SCHOOLS
index page
Ahoskie
55Reunion
ACADEMIES
Union
Reynoldson
Institute
- history
COLLEGES
Chowan FI
- traveling
CHURCHES
Capehart's Chapel
of the Holy Innocents
near Avoca
photo by James E Moore 1970
The "small vestibule was added several years after the
completion of the building. The walls and ceiling are of natural wood which have
darkened with age. The pews are square, of natural wood, and would seat
approximately 100 people. There is no electricity and the only heat is a wood
stove. The chapel still contains a marble baptismal font which was a gift from
Dr. W.R. Capehart to his mother, Susan Martin, who presented it to the church.
The lectern is on the opposite side of the chancel. The communion
rail divides the chancel and the sanctuary is a plain wooden altar. The altar
hangings were made by Miss Margie Green when she was over 80 years old. Over the
altar is a stained glass Gothic window. The other windows in the nave of the
church are Gothic with plain glass. To the left of the chancel is a small vestry
room.
In 1879 Cadmus Capehart began building a chapel on a plot of land
on his plantation, Elmwood, for his family of seven children. The Capeharts
attended services at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Windsor and St. Paul's
Episcopal Church in Edenton, but the journey was a long one to either place for
seven small children. . . The chapel was never completed at Elmwood due to the
sudden death of Cadmus Capehart and the removal of his family to Scotch Hall.
It was then decided by George Washington Capehart of Scotch Hall to move
the foundations of the chapel to its present site where it was completed in the
early part of 1880 [at a total cost of $500] on an acre of land given by
Dr. W.R. Capehart of Avoca. The chapel was named 'The Church of the Holy
Innocents' by Mrs. Cadmus Capehart (Mary Martin Capehart), 'as being the most
appropriate name (in her opinion) for a church to rear her little children in'
where they might learn the teachings of the church. Through all the years this
tradition of a church for the children remained and much of the history of the
parish has been that of a little group of children gathered around a mother, an
aunt or a grandmother, learning the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Ten
Commandments and the Catechism. . . . the Rev. Edward Wooten, rector of St.
Thomas, held services at Holy Innocents' the third Sunday of each month.
On April 12, 1880, the chapel was consecrated by the Right
Rev. Theodore Benedict Lyman, the Assistant Bishop of North Carolina. He was
assisted in the services by the Rev. Wooten, and the Rev. Robert B. Drane,
rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. - from article by
Jeanette White in The Bertie Ledger-Advance, Windsor, NC, September 28, 1972.
photo by Curtis
and Ruth Craig 2002