Lake Norman Publications

Camp Meeting history reveals unity amid community



DENVER – The annual Rock Springs Camp Meeting dates back more than 200 years and the gatherings of today still resemble those early congregations.

While the world around the campground has changed exponentially, for two weeks each summer the faithful tenters of Rock Springs ditch the modern conveniences that have become so commonplace to reconnect with family, friends, food and worship. 

The roots were planted in 1794 at the site where Rehobeth United Methodist now stands in Terrell. Daniel Asbury, a Methodist preacher from Virginia, is credited with starting the tradition that persists to this day. 

As more people began to travel from far and wide to experience the event, the meeting point shifted south to a tract of land that now houses Beth Haven Baptist Church. In 1828, a committee was established to select a suitable site for future gatherings and just two years later the Methodist Society of the Lincoln Circuit obtained 45 acres that would be developed into today’s Rock Springs Campground. 

The meeting has been held annually at that location since 1830, with maybe one or two exceptions, according to Terry Brotherton, a lifelong tenter who’s written two books detailing the history of the Rock Springs Camp Meeting.

“I’ve never really determined what went on during the Civil War because there was not much activity in this area, to the best of my knowledge,” he said. “Now, legend has it that Yankee soldiers did camp there at one point in time and set it on fire prior to their departure, but it smoldered out. I don’t know if that’s fact or fiction, it’s just a tale that I picked up somewhere many years ago.”

The other instance was 1948, amid the Polio epidemic.

“There wasn’t officially a camp meeting but many, many families, according to my mother, went and had a picnic one day,” Brotherton said. “When we had the bicentennial celebration, Rev. Bill Rock, who was a pastor of the Rock Springs Charge in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, shared with me that there was a religious service held at the campground on what would have been Big Sunday. They had a quarterly conference of the Methodist Charge meeting there, so there was a little bit of official, unofficial activity that year at the campground.”

That year was also intended to be the debut of The Shack, a concession stand now operated by the East Lincoln High School band. 

While not an instance of cancellation, Brotherton also revealed an attempt at doing away with the Rock Springs Camp Meeting in 1913, which wasn’t settled until a court order was issued in 1916.

“The Methodist minister here refused to conduct Camp Meeting, and there were a handful of trustees who wanted to do away with it but several others who didn’t,” he said. “They basically told the minister that it didn’t really matter what he wanted, they were going to have Camp Meeting anyway.”

Harvey Jonas was credited with representing the campground, according to Brotherton, and the judge ruled that Camp Meeting could continue. 

That year, the Methodist minister of the Rock Springs Charge was not associated with the Rock Springs Camp Meeting. Instead, the remaining trustees brought in two outside ministers to conduct the services, according to Brotherton.

“The next year, five babies were born in this community,” he said. “I guess those ministers made a lasting impression on them because those newborns were named after them and my dad, Smith Brotherton, was one of them.”

Joanne Charles, another lifer at Rock Springs, stumbled upon another fascinating piece of history while sorting through her late mother’s belongings in 2020. Unbeknownst to Brotherton, or any other living tenter, two women served as trustees at the campground in 1942, marking the only recorded instance in history. 

A document recognizing two women, Mrs. Pearl Gabriel and Mrs. Elmer Little, as Rock Springs Campground trustees, marking the only recorded instance in history. /Courtesy Joanne Charles

“It caught me off guard,” Brotherton said. “I was familiar with both of the ladies but I had never seen that document.”

Trustees are responsible for overseeing the grounds and maintaining the property throughout the year. Those two women were Mrs. Pearl Gabriel and Mrs. Elmer Little. 

“They served, I guess, for one Camp Meeting as trustees during the war,” Charles said. “It might have been because a lot of the men had gone off to war, but we don’t know for sure.” 

Gabriel’s family still owns the same tent from that time, and according to Charles, her descendents were unaware.

The history of the Rock Springs Camp Meeting is just a sliver of what makes it so special. For both Charles and Brotherton, the ultimate draw is the sense of community among the congregation.

“When I was growing up we didn’t really go on summer vacation as a family of farmers,” Charles said. “We met friends at Camp Meeting and we still have family members that come in from out of state. Sometimes we only see them once a year but we always come together at Camp Meeting.”

Brotherton described the annual event as a homecoming.

“There’s a lot of people who come from long distances and you only see them once a year,” he said. “I think that’s a big part of what makes it special.”

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