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  • Maryland Day 1

Vanishing Churches

Our churches are vanishing but we can still preserve and share our history.

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Galilee A.M.E.( African Methodist Episcopal Church) was founded by Frederick Sharps, Washington Parker. and  Lemuel Chase. The property was purchased from Benjamin Phipps, at a cost of $35.00.  Prior to the founding of Galilee A.M.E.,  Frederick Sharps born in 1840,Washington Parker and Lemuel Chase both born in 1845, can be found attending the West River Conference Churches. Adams Chapel was founded in 1854, according to historical church records. Washington Parker was said to be a Minister of the Gospel. This meant that he preached the Gospel but was not licensed to preach, according to oral history.

 The church was also used as a schoolhouse for black children in the community. The church was moved to another location sometime in the 1920's.It is unknown when the church ceased to function. However, it was later used as a dwelling for sometime after that. The original church, schoolhouse, and dwelling burned down between the late 1970's according to oral history.
The area in which the  original church stood, also has a private family cemetery located nearby. Those interred in the cemetery are as follows:
                                                                  
Clarence Hebron, Olin Tyler, Walter Owens and Shirley Eunice. A total of twenty- five people are interred in this family plot. The earliest burial that has been found occurred in 1932. It  was a total of three  African American Episcopal churches that served in these black communities during the 19th century. The last person interred in this private cemetery was in early November 2014.





St. Paul was founded by the Makell Family . The church was demolished in 1980. It too had a cemetery that was used by the congregants of the church. 




                                Mary  Matthews Coates 1859 -1934    
                                 George Henry Holland  1851 - 1934

The last standing A.M.E. Church in Southern Anne Arundel county is Ebenezer A.M.E. Church  located in Galesville, Maryland. According to land records, the church was founded in 1879. One of the earliest recorded pastors of the church was Reverend Jesse Peck. The church has a cemetery located in the rear of the church property. Ebenezer A.M.E. Church is still serving the community today. Since 2008,I have been researching the historical church records and preserving the history of the  members who attended the church. The church membership list shows all of the congregants and pastors who served at the church from 1879 to 1964. The Methodist churches and the A.M.E churches continue to worship together today,as they did in the past. After, the merger between the church conferences, many people changed their denominations.


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 ©  2014 Copyright Elinor Thompson