Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my privilege to be here. I get out a lot in Virginia on my job which takes me all over, not only Virginia, but in the past 15 years, I ve been traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard measuring and recording old churches and meeting houses from Maine to Georgia. Actually I ventured over into West Virginia, of all places, a couple of weeks ago where I got stuck in the attic and was told not to come back.
History is filled with vagaries.
One hundred and fifty years ago Bishop William Meade, who was the Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, wrote a history of the early churches, ministers and families of Virginia and in 1857 he wrote of this place, Elk Run. He said it was located upon a small stream from which it took its name. It was a substantial brick church, cruciform, I believe. I am not certain that the roof was on it when I first saw it in 1811. Its walls continued for many years after this and I saw them gradually disappear during my annual visits to the conventions .