The Rowan Baptist Association History

        The Rowan Baptist Association was organized in 1877 in a hospital at Salisbury, which was afterward purchased by the Baptists there and was organized as the Dixonville Baptist Church. Revs. Harry Cowan, Z. Horton and Cumbe Ellis were the ministers present in the organization. Rev. Harry Cowan was the first Moderator. There have presided over this body since: Revs. John Washington, Z. Horton, Gove Crowell, George Bowles, J. O. Crosby, P. S. Lewis, C. C. Somerville, C. L. Davis and G. W. Johnson.

        There were three churches in the organization, and except the Dixonville, in the hospital as stated, the others worshiped under brush arbors. At the Association in Charlotte in 1908, there were sixty-five churches, with a membership of twelve thousand, and church edifices worth two hundred thousand dollars. Altogether the best edifices among the Baptists of North Carolina were to be found in the bounds of the Rowan Association. This was said as well of the leaders.

        While there were many able preachers in other associations, there were more at that period in the Rowan than in any other. The school facilities were not equal by far; they had not the secondary schools as the others. At a time the Rowan Normal School was conducted by Dr. C. C. Somerville in Charlotte. While the Association made annual contributions to it, it was never adopted as the property of the Association.

        When Dr. Somerville was called to Portsmouth the Salisbury people took the school there and conducted it, changing the name of it to the Piedmont Institute. The Association was liberal in its contributions to mission work and ministerial education.

        It was from this Association the strongest support came to the State Convention, especially in the early years of its history.