Slash Church

Slash Church, also known as the Upper Church-St. Paul's Parish, built of Southern yellow pine cut from the property in 1729-1730, is a historic former Anglican Episcopal church located at 11353 Mt. Hermon Road, Ashland, Hanover County, Virginia. It is the oldest frame colonial church still in use in Virginia.It was built under the direction of Edward Chambers and Thomas Pinchbeck in 1729, five years after the absentee minister (who remained in England but hired a curate to serve Hanover County, Virginia boundaries declared 1720), informed the bishop of London that the parish was 60 miles long and twelve wide and served 1200 families by means of four churches (the priest alternating between them on the various Sundays of the month). St. Martin's Parish was also set off from St. Paul's parish in 1727. The predecessor building (sometimes known as the "Mechumps Creek Chapel"), built circa 1702, was about a mile and a half north of this structure. Current research indicates it was located behind the current Hanover Tavern across the tracks and up a hill where there is a good source of water (pond). No structure currently exists of this chapel. The Slash name derives from the "slashes" - ravines that formed in the sandy clay soil after rainstorms plus the Pine Slash trees. This terrain has a high ground water level so it was important to place this structure on a hill.Rev. George Whitfield, founding Methodist Francis Asbury, Virginia Baptist Reuben Ford and Disciples of Christ founder Alexander Campbell are believed to have preached at the church during their various missionary tours. Because Rev. Patrick Henry (uncle to the founding father Patrick Henry) served as minister of St. Paul's Parish for four decades (1737-1777), his nephew did occasionally attend the church. However, Patrick Henry's mother was a dissenter, and he is known to have attended Polegreen Church (a Presbyterian or freethinking meetinghouse) nearby. Dolley Madison did attend when she was in the area and Henry Clay who lived nearby attended regularly. The congregation was so fond of him that they wanted him to run for president but he declined. This was in a news article I found online.