The venerable Dover Baptist Church is located in the countryside of Goochland just off picturesque Highway 6 (which in the City of Richmond is better known as Patterson Avenue) and under the shade trees there has been an abundance of Baptist history across the long years.
Fred Anderson
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Constituted in 1773, Dover’s founding pastor was William Webber, who was one of the imprisoned ministers from the struggle for religious liberty. It was the church whose name was borrowed for the large Baptist association of which it remains a member.
Something very important happened beneath its shade trees. On Aug. 10, 1787, the General Committee of Correspondence — a forerunner of today’s General Association — met with delegates present from six district associations scattered across Virginia. Reuben Ford and John Leland, two of the great spokesmen for religious liberty, had been earlier appointed to inform Virginia’s political leaders that the Baptists opposed the concept of continuing the Episcopal church as the official church. The two men reported that their Baptist memorial had been received and that the official church designation had been repealed. There remained the matter of the Episcopal church and its “glebe lands.” The Baptist delegates agreed that the glebe lands should be regarded as public property.
But the very important matter was the union between the two large parties of Baptists in Virginia — the Regulars and the Separates. There had been earlier attempts to form a union but they always were dashed. On that August day at Dover Meeting House the union was effected “and a happy reconciliation was accomplished.” Unless you have experienced the pains of deep division among a religious body, you cannot truly appreciate the significance of what happened at Dover. Party labels were abolished. The union lasted; and when Robert Baylor Semple wrote the first history of Virginia Baptists some 25 years after the union, the historian recorded that scarcely a person alive, “even ministers of intelligence,” knew the definitions of the terms Regular and Separate.
Grace Usher, age 87, stands next to the marker dedicated to her ancestor, William Webber.
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The Dover Meeting House where the delegates gathered was “a simple one-room log structure” not far from the present site of the church. In 1855 a new building was erected across the road from the former. Mary Katherine Henley Sheppard, Dover Church’s historian, described the “new” (not to be confused with the present) building as a weatherboard structure, containing one large, square, high-pitched room with a door on either end and handmade benches of heart pine. It would be difficult for a visitor to confuse that description with the present attractive brick building with pleasing cupola and columned portico and comfortable interior furnishings.
The old wooden building was heated by a pot-bellied stove. On an October night in 1951 it went up in a roaring fire. “Everything was gone: the old organ, the piano, the wide floor
boards, benches which had been refused to Colonial Williamsburg, the pulpit lovingly made by one of the members, the beautiful stained glass window. The shock and sorrow were overwhelming.”
The fire settled at least one matter. Previously there had been discussion as to how the old building could be improved for modern-day use. It was gone. The Dover people rallied and built the brick building which now stands. It was dedicated in 1955. A separate educational building was erected in 1967; and more recently, in 2006, Heritage Hall, a beautiful fellowship building, was built as another separate structure. The entire complex presents a pleasing expanse of buildings set beneath those shade trees.
An early photo shows Grace Usher beside her mother at the dedication in 1923. In front of her father is her sister, Glenice.
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Mary Katherine Sheppard refers figuratively to the trees in her new history of the church. She writes: “It’s said ‘we live in the shade of trees planted by others.’ Over the years, many trees of love, hope and service have been planted here. The shade of history has provided dense cover at times but with passing years all shade becomes dappled or fades and eventually disappears completely as the tree dies. New plantings must be cultivated so that fresh shade is provided to give hope and purpose to those who come after us.”
In recent months, Robert Wayne Gearheart rediscovered the old church and began driving 33 miles from his home in Sandston to attend worship services. He was drawn by his family’s connection with the early history of the church. He remained because of its appeal. “I like it over there so much. The size of the church, the people are absolutely wonderful. I feel that the message of the Lord is being taught. It is a small community, almost ‘country,’ type of church.”
Robert Gearheart’s family connection is remarkable. He is the fourth great-grandson of William Webber, the noted Baptist minister who was imprisoned for his faith and who led in the forming of Dover Baptist Church. “When I was a little boy,” says Bob, “I remember my family telling me that I had an ancestor who was locked up for preaching. My mother’s cousin wanted to join the Daughters of the American Revolution and started some research. When she died, she gave us a suitcase of hodge-podge family notes and I have been putting it together for 15 or 20 years. I used to run from that old-maid cousin!”
Now it is Bob Gearheart who, at age 61, likes to tell others about the family tree. It actually was the quest for family history which led him to Dover Church and literally back into a church family. He visited to take some pictures and a church member invited him to a Wednesday evening meal. He was so impressed that he decided to become a part of the congregation and he now serves as a deacon.
He recently took a photograph of his aunt, Grace Woodson Usher, beside the historical marker about William Webber which is in front of Dover Church. Grace, who is a member of Richmond’s Northminster Baptist Church, and her sister, the late Glenice Woodson Gearheart, Bob’s mother, were children who were present when the marker was dedicated in 1923. A heap o’ living has occurred under the shade trees of Dover.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.