Mount Moriah Baptist Church was organized in 1839 with 14 charter members as the first Baptist church in the Edneyville community.
Early church members included members of the Stepp, Hill, Jackson, King, Lyon, Justice, Gilliam, Jones, Williams, Gilbert, Laughter, Ledbetter, Dalton, Brown, Collins, Marshall and other families.
By 1841 there was a school at the church.
John Hill, John Justice and Gabriel Jackson were the church trustees in 1851 when they bought land from Littleton Gilliam where the church was located: “It being the land where a meeting house now stands as a place of public worship.”
A wooden chapel was built about 1896. In the 1940s the church was remodeled. Additions and remodeling were completed from the 1950s until recently.
The oldest grave in the church cemetery is that of Carson Hill (Manson Carson Hill) who was born in 1817 and died in 1880. He was the son of the one of the original founders of the church, John Hill. Several children and other descendants of John Hill have grave sites at the church.
The graves of Gabriel Jackson (1798-1883) and his wife, Nancy (1799-1884), are also located at the church.
Other early grave sites at the church cemetery are those of William Clark (William Marcus Clark) (1809-1885) and his wife, Elizabeth Sandlin Clark (1816-1904). They are the ancestors of many Clark descendants in the county.
There are nine Confederate graves in the cemetery and one Union grave.
According to documents, Toliver Dalton who served in the Confederacy was buried in the cemetery in 1908. His grave site was not recorded on the cemetery survey in the 1990s. Dalton enlisted in the 64th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. B. He served through the war.
Two Confederate graves are those of Hampton G. Hill (1917) and William Walter Hill (1909), sons of the original founder John Hill.
Hampton G. Hill enlisted in the 64th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. B. His military service record provided by the National Archives says that he enlisted for a period of three years of the war as a drummer.
William Walter Hill enlisted in the 64th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. B. His last military record was in November 1863.
Other Confederate graves are those of James Jackson (1900), David Twitty Ledbetter (1905), George Washington Ledbetter (1934), John Brown Stepp (1910), John H. Stepp (1922), and Joseph Henry Stepp (1922). James Jackson and John Brown Stepp were listed as deserting. Military records for David Twitty Ledbetter and George Washington Ledbetter are based on pension records only.
John H. Stepp enlisted in the 1st Battalion N.C. Junior Reserves, Co. C, in April 1864. He served through the war.
Joseph Henry Stepp enlisted in the 64th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. B. N.C. Pension records indicate that he was wounded in the abdomen near Wolf River, Ky. He was captured at Cumberland Gap, a prisoner at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., and released in May 1865.
Thomas J. Marshall who died about 1896 and joined the Union also has a grave site at the cemetery. Marshall enlisted in the 2nd N.C. Mounted Infantry, Co. H, in October 1863. He was a Confederate deserter from the 64th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. B, was in the hospital in 1863, and deserted after June 1863.
James Clyde Jones (1895-1919) died during World War I. He was born in the Edneyville community, a son of George Twitty Jones and Laura Alice Laughter Jones. He was living in Edneyville and working as a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service when he registered for the draft in 1917. He died of pneumonia while serving with the Army in France. His grave site is at the church cemetery.
Two men from Henderson County who died during World War II are buried at Mount Moriah Baptist Church Cemetery.
John Frank Hill (1922-1945) served with the Army’s Co. B, 61st Armored Infantry Battalion, 10th Armored Division. He attained the rank of first lieutenant and received a Silver Star. He was killed in action April 10, 1945, in Germany. His division had seized Crailsheim, Germany, on April 7 and were isolated at a location deep in the enemy’s rear and “faced mounting casualties.” He was born in Henderson County, the son of William F. Hill and Lila Dalton Hill. He was a 1943 graduate of Clemson University, where he was a member of the basketball team. He enlisted in the Army after his college graduation.
Edward Hammett Ledbetter (1924-1944) was a pharmacist’s mate in the Navy. He was killed in action July 25, 1944, at the Battle of Tinian in the Mariana Islands in the Pacific. He was serving with Co. A, 4th Medical Battalion, 4th Marine Division. He was born in Henderson County, the son of Bert H. Ledbetter and Lessie Creasman Ledbetter. He grew up in Edneyville and joined the Navy at the age of 18.
One of Hendersonville’s early town marshals has a grave site at the cemetery. Burton Benjamin Jackson served as town marshal from 1888 to 1890. He was born in 1857 in the Edneyville community, the son of James J. Jackson and Jane Laughter Jackson. He first married Rose Matilda Pittillo and after her death he married Nora Louise Garren. He moved from Edneyville to the town of Hendersonville between 1880 and 1900. In 1910 he listed his occupation as a dealer in stocks and in 1930 he worked for the U.S. Postal Service. When he died his occupation was stated as retired police officer. He died in 1939.