Old Brick Church Cemetery

OLD BRICK CHURCH CEMETERY, (Mt Pleasant Road aka Brick Road), COLBERT (eastern) COUNTY, ALABAMA

Historical Marker / Large Pit where Clay was extracted to make the Brick for the Building - completed in 1828: 8477,8478,8479

Picture of Old Brick church. Before new face lifts. Added by: Edwinna Fennell 15 Sep 2013

A traveling preacher named Carson P. Reed came through and held a two week Revival. Several people were baptized. Rev. Reed told the people if they would build them a Church he would come back and be their preacher. So the people began cutting wood, etc. Jan. 1, 1820 was the date set to have everything ready. By the end of Sept. 1820 the log church was completed. Rev. Carson Reed kept his promise and came back on Oct 8, 1820 and helped to establish the church.

In 1824 the Church caught fire and burned to the ground. The next day the people chose a spot 300 feet from the old church spot and decided this new church they would build would not be wood but be built of brick, stone, and mortar so it couldn't burn down. Everyone dug clay from the earth to make the brick and the stones. The slaves were to sun bake the bricks for inside walls and a bed of hot coals of fire baked the bricks for outside walls. They had to keep the fires going all night. They did a great job. The brick are still solid today. They plastered the inside walls; the roof was hand hewn shingles that lasted over 75 years. The pews were handmade; they were divided down the center. The men sat on one side - the ladies on the other. At the back of the church is a balcony or slave gallery where the slaves sat. They say one can see even today the spots on the balcony where the children placed their heads on the backside of the wall and left greasy places which solidify after many years.

The Church was finished and dedicated on Oct 8, 1828. Rev. Carson P. Reed the pastor.

After the Civil War the slaves were free, so the white people built the slaves a church of their own. A few old slaves, remained with their masters until they died.

The Church was a strong ruling factor in the Community since the Courthouse for them at that time was in Moulton. As most other churches in those days, they had rules such as no swearing, dancing, lottery, drinking, and they could not work their slaves on Sunday. If someone violated these rules, they would be tried before the session. There were various ones found guilty of wrongdoing.

Carson Reed, T. B. Wilson, W.M. Reed, McMahan, Kinnard, Motheral, Jas. Wallis, D. S. Cosby, Baldridge, Orman, C.B. Sanders (sleeping preacher), McMan; C.N. Wood, W.C. Beaver and others.

There were no meetings during the Civil War due to not enough elders being at home out of the Confederate Service to form sessions. The Church was used for headquarters for General Hood.

Mr. Gillian who had helped to build the Church died one month after the Church Services started in the new building. He became the first known person to be buried in the cemetery and molders there under an old box tomb.

Up until the 1900's the original wide board floors were used. A new floor, a Fellowship Hall. a Manse (Preachers house) was then built. The members put on a new roof, 10 stained glass windows and curtains in the slave gallery. The name of the Church was changed from Mounts Pleasant to Old Brick to stand out from having the Mt Pleasant Cumberland Presbyterian Church down the road from the Mt Pleasant Presbyterian Church.

During the Presbyterian breakaway movement some of the members pulled out and moved up the road west of here to the junction of County Line Road and Mt Pleasant Road to start meeting there and add that building. They went by the name of Mount Pleasant Cumberland Presbyterian Church and are still an active congregation today (15 Feb 2011). They established a graveyard for their use on nearby grounds.

There is a copy of the membership list available composed of the original handwriting from the Church records. This information was given to Joyce D. Mitchell from Mr. Norman Summers and is not furnished here.

Some of the folks interred here founded the home site where my (C Wayne Austin's) parents built in 1964 just back from Shegog Creek on the east side of County Line Road. There was an old 200 year old Cedar tree there at the time. Dad (Paul Austin) cleared around it and left it standing. We discovered old chards of pottery plates and glass indicating someone had a home there long before we did. It was thought to be many years earlier because the trees and growth were at least 30 to 50 years, untouched when my Dad and my brothers & I arrived with our axes and brush cutting gear in 1963. This building site was sitting above & to the south of the Shegog Creek running thru the property below the hill. It was a beautiful place and ideal building site and Dad wasn't the only one to realize that in time past. The soil all around there was rich and grew large beautiful & lush garden vegetables and fruits.

Later (1930s-1940s) generations of Gerber's lived across the road (west side) and a 1/2 mile further north. There was an old home there is barely standing today. There were no boy children from that family. The Gerber folks were old when I was a child and they died in 1966 & 1971. One of the daughters married an Austin (no close relation to me) and they built a home next door to the Gerber's and are interred in this cemetery along with that family of Austins'.

The Buell family spring up on the west side of County Line Road and thrived for more than a century as Mrs. Mary Buell lived more than a hundred years on this green earth and passed in 1985.

Another family the Streits' were connected to the Buells' thru marriage. the Streits' were very prominent folks who moved into this area sometime around 1888. They had immigrated from Switzerland in 1882. The streit brothers bought land and became successful farmers even without the use of slave labor which had allowed many plantation owners prior to the Civil War to become wealthy.