The pre-20th century history of Camp Ground United Methodist Church in Muscadine is shrouded in almost as much mystery as anything else in northern Cleburne County, Alabama, and indeed in most parts of rural America. However, occasionally with the spread of information on the internet bits and pieces can be gleaned and eventually be put together. Such is the case with a recently published brief biography of one William R. Brown which is as follows:

“William R. Brown was born in Abbeville District, S.C., June 22nd, 1808. His parents moved to Gwinnett County, Ga., when he was very young. They afterward moved to Hall County, Ga., and while there he joined the Georgia Guards at the age of 22 years. He moved to Alabama in 1835, and settled on the Muscadine Creek, where he spent the remainder of this life. He married Elizabeth Hooper (daughter of Obadiah Hooper), January 15, 1837, marriage performed by John P. Lackey, J.P. Of this union 10 children were born, five boys and five girls, 9 of them still . He was bereft of his companion many years ago. He then married Mary Ann McGee (Daughter of James P. McGee?), Dec. 25, 1865. Of this union one son was born. His second wife also died years ago. He was very heroic in whatever he undertook. As a hunter he was shrewd, as a citizen he was popular, and as a Christian he was true. He departed this life at the home of his son J.W. Brown, with whom he spent his last years., October 18, 1903., aged 95 years, 3 months, 27 days. Soon after he came to Alabama he embraced religion and joined the Methodist Church at the Old Muscadine Camp Ground where he was a lifelong member, always tenting at every camp meeting. He served as class leader very nearly all the time. He was loyal to old time Methodists. In his death the Church has lost a strong stake, but Heaven has gained another jewel. He has left many relatives and friends to mourn. His body rests in the beautiful cemetery at the old Camp Ground awaiting the resurrection of the just. By J.H. Bowman, Pastor.”

After determining that Mr. Brown is indeed buried in the cemetery of what is now Camp Ground United Methodist Church, with the dates on his (quite large) gravestone matching those in the biography, it became apparent that some kind of Methodist organization existed here, even if an actual church building did not, as early as the 1830's. In the earliest days of Methodism in Alabama, brought there in 1809 by Matthew Sturdivant, there were probably very few actual church buildings. Some larger communities may have had permanent structures, but most did not. At best they might have had what is called a “brush arbor,” little more than a crude shelter built of tree branches. And besides the lack of churches, there was a lack of preachers. Many communities held worship services, including Holy Communion, only on the occasions, few and far between in the early days, when a circuit rider came to the area. That Sunday would be a day long event of preaching, singing and, of course, eating dinner on the grounds. In some communities people would gather on Saturday for other festivities, food, gossip, etc. and camp out overnight, making a whole weekend out of it. At times there would be revivals, and the camp-out might last a whole week. Obviously in Muscadine a lovely clearing surrounded by forests became the campground for the Methodists of the area when the circuit rider came around and apparently not long after some sort of permanent shelter or building was erected. In a 1936 interview with then 96 year old Phoebe Ann (Brown) Hunnicut, the aforementioned William Brown’s daughter, she stated that she remembers a small log church existed in the 1840's, recalling that one Sunday her little dog followed her to it. The church’s current oldest living member, Geneva Cole, who is 92 and once lived only 100 yards from the church remembers the log building stood even in her lifetime, where the road into the cemetery begins it’s first curve, although a larger wooden church, pictured below, had been built in 1906. She believes the log building might have been used as a school for a time. Mrs. Cole also remembers permanent tents set up in the oldest part of the cemetery which were apparently still used for camp meetings, and states that a brush arbor still stood just past our present day picnic pavilion towards the side of the cemetery. In 1906, the Hunnicutt family deeded 10+ acres of land to the church in perpetuity with the statement that “...said premises shall be used...as a place of divine worship for the use of the ministry and membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church*, and for a cemetery...” In 1948 the second floor of the old church was removed, (depriving a group of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Rebeckahs of a longtime lodge room), and the lower portion remodeled. Sunday School rooms were added in 1952. That building, also pictured below, stood until 1986, and was demolished only after the new and current building was within a few months of completion, during which time services were held in the nearby Crossroads Community Center. The first services in the current church, a dream of Raymond Laminack who was the guiding force behind its building, were held March 2, 1986, and the building was dedicated to the glory of God on March 16 by District Superintendent Dr. E.L. McFee, Jr. and pastor Guy Needham. We are grateful to Margaret Laminack for much of this historical information.

*John Wesley was the founder of what we now know as The United Methodist Church. After the American Revolution ties with the mother country, England, were broken by many religious groups, including the “people called Methodists.” Understanding the reasoning behind this, Wesley consecrated Thomas Coke bishop and sent he and Francis Asbury to the U.S. In 1784 they began what they called “The Methodist Episcopal (so named because it is overseen by bishops) Church. By the 1840's even churches were divided over the issues of slavery and state’s rights, and the church split into The Methodist Episcopal Church and The Methodist Episcopal Church South. Not until 1939 did the two sides reunite under the name The Methodist Church. Meanwhile, there existed at the very same time as the early Methodist Episcopal Church churches for people who spoke only German, such as the Church of the Brethren. They were virtually German Methodist churches. By 1945 when few people still spoke German several of these churches already had united, and together with the Evangelical Church united further into a denomination called the Evangelical United Brethren Church, and in 1968 the E.U.B. merged with The Methodist Church to form The United Methodist Church.