Wadsworth Congregational Church, designated as a Guilford County Historical Landmark, is located on Rock Creek Dairy Road in Whitsett, NC. It was built in 1885 by Reverend William Madison Lindsey who founded the church in1870. Reverend Lindsey’s parents were slaves, as he became older he escaped to Canada, later returning to the United States and living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While living in Cambridge, William Lindsey was employed as a valet to the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow helped Lindsey with his admission to Oberlin College in Ohio, where he attended from 1862 to 1866. After graduation, Reverend Lindsey returned home to found and later build the Gothic Revival Style church, which he named Wadsworth after Longfellow’s mother.
The brass bell from England, which hangs in the bell tower, was presented to the Wadsworth Congregational Church in August of 1886 by businessman and philanthropist James J.H. Gregory. The bell is inscribed with Psalm 89:15 “Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence O Lord.” |
