|
|
The Worldwide Anglican Communion
|
Church of the Holy Trinity was founded over 150 years ago in 1848. Our church is a member parish in the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina. Currently, we have a membership of approximately 130.
On June 11, 1998, the Church was listed in the National Register of Historic
Places.
For over a century and a half, the Church of the Holy Trinity has served
Perquimans County. It has offered worship in the Anglican manner, ministered to
the whole community, and for over forty years provided college scholarships for
local students. Although the parish has its roots in the eighteenth-century Church of
England, it was not until 1828 that the Episcopal Church began to come alive in
Perquimans County. The Rev. John Avery reported that in Hertford "a few
individuals have associated themselves together, and are desirous of being
instructed in the doctrines of the Church. The permanency of this little flock,
and its increase, must depend on the reception of the Gospel into their hearts,
and the exhibition of it in their lives." Clergymen from Edenton and
Elizabeth City held services in Perquimans from time to time. The Bishop of North Carolina took a personal interest in the struggles of
Episcopalians in Perquimans. In 1848 he appointed the Rev. William E. Snowden to
be missionary in the county. Snowden organized the parish on May 8th
and it was received into union with the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina on
the 24th of that same month. Snowden became the first Rector, and
Benjamin S. Skinner was the first Senior Warden of the Vestry. At its founding the church had fourteen full members. Ten persons can be
mentioned as very likely to have been among them. (1) Benjamin S. Skinner of
Cove Grove plantation was the principal contributor to the church and its first
lay leader. (2) His brother Edmund B. Skinner of Harvey’s Neck was one of the
first persons buried in the church’s cemetery. (3) The Skinners’ nephew,
Nathaniel Chapman Skinner, was a physician residing in Hertford. (4) Thomas F.
Jones, a lawyer, had fought a duel in 1846 and would go blind before his death.
(5) Jones’ sister Maria Louisa Jones Gordon was a doctor’s widow and she
would leave orders for an ornamental fence around the family burial plot, one of
the first of those funerary monuments which make the church cemetery one of the
most beautiful in the area. (6) William Nixon was a planter of the Suttons Creek
area who would in 1861 be the organizer and first captain of the
"Perquimans Beauregards." (7) His brother Thomas Nixon was the builder
of Elmwood plantation. (8) Joseph G. Granbery was a coach maker in Hertford. (9)
Elizabeth Freer of Hertford was a New Hampshire native who had married a South
Carolinian who turned up in the town practicing medicine. (10) Josiah T.
Granbery of Stockton plantation was a prominent planter and owner of a shad and
herring fishery. The new congregation acquired a disused street in the town of Hertford and in
1849 and 1850 set about constructing a church. On 27 April 1851 the Right Rev.
Levi S. Ives, Bishop of North Carolina, "consecrated to the Worship of
Almighty God, in the town of Hertford . . . a building by the title of the
Church of the Holy Trinity, which does great credit to the christian liberality
and good taste of the congregation, as being, by far, the best and most suitable
wooden building in the Diocese; and constructed at an expense of 2000 dollars--a
sum small in itself, but comparatively large for the ability of the
worshipers." The building still stands and is the oldest church building in
the town. 1854. The church acquired an organ, a single-manual instrument built by
George Jardine of New York. The organ is still in use and is one of the oldest
working organs in North Carolina. 1858. Four new windows were installed to replace storm damage: three in the
east end behind the altar and one on the west end over the balcony. They were
made by prize-winning stained-glass artist Owen Doremus. They are among the
oldest examples of ornamental glass to be seen in eastern North Carolina. 1894. A belfry was added at the southwest corner of the church building. It
still houses the church bell, which was cast in 1852 by Meneely’s Foundry of
West Troy, New York. 1955, 1956. Ten stained-glass windows made by J. & R. Lamb Studios of
Tenafly, New Jersey, were installed. 1962. The Winslow Memorial Parish House was constructed next to the church. 1998. The Church of the Holy Trinity was entered into the National Register
of Historic Places. It has been called "the earliest frame example in North
Carolina of the early English parish church espoused by the Ecclesiological
movement and reflects the adoption of the Gothic Revival style by the Protestant
Episcopal Church in the United States during the antebellum period." CLERGY IN CHARGE OF HOLY TRINITY PARISH William Edward Snowden, 1848-1867 Francis William Hilliard, 1867-1870 James Augustus Weston, 1870-1882 Charles Stewart, 1883-1884 Robert Brent Drane, 1885-1886 William J. Lynd, 1886-1887 Frederick Nash Skinner, 1888-1889 Robert Brent Drane, 1890 Claudius Ferdinand Smith, 1890-1891 Hardy Hardison Phelps, 1893 Edward Philip Green, 1893 Henry Wingate, 1895-1896 Robert Brent Drane, 1896-1897 George Meredith Tolson, 1898-1901 Benjamin Skinner Lassiter, 1901-1912 Clarence Prentice Parker, 1913-1916 Thomas N. Lawrence, 1916-1918 Alfred Robert Taylor, 1918-1922 Edmund Talma Jillson, 1924-1950 Charles F. Wulf, 1950-1954 Paul E. Shultz, 1955-1958 Edwin Fountain Moseley, 1959-1965 Walter A. Henricks, 1966-1967 Edwin Thomas Williams, 1967-1973 John Philip Purser, 1973-1975 Wallace Irving Wolverton, Jr., 1975-1994 William Charles Hoffman, 1994-1996 Dale Keith Brudvig, 1996-1999 August Donald Wiesner, 1999-2001 Ralph Owen Clark, 2001- 2005 John Hare Bonner, III, 2006 - The above information is provided by Raymond A. Winslow, Jr., Historian |
This site hosted by Netfirms
Send mail to Web Master,
Church of the Holy Trinity with questions or comments about this web site.
|
Click here to view Today's Devotional Readings
%20(2).jpg)