Mount Bethel Church - NC Highway Marker G-65
Marker Text:  
Non-denominational meeting house built ca.
1784 by Archer Harris.
By 1808 Methodist.
Home church to Washington Duke.

Essay:
Nathaniel Harris in the mid-eighteenth century acquired a tract of 6,000 acres (24 km²) in what is now the community of Bahama in northern Durham County.
Thereon his son Archer built a meeting house around 1784 which operated for the benefit of all denominations until 1808 when it affiliated with the Methodist Church.
The first building was a log structure and was used by all who desired to worship, white and black.
The meeting house, originally known as Crossroads, is mentioned in a deposition filed against Archer Harris in 1784 as part of a boundary dispute.

In 1812 a 2-acre (8,100 m²) tract was conveyed to church trustees.
The church was placed within the Granville Circuit of the Virginia Conference.
Washington Duke, who was born on December 20, 1820 and became the patriarch of the “Dukes of Durham,” was converted to Methodism at the church.
His parents, Taylor and Dicey Jones Duke, were members at Mount Bethel.
The gifts of the Duke family to Methodist causes, not the least of them the establishment of Duke University, are many.
Duke is said to have claimed that “whatever I am, I accredit to the Methodist circuit riders.”

The present church building was completed in 1949 and is the congregation’s sixth.
The raising was the culmination of a prolonged fundraising effort.
Harley Chester, minister, recalled that “gallons of Brunswick stew were made and sold, suppers were given, bazaars were held, Negro minstrels, plays, a womanless wedding and almost anything to make an honest dollar.”
Mount Bethel Church - NC Highway Marker G-65
Marker Text:  
Non-denominational meeting house built ca. 1784 by Archer Harris. By 1808 Methodist. Home church to Washington Duke.
Essay:
Nathaniel Harris in the mid-eighteenth century acquired a tract of 6,000 acres (24 km²) in what is now the community of Bahama in northern Durham County. Thereon his son Archer built a meeting house around 1784 which operated for the benefit of all denominations until 1808 when it affiliated with the Methodist Church. The first building was a log structure and was used by all who desired to worship, white and black. The meeting house, originally known as Crossroads, is mentioned in a deposition filed against Archer Harris in 1784 as part of a boundary dispute.
In 1812 a 2-acre (8,100 m²) tract was conveyed to church trustees. The church was placed within the Granville Circuit of the Virginia Conference. Washington Duke, who was born on December 20, 1820 and became the patriarch of the “Dukes of Durham,” was converted to Methodism at the church. His parents, Taylor and Dicey Jones Duke, were members at Mount Bethel. The gifts of the Duke family to Methodist causes, not the least of them the establishment of Duke University, are many. Duke is said to have claimed that “whatever I am, I accredit to the Methodist circuit riders.”
The present church building was completed in 1949 and is the congregation’s sixth. The raising was the culmination of a prolonged fundraising effort. Harley Chester, minister, recalled that “gallons of Brunswick stew were made and sold, suppers were given, bazaars were held, Negro minstrels, plays, a womanless wedding and almost anything to make an honest dollar.”
Bahama, North Carolina