The Rev. Samuel Edney rode a big horse and carried a Bible, a Watts hymnal and a pistol in his saddlebag as he traveled throughout Western North Carolina preaching and holding services for early pioneer settlers.
Francis Asbury, considered the founding father of the Methodist church in America, attended several of Edney’s camp meetings. Asbury, who set up the circuit-riding system, was a close friend of Edney and visited him in his home, according to journals by Asbury and Edney. Edney was ordained a minister by Asbury.
Edney and Asbury pioneered the camp meeting movement, which sprang out of the Great Revival of 1800. The first such gathering west of the Blue Ridge was at Edney’s home place in Edneyville, according to Edney’s journals.
“I have served God over 50 years and have never seen the moment when I regretted it,” Edney said shortly before his death in Henderson County.
In 1790, Edney received a license to exhort and preach. In 1792, he traveled to Western North Carolina, where he met Eleanor, daughter of William Mills, to whom he was married in 1793. By 1794, the couple was living on land that Edney received from Mills on South Mills Gap Road. He is buried in the Edney-Coston Cemetery between South Mills Gap Road and Coston Cemetery Road. A marker erected in his memory by the United Methodist Church in America directing descendants, historians and others to his grave from U.S. 64 East has disappeared.
The Edneyville United Methodist Church traces its history back to Edney and the services held at his home.
The original church was built of logs. Some of these hand-hewn log beams can be seen today in the basement of the church. This church was built about a mile from the home of the Rev. Samuel Edney.
About 1880 the present church was built. In the 1940s the building was remodeled.
Marlene Conner and Mittie Justus Hull, who are descended from the Maxwell, Justus and Edney families, toured the historical cemetery when a newspaper article, written by Jennie Jones Giles, was published in the Hendersonville Times-News.
Hull stood before the grave of her mother, Jeanette Wells Justus, 1900-1944.
“She was killed by lightening up on the mountain,” Hull said. “She was going milking and put the feed down for the cow to eat.”
Hull pointed out other family members of early pioneer settler John Justus (Justis) Sr.

 John Justus (Justis) Sr.

The earliest records found of John Justus (Jutis) Sr., the ancestor of the county’s Justus family, are in the Ninety-Six District of Newberry County, S.C., where he married Anna Gilliam. In 1799, he and his wife sold land in Newberry County, S.C., and on May 4, 1800, he bought 115 acres, including a house and orchards, from William Mills and James Miller. Over the years, he bought additional acreage.
Part of his land is where the Edneyville United Methodist Church was built.
The children of Justis changed the spelling of the name from Justis to Justus. There is no documented evidence that this early Justis (Justus) family is related to another family of early settlers who spelled their name Justice.
In Justus’ obituary it states he was “a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and an eminent minister of the gospel, in which he labored about 50 years. He was never known to deviate from the rules during the time he resided in the church.”
Some of his sons have marked graves at the Edneyville United Methodist Church Cemetery. It is thought John Justus (Justis) Sr. and his wife were buried there, too. Their grave sites were most likely among the unmarked field stones at the cemetery that were removed.

 Andrew Maxwell

“Here’s the grave of A.L. Maxwell,” Conner said on the cemetery tour. “He was a surveyor. He went to the Civil War in place of his father, Samuel. He was injured in the shoulder with a mini-ball and still walked home from Virginia. He was only 14.
“His sister, Molly, heard him whistling as he came down the road,” Conner said.
The cemetery is divided into three sections. The oldest section contains the grave of Andrew Maxwell, the patriarch of the Maxwell clan in Henderson and Buncombe counties.
Maxwell bought land on Clear Creek near Edneyville in 1803. He bought several hundred more acres. Most of his land was back of what is now the Edneyville United Methodist Church Cemetery.
This is also the graveyard where he and his two wives are buried. Some of his children and other descendants are also buried here.
Maxwell was married twice. The grave of his first wife, Jane, who was the mother of his 15 children, was seen in the graveyard and documented by genealogical researchers. During this tour of the cemetery her grave could not be located. There is a marked stone for his second wife, Hannah, whom he married after the birth of his last child.
Conner and Hull said members of the church removed most of the old field stones and replaced them with new markers.
“Marble markers were bought for all the graves that didn’t have names,” she said.
Sometimes it is hard to read names or dates carved in old field stones and it may take experts to decipher or find them. Archaeologists and historians do not recommend removing old field stones.

 In remembrance

As they strolled through the historical cemetery, Hull and Conner told story after story.
Luther H. Merrell, who served in World War I, died Jan. 29, 1942.
“He was my mother’s brother,” Conner said. “He had gone across Main Street to get his daughter some ice cream when he was hit by a vehicle.”
Conner stopped at the grave of her brother, Marine Corps Pvt. 1st Class Luther L. Rhodes, who died Oct. 17, 1942, during World War II as he served with the 1st Marines, 5th Division.
“They never recovered his body,” Conner said. “He was only 17 and begged my father to sign the papers for him. A sniper shot him in the Solomon Islands during the fighting at Guadalcanal. A sergeant came and talked to Mom and Dad. He said the jungle grew so fast they couldn’t find the bodies.”
“We do have a lot of memories in this cemetery,” Hull said.
Conner and Hull said the cemetery is owned and managed by church trustees, but descendants are requested to help with maintenance costs.

 Civil War grave sites

Six Confederate veterans and one Union veteran are buried at Edneyville United Methodist Church.
Confederate veterans include Riley M. Barnwell (1929), Obediah G. Conner (1891), James Julius Cox (1900), Thomas Jefferson Enloe (1916), Alexander Lafayette Maxwell  (1926), and Joshua B. Whitaker (1908).
Barnwell enlisted in the 60th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. D, Henderson Rangers. He served through the war.
Conner enlisted in the 25th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. A, Edney’s Greys. He was confined by the Union at Washington, D.C., in March 1865 and released that same month.
Cox enlisted in the 65th Regiment N.C. Troops (6th Regiment N.C. Cavalry), Co. C. He served out the war.
Maxwell enlisted in the 25th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. A, Edney’s Greys. He was wounded in the right shoulder at Drury’s Bluff (Battle of Proctor’s Creek) during the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, captured at Petersburg during the Appomattox Campaign, a prisoner at Point Lookout, Md., and released in June 1865.
Whitaker enlisted in the 25th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. A, Edney’s Greys. He served through the war.
The grave site of James Edwin Clark is also in the cemetery. He originally joined a Confederate regiment, deserted, and joined the Union in 1863. He died in 1928.
Thomas Jefferson Enloe also may have served as a sheriff of Henderson County at some time from 1874 to 1878. He was born in 1835, possibly in Haywood County, the son of Benjamin Mattison Enloe and Mary Jaynes. He married Hannah Aveline Maxwell. He was living in Haywood County with his parents and siblings in 1850. By the time of the Civil War he was living in the Edneyville community of Henderson County, where he was a farmer. He enlisted in the 25th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. A, Edney’s Greys. He was wounded in the hip and thigh at the Battle of Malvern Hill during the Seven Days Battles in Virginia, returned to duty, and surrendered at Appomattox Court House. He died in 1916.