Churches

Mount Zion A Southern Baptist Church Valley Head, Alabama

The Valley Head Baptist Church was constituted in 1845, the same year the Southern Baptist Convention was organized. From 1845 to 1898 the church was named Mount Zion. The churches in this area were members of the Cherokee Baptist Association until 1905 when the DeKalb County Association was organized. Early worship services were held in a frame building that was also used for the school on the hill across from the present city park. Brother C. Y. Culberson wrote a brief history that was printed in the DeKalb County Herald on December 6, 1921. Brother Culberson stated that an effort was made in the year of 1886 to agree on moving the church to town, but the matter fell through. It seems that from his account of the consideration that they discussed, they were without a building for some time. He says, "Finally, after much wild effort we settled on the old site and rebuilt." In 1892, Rev. S. R. C. Adams was called to the care of the church. During the years of 1894 up to and including 1905 we find the following names as pastors, A. J. Noblet, G. W. Carr, Thomas Hartline. In closing his history, Brother Culberson said, "The abiding faith of a few finally led them to a beautiful new home in the town of Valley Head; which is a living monument of the fact God works in a mysterious way his wonders to perform." The minutes of the Cherokee Baptist Association lists the church Mount Zion up to and including 1897. That year the Pastor was Rev. T. W. Hartline, the clerk was George Karr (Carr) and membership was 44. The 1898 Minutes listed Valley Head Church with the same pastor and clerk with a membership of 43. One letter had been granted. They had services two Sundays a month. The 1920 letter the DeKalb Association shows that Rev. W. P. Kelley was pastor. The church membership was 47. Sunday School enrollment was 63, WMV enrollment of 18. The offering given from June to October was $187. $112 was spent on local work and $75 on convention causes. Copied form loose papers at Valley Head Town Hall

History of DeKalb County Schools, Valley Head by Brownie A. Tuttle

"There is no written record and only scant pieces of information handed down to establish that a school existed in the area of the early settlement. This school was conducted in an unpainted building on the ridge back of the present home of E.N. Jones, Jr. A very old cemetery, serving both blacks and whites, occupies a part of this same area. The building itself served as a Baptist Church until 1920 when the local congregation built a beautiful brick structure in another area of the town. The date when the school ceased to function, remains unanswered, and the name of only one teacher emerges -- that of a Mr. Newman who later left the profession to become a minister" (page 261).

Mt Paron Primitive Baptist Church of Christ at Deer Head Cove 1851

Deer Head Cove is located in the extreme northeast corner of DeKalb Co Alabama about four miles from the Alabama, Georgia state line. A steep, winding dirt road snakes down Sand Mountain to a cove cradled by the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. This is rugged terrain, and one of the first places the to be seen by the new settlers searching for farm land. They came from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. They came from as far away as New York and Pennsylvania. Their families where from the Tidewaters of Virginia and Maryland, and the Ohio Valley. One of the first congregation was a group that organized and called themselves the Mt. Paron Primitive Baptist Church of Christ. The church was organized before June of 1851.