June 8, 2020 / Joanne Yeck

Buckingham County Churches: St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Revisited

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church (Courtesy Historic Buckingham)

Way back in 2013, I posted about St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, which was once located about 6/10 of a mile north of Curdsville on Route 15, on the east side of the highway. The church was constructed in 1832 and, in 1937, Mrs. Elizabeth McCraw surveyed it for the Virginia Historical Inventory. Click here to learn more: Buckingham Churches: St. Peter’s Episcopal Church

Mrs. McCraw’s informant was Mrs. Annie Page Cox of Shepphards, VA. She noted that Mrs. Cox was “one of the best informed persons in the county on local history. Her husband was a member of this church.”

Mrs. McCraw also wrote that the bell from St. Peter’s was given to Johns Memorial Church in Farmville.

When Elizabeth McCraw surveyed St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in 1937, she wrote of its historical significance in the community. Her description indicates that the building was no longer in use at that time but the building was still standing.

Since the original post, Slate River Ramblings readers added these comments:

Ed Ayres wrote, “I remember visiting the site of the church sometime in the early 1960s. There were still some pieces of wooden siding and other timbers on the ground, mostly overgrown by weeds. I think I still have a sadly damaged little hymnal or Book of Common Prayer that I picked up at the time. I am also fairly sure the church is identified on the 1863 manuscript map of Buckingham and Appomattox at the Library of Congress.”

Patt Freedman found this undated information at the Library of Virginia:

St. Peters’ Church, Tillotson Parish. Rev. JAS. GRAMMER, Rector.

Baptisms–infants, white, 1. Communicants–white, 47; colored, 2; added, 2; removed, 1; present number 50. Confirmed–white, 3. Marriages–1. Contributions–objects within the Parish, $91; objects in connection with the P. E. Church, $125; objects not in connection with the P. E. Church, $68; total $284. Postoffice–Farmville.