Religious Leaders :: Old City Cemetery, Lynchburg, Virginia

For generations Lynchburg has been known as the “City of Churches.” Much of that church history is reflected in the history of the City's public cemetery. Dozens of ministers, trustees, deacons, and other prominent church leaders have been interred there since 1806. Today the Cemetery’s Bicentennial Chapel pays tribute to them and their good works.

If you know of anyone who should be added to this list, please contact us.

Cabell Street Methodist Church

William Amos Laughon (minister, 1885–1889)

Centenary United Methodist Church
(Third Street Methodist Church)

Robert F. Hening (trustee, steward, leader of singing, 1840s-80s)
Christopher S. Mooring (minister, 1813)
Caroline F. R. Morgan (officer, Dorcas Society)
James W. Morgan (steward, 1840s)
John Schoolfield (trustee, 1806–1819)
George W. Valentine (steward, 1850s–70s, member 76 years)

Central Presbyterian Church

John Andrew Davis (minister, c.1925–1940)

Court Street Baptist Church (African Baptist Church)

William Grant Anderson (trustee)
James Edward Bowler (trustee)
Daniel A. Butler (trustee, –1911)
Royal Pleasant Butler (deacon, c.1905)
Andrew Jackson Everett (deacon, c.1905)
Phillip Franklin (trustee, 1898–1914)
Silas Green (deacon, c.1905)
Willie Reid Hayes (deaconess, 79 years)
Squire C. Higginbotham (trustee, 1876–1882)
Thomas Isbell (deacon, 1840s)
Theodoric L. Jones (trustee, 1898–1914)
John Merchant (deacon, c.1905)
Jordan Merchant (deacon, 1840s)
Fielding W. Morris (pastor, c.1870–1881)
Phillip Fisher Morris (minister, 1881–1898)
Robert A. Perkins (trustee, 1876–1881; chairman of Building Committee)
Armistead Pride (trustee, 1876–1898)
Pleasant Roane, Sr. (trustee, 1898–1914)
Susan Roane (founder of Roane’s Brigade, a pastor’s aid society)
Thomas H. Scott (trustee, 1914+)
Martin Warwick (deacon, 1840s)
Albert J. Williams (deacon)
Mary Louise Williams (trustee, 1980s–90s; church historian)

Court Street United Methodist Church
(Fourth Street Methodist Church)

Caroline F. R. Morgan (provided first parsonage; charter member of the Female Missionary Society)

Diamond Hill Baptist Church

Aquilla E. Timms (assistant pastor, c.1905–1910)

Eighth Street Baptist Church

Phillip Fisher Morris (minister, 1898–1911)
Armistead Pride (trustee, 1898–1900)
Claiborne Gladman Pride, Sr. (trustee, 1906+)
Warwick Spencer, Sr. (trustee, 1898+)
Nelson Spiller (trustee, 1898+)

Jackson Street United Methodist Church

Patrick Henry Cabell (trustee, 1893)
Frank Trigg, Jr. (trustee)
Elias Whitlock (trustee)

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Henry A. Christian (vestryman, 1850s)

Universalist Church

Pleasant Labby (minister and patriarch, 1840s–60s)

Other or Unknown Churches

Edward Cannon (Methodist minister in Virginia, 1820s–30s)
Alexander Doniphan (itinerant Methodist minister and revivalist, 1850–1875)
William Thomas Hall (pastor, High Street Baptist Church, Danville, VA; and Galilee Baptist Church, Roxboro, Philadelphia, PA)
Richard Johnson (minister, died 1996)
William H. Johnson (minister)
Frank Ternal Matthews (minister, early 1900s)
Daniel Morris (Baptist minister, 1890s)
Nelson Payne (Baptist circuit minister, late 1800s)
William Benjamin Reed (pastor, First Baptist Church, Madison, NJ; North Clinton Baptist Church, East Orange, NJ; Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, Newport, RI; Shiloh Baptist, Hartford, CT; and Zion Baptist Church, Philadelphia, PA)
W. H. Stewart (minister, 1880s)
James Tompkins (Presbyterian minister in Lynchburg, c.1800)
Frank Brown Woodard (Baptist minister in Iowa, 1910s)