848-1939), Whitaker family's daybook (1861-1862), and Whitaker genealogies.

April 30, 1986 (addition 5), 75 items and 1 volume; Papers (1875-1984), including correspondence, registers, daybooks, clippings, and miscellany.

December 29, 1987 (addition 6), ca. 150 items; Typescript of Proceedings of Roanoke Quarterly Conference (1848-1931), Christian Endeavor Society Records (1897-1911), roll book (1938), correspondence, programs, clippings, photographs, and miscellaneous. Gift of Dr. Ralph Hardee Rives

November 4, 1997 (addition 7), 2 items; National Register of Historic Places nomination and photograph of Whitaker's Chapel. Gift of Mrs. Drucilla H. York, Greenville, NC. Donor: Dr. Ralph Hardee Rives

August 26, 2012 (unprocessed addition 8), 4 items, .004 cubic feet; Papers (1982-1988) include two letters, one clipping and a 1982 graduate program for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute concerning William D. Bulloch, husband of Anne Boyd Whitaker of Enfield, N.C.

Source of acquisition

Gift of Dr. Ralph Hardee Rives

Mrs. Drucilla H. York

Processing information

Processed by K. Rouse; A. Merriman; M. Elmore, November 1999

Encoded by Apex Data Services

Copyright notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Key terms
Personal Names
Rives, Ralph Hardee--Correspondence
Corporate Names
East Carolina University--Faculty
Methodist Episcopal Church, South--North Carolina--Halifax County
Methodist Protestant Church (U.S. : 1830-1939). North Carolina Conference
Whitaker's Chapel (Enfield, N.C.)
Topical
Church membership--North Carolina--Enfield
Church records and registers--North Carolina--Enfield
Protestant church buildings--North Carolina--Enfield
Places
Enfield (N.C.)--Church history--19th century
Enfield (N.C.)--Church history--20th century
Container list
Box 1 Folder a Day Book, 1859
Box 1 Folder b Scrapbook, 1839-1875
Box 1 Folder c Housekeeping Book, 1881
Box 1 Folder d Christian Endeavor Society, 1897-1911
Box 1 Folder e Junior Societies of Christian Endeavor, 1895-1897
Box 1 Folder f Band of Christian Workers, 1913-1914
Box 2 Folder a Whitaker Reunion Register, July 4, 1928
Box 2 Folder b Class Book, 1924-1948
Box 2 Folder c Whitaker Family Records, 1861
Box 2 Folder d Roanoke Circuit Conference Journal, 1848-1886
Box 2 Folder e Roanoke Circuit Conference Journal, 1886-1931
Box 2 Folder f The American and Foreign Christian Union, 1854
Box 3 Folder a Reopening of Whitaker's Chapel Roll, December 20, 1964
Box 3 Folder b Membership Roll, 1931-1939
Box 3 Folder c Photocopies of Day Book (original in box 1), 1859
Box 3 Folder d Photocopies of Scrapbook (original in box 1), 1839-1875
Box 3 Folder e Photocopies of Housekeeping Book (original found in box 1), 1881
Box 4 Folder a Photocopy of Christian Endeavor Society (original in box 1), 1897-1911
Box 4 Folder b Photocopy of Junior Societies of Christian Endeavor (original in box 1), 1895-1897
Box 4 Folder c Photocopy of Band of Christian Workers (original in box 1), 1913-1914
Box 4 Folder d Photocopy of Reunion Register (original in box 2), 1928
Box 4 Folder e Photocopy of Class Book (original in box 2), 1924-1948
Box 4 Folder f Photocopy of Whitaker Family Records (original in box 2), 1861
Box 4 Folder g Roanoke Circuit Minutes Transcription, 1848-1859
Box 4 Folder h Roanoke Circuit Minutes Transcription, 1860-1872
Box 4 Folder i Roanoke Circuit Minutes Transcription, 1873-1886
Box 4 Folder j Roanoke Circuit Minutes Transcription, 1886-1901
Box 4 Folder k Roanoke Circuit Minutes Transcription, 1901-1910
Box 4 Folder l Roanoke Circuit Minutes Transcription, 1911-1920
Box 4 Folder m Roanoke Circuit Minutes Transcription, 1920-1931
Box 4 Folder n Photocopy of The American and Foreign Christian Union (original in box 2), 1854
Box 4 Folder o Christian Heroism, 1880
Box 4 Folder p Roanoke Circuit Photographs, undated
Box 5 Folder a Roanoke Circuit Correspondence, 1875-1930, undated
Box 5 Folder b Roanoke Circuit Miscellaneous Materials, undated
Box 5 Folder c Roanoke Circuit Miscellaneous Materials, undated
Box 5 Folder d Beneficial Literary Society Records, undated
Box 5 Folder e Correspondence, 1921, 1958-1964
Box 5 Folder f Correspondence, 1965
Box 5 Folder g Correspondence, 1965
Box 5 Folder h Correspondence, 1966
Box 5 Folder i Correspondence, 1966
Box 5 Folder j Correspondence, 1967
Box 5 Folder k Correspondence, 1968-1969
Box 5 Folder l Correspondence, 1970
Box 5 Folder m Correspondence, 1971-1972
Box 6 Folder a Correspondence, 1973-1975
Box 6 Folder b Correspondence, 1975-1979
Box 6 Folder c Correspondence, 1980-1983
Box 6 Folder d Correspondence, 1983-1985
Box 6 Folder e Correspondence, 1985-1988
Box 6 Folder f Correspondence, undated
Box 6 Folder g National Register of Historic Places Application, 1997
Box 6 Folder h Histories
Box 6 Folder i Resumes and biographical information
Box 6 Folder j Speeches
Box 6 Folder k Whitaker Family Genealogy
Box 6 Folder l Whitaker Family Genealogy
Box 7 Folder a Publications, 1903-1984, undated
Box 7 Folder b Whitaker's Chapel Bulletins, 1966-1988
Box 7 Folder c Bulletins and Brochures, 1899-1987
Box 7 Folder d Newspaper Clippings, 1910-1969
Box 7 Folder e Newspaper Clippings, 1970-1979
Box 7 Folder f Newspaper Clippings, 1980-1989, undated
Box 7 Folder g Material related to William D. Bulloch, 1982-1988