Mountain Valley Baptist Church is located off Cabin Creek Road and Mountain Valley Cemetery Road.
The original name of the church was Poplar Springs Missionary Baptist Church.
Some records indicate an early church was formed in this beautiful valley of the Green River community as early as the 1880s.
It was Jan. 31, 1915, that a group of ministers and deacons from neighboring churches and some people from the settlement met in a small log cabin at the old “Pearson Graveyard” for the purpose of organizing a church that was named Popular Springs Missionary Baptist Church.
It is likely that the log cabin in which they met was an earlier church that began in the valley in the 1880s.
The congregation continued to meet in the log cabin until 1919 when a new church building was completed.
In November 1932 members began to build a new church building. The mountain road had been moved from its location in front of the church to its current location, so the church was moved closer to this new road.
In 1933, it was decided to change the church’s name to Mountain Valley Baptist Church.
In 1968 new land was purchased along Cabin Creek Road and in 1972 construction was completed on a new church building.
The old “Pearson Graveyard,” also known as the Pearson-Ward Cemetery, was located at the site of the log cabin and early church.
Today, this cemetery is maintained and used by Mountain Valley Baptist Church. The cemetery is located off Cabin Creek Road, on Mountain Valley Cemetery Road.
This cemetery contains at least 71 unmarked field stones.
The oldest grave is that of Elbert S. Capps (1877-1880). All the other inscribed grave stones except for one date from the 20^th century.
The Henderson County Cemeteries book states that an early grave was that of a Mr. Pearson who is said to be the first person buried in the cemetery. It states that at one time a stone wall was around his grave.
Surnames of persons buried in the cemetery include Camp, Capps, Coggins, Corn, Kuykendall, Maybin, and others.
There are two men who served in the Confederate Army with grave sites in the cemetery.
Leonard Ransom Capps enlisted in the 56th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. G, Henderson Blues, in April 1862. He was wounded in 1863 at Petersburg, Va., captured 4-1-1865 at the Battle of Five Forks during the Appomattox Campaign, a prisoner at Hart’s Island, New York harbor, and released 6-17-1865. He died in 1909.
Silas Pace enlisted in the 54th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. I, in June 1863. He was captured 11-7-1863 at the Second Battle of Rappahannock Station during the Bristoe Campaign, a prisoner at Point Lookout, Md., and exchanged 3-20-1864. He was captured again 10- 21-1864 near Strasburg, Va., a prisoner at Point Lookout, Md., and released 6-17-1865. He died in 1915. His grave site is at this cemetery in the Green River community, according to his death certificate. There is no grave marker. His grave site most likely is one of the unmarked field stones.