Valley Creek Church
Among the early settlers who came to Dallas County were a group of Presbyterians from the Rocky River Presbyterian Church
www.rockyriver.org/history.htm of Mecklenburg (now Cabarrus) County North Carolina. They settled just a few miles north of the trading post operated by Thomas Moore situated along the Alabama River on a high bluff known as Moore’s Bluff (now Selma). They called their settlement Pleasant Valley.
Their first church meeting was held under a bush arbor near Valley Creek in 1816. The congregation of eight families became known as Valley Creek Presbyterian Church. It is the oldest Presbyterian Church in Dallas County and one of the oldest in Alabama. The Valley Creek Presbyterian Church fathered most of the other Presbyterian churches in in the county including Alabama Ave Presbyterian and the First Presbyterian of Selma
www.firstpresselma.org/default.asp.
The first Valley Creek Church elders were Big Jim Morrison, Robert D Russell, Enoch Morgan, Robert Morrison, Christopher Orsburn, John McEwin Morrison and Robert Hall Morrison. John McEwin Morrison served as Dallas County Sheriff, Robert Morrison and Christopher Orsburn were among the first stockholders of the Real Estate Banking Company of South Alabama in 1838.
The first known records of the Pleasant Valley Presbyterians was on Sept 30,1818. When two missionaries, James L Sloss and Hiland Hurlburd were commissioned by the presbytery to explore Alabama Presbyterian communities. They visited Valley Creek and made a favorable report for the presbytery records. In November 1818 the Rev. Francis H. Porter held a 2-day revival meeting and kept a detailed Journal of the event. The Rev. Porter was later founder and pastor of Selma Presbyterian Church in 1836 (now the First Presbyterian Church of Selma).
The church group held meetings in various family homes until 1821 when a log meeting house was constructed. An additional frame structure was erected 1834-35 on land owned by Benjamin Glass. The present building was erected in 1857 on land deeded by Robert J.W. Russell for $100.00. The National register of historic places in 1975 described the church as a Greek revival building of English brick with unusual curved Staircases. A huge brick furnace in the basement heated the building. A sanctuary and former slave gallery are on the second floor.
The Frame building was torn down and the lumber used to build slave quarters. During the Civil war the original log structure along with all the church records was burned by US Army forces commanded by Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson, known as Wilson's Raiders
wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Wilson. For some unknown reason the present building was spared.
In May of 1861 the Presbyterian Church of The United States became split over the issue of Slavery. Like most Southern church groups of the times, they found old testament scripture to justify the owning of slaves. The Southern presbyteries of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America withdrew and organized the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States. The two factions merged in 1983 into the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Slaves could be baptized in the church but could not have full membership rights and could not vote. They had separate meetings conducted by white ministers. The last 4 colored members at Valley Creek left the congregations in 1870.
The highest registered attendance at Valley Creek was over 300 in 1948. In 2000 the church had a total of 11 members who meet twice monthly in the church basement. Today the church sits on a wooded lot almost out of sight just off Valley Creek Church Road, Dallas Co 65. Heroes of Alabama’s wars since 1776 are buried in the church cemetery just down the road from the church building.
Plaque on the gate of the Valley Creek Church cemetery:
"To the Glory of God and the loving memory of Leo Luke Fabisiniski Jr.
1828 - 1979
Elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Decatur Alabama
and his Great Grandfather Enoch Morgan
1792 - 1840
Elder in the Valley Creek Presbyterian Church of Selma Alabama
These Gates are given by the Fabiniski family 1984"
site by Com'See
