Mt. Moriah Baptist Church  1850 - Present

In 1850, Ballsville, Virginia was a busy cluster of houses, stores, wheelwright shop, railway depot, blacksmith shop, tobacco warehouse, and saloon. Upon moving his family into one of the farm houses and finding no Baptist church, Mr. Lewis McLaurine and some Baptist neighbors decided to start Sunday School in an old barn on the edge of a field about a mile east of Ballsville on Old Buckingham Road.

In May 1850 one acre of land was purchased by Mrs. Louisa Colquit for $15. During the summer of 1850 the men built the small church near the old barn. On September 8, 1850, the church was dedicated, the first service was held, and the Reverend S. J. Adkins was called as the pastor. Consisting of fifteen members, the church was named Mount Moriah Baptist Church. Little is known about the next ten years, except that other pastors were Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Crews, and Mr. Gilbert Mason.