Mount Hope Baptist Church Records 1835-1985

Access and use

Location of collection:
Thomas Balch Library
Thomas Balch Library
208 West Market Street
Leesburg, Virginia 20176
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Alexandra S. Gressitt
Phone: (703) 737-7195
Fax: (703) 737-7195
Restrictions:

Collection open for research. Researchers are required to use microfilm copies.

Terms of access:

No physical characteristics affect use of this material.

Preferred citation:

Mount Hope Baptist Church Records, 1835-1985 (M 081), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

Summary

Creator:
Mount Hope Baptist Church, Ashburn, VA
Abstract:
This collection consists of two church minute books, typescript transcriptions, and typed membership lists. There are several sizable gaps in the minutes, including one caused by the Civil War from 1860-1864. Other gaps span the years 1874-1888, and 1899-1917. Minute keeping was sporadic between 1917 and 1933. The membership lists contain marriage and baptism information from entries in the minute books. There is a resolution honoring Rev. George Washington Popkins (1855-1931), a long-serving pastor at Mount Hope. A microfilm copy of the records is available in the microfilm collection. There is also a reproduction diagram of the Mount Hope Baptist Church Cemetery with a list of burials and their placement in the cemetery. The original diagram remains in the custody of the church.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Mount Hope Baptist Church Records, 1835-1985 (M 081), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection consists of two church minute books, typescript transcriptions, and typed membership lists. There are several sizable gaps in the minutes, including one caused by the Civil War from 1860-1864. Other gaps span the years 1874-1888, and 1899-1917. Minute keeping was sporadic between 1917 and 1933. The membership lists contain marriage and baptism information from entries in the minute books. There is a resolution honoring Rev. George Washington Popkins (1855-1931), a long-serving pastor at Mount Hope. A microfilm copy of the records is available in the microfilm collection. There is also a reproduction diagram of the Mount Hope Baptist Church Cemetery with a list of burials and their placement in the cemetery. The original diagram remains in the custody of the church.

Biographical / historical:

Mount Hope Baptist Church was established on 24 August 1835. It is located in an area known at the time as Red Hill, then Waxpool, and now Ashburn in Loudoun County, VA. The founding members of the church had been part of the congregation at Long Branch Baptist Church, near Middleburg. The charter members of Mount Hope chose Reverend Thaddeus Herndon (1807-1878), a member of the Long Branch congregation and an ordained minister, to lead the new church. Rev. Herndon served a circuit and was a pastor at several Baptist churches in Loudoun and surrounding counties. He was Mount Hope's minister from 1835-1943, and again from 1847-1852.

Mount Hope allowed enslaved and free African Americans to join the congregation and the minutes often refer to them as "colored Brothers" and "servant girls." Slaves of church members were allowed to join the church, and those whose owners did not attend Mount Hope could also join, if their owners gave written permission.

There is a gap in the minutes from 1860 to 1864, the years of the Civil War. In 1864, the minutes note that their "Pastor being deprived of preaching for us in consequence of the great trouble of our country, we had no preaching since the year 61." The minutes resume in 1865.

The exact location of the original church building is not known, but a church was erected on the present site of Mount Hope in 1853. The church is located near the intersection of roads now called Belmont Ridge Road and Waxpool Road, though at the time of building they were known as Gumspring Road and the Old Church Road, respectively. The church occupied this building until a new structure was erected in 1893 in the same location. Mount Hope Baptist Church continues to use this structure today.

Acquisition information:
Mount Hope Baptist Church, Ashburn, VA
Processing information:

Elizabeth E. Preston, 12 December 2012

Arrangement:

Folder

Accruals:

2012.0170

Physical / technical requirements:

Microfilm reader.