Mount Gilead A.M.E. Church facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mount Gilead A.M.E. Church
Location	1940 Holicong Road, Buckingham Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA
Built	1852
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Mount Gilead African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic church. It is located on top of Buckingham Mountain. This special place is near Holicong, in Buckingham Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Church History: A Community's Journey

Starting the Church: A New Beginning

The Mount Gilead church community began in 1822. It was started by fifteen free and escaped enslaved Africans. This makes it one of the oldest A.M.E. churches in Bucks County. The A.M.E. Church is a Christian church. It was founded by African Americans.

The first church building was a simple log chapel. It was built in 1834. The land for the church was first owned by the minister, Daniel Yeomans. He then gave the land to the church community in 1843. The stone church you see today was built in 1852. It has one main room upstairs. This room was for church services. Downstairs was a room for Sunday school.

The Underground Railroad Connection

People believe this community was a stop on the Underground Railroad. This was a secret network. It helped enslaved people escape to freedom. Mount Gilead was thought to be the last stop. From here, people would cross the Delaware River into New Jersey.

The white landowners nearby were Quaker abolitionists. Abolitionists were people who wanted to end slavery. These Quakers allowed escaped slaves to build homes on Buckingham Mountain. Helping escaped slaves was against the law. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 made it a crime. But the mountain was isolated. It also offered great views. This helped protect the residents from slave-catchers. At its busiest time, about 100 African Americans lived on the mountain.

Benjamin "Big Ben" Jones: A Story of Freedom

One famous person from the community was Benjamin "Big Ben" Jones. He was a very tall man. He was about 6 feet, 10 inches tall. He escaped from Maryland around 1833. He then settled on Buckingham Mountain.

In 1844, his former master and four slave-catchers found him. They captured Jones after a difficult struggle. He was taken to Philadelphia. Then he was put on a ship to Baltimore, Maryland. He was held in a prison there. He was waiting to be sold in New Orleans.

But a group of Quakers helped him. They were from Buckingham and Philadelphia. They raised $700 to buy his freedom. This money would be worth a lot more today. Jones then returned to the mountain. He married a woman named Sarah Johnson. He lived his last years at the Bucks County Almshouse. He passed away in 1875.

Graveyard and Legacy

The church graveyard has 243 marked graves. There are also many unmarked graves. Some people buried there were ministers of the church. Others were Civil War veterans. They fought in the United States Colored Troops. A baseball player named William E. Teat is also buried there. He played in the Negro leagues.

Regular church services continued into the early 1900s. For many years, descendants of the church members cared for the property. The church building was still used for special events. These included weddings and funerals. After the caretaker John Reinhardt passed away in 2014, a new group formed. This community group now cares for the church. They renamed it Mount Gilead Community Church.

A movie called The North Star came out in 2015. It was based on the life of "Big Ben" Jones. The only known photo of Jones is from around 1870. It was used on the movie's poster. Some parts of the film were even shot at the church.

Images for kids

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  Buckingham Mountain.

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  Interior.

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  Side and rear elevations.