Kehukee Primitive Baptist Church is a historic Primitive Baptist church building in Halifax County, North Carolina located about a mile (1.5 km) south of Scotland Neck off NC Route 125.York 1993 § 2 It was built in 1872 and is a simple gable-front frame structure subsequently sheathed in weatherboard.York 1993 § 7 p. 1 A Gothic Revival style frame tower was added in 1901. Also on the property is a church cemetery established in 1889.York 1993 § 7 p. 3

The Kehukee congregation's previous meeting house, at a different site, was the location in 1769 for the foundation of the Kehukee Baptist Association of churches from North Carolina and southern Virginia, and in 1827 of the Primitive Baptist Kehukee Declaration issued by the association. The 1872 site, including the cemetery, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

Kehukee congregation The original Kehukee (formerly also QuehukyEdwards and Paschal 1984 p. 105 n. 3) meeting house was built about 1742 by William Surginer or Sojourner (1706–1750), a General Baptist from Burley, Isle of Wight County, Virginia who acquired land in the basin of the Kehukee Swamp, a creek which flows into the Roanoke River,Edwards and Paschal 1984 p. 82 and settled there in the mid-1720s. The church stood near the creek and two miles east of Scotland Neck,York 1993 § 8 p. 12 on land donated by Surginer, its first minister. About 1755 the congregation adopted practices based on those of the Philadelphia Baptist Association after a visit by two of the latter's elders, Benjamin Miller and William Van Horne (father of Thomas Van Horne).Edwards and Paschal 1984 pp. 79–80 As the earliest Baptist church in the region, Kehukee was direct or indirect mother church of many others.Edwards and Paschal 1984 pp. 84–85 It was the founding site of the Kehukee Association in 1769, but not the leading church within that association.

As a subsidiary branch of the Kehukee congregation, a "new meeting house" was established on Fishing Creek (not to be confused with Lower Fishing Creek church, founded by Charles Daniel). It was sometimes called "Cotten's meeting house", and later "Lawrence's meeting house" after elder Joshua Lawrence.Biggs Burkitt and Read 1834 p. 283 By 1803 "deaths, excommunications, and removals" had reduced the membership of the "old meeting house" at Kehukee to much less than that at Fishing Creek,Burkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 pp. 244–246 In 1806 the association recognised Lawrence's Meeting House as a separate member church.Biggs Burkitt and Read 1834 pp.170 283

The Kehukee church had no minister from 1830 to 1860, when elder John W. Stamper took over. In 1871–72 the current church was built a mile south of Scotland Neck. The old church was torn down soon after, Local historian Charlie Dunn Alston believes the old site was donated for a church for freedmen, and now holds the Kehukee Baptist Church, a Black church on Sherman Drive off NC Route 903 ().Stalls 2021 p. 17

The addition of the steeple to Kehukee Primitive Baptist Church in 1901 is ascribed to John Coughenour, a sawmill owner who lived within sight of the church and preferred the steepled designs of his native Pennsylvania.Stalls 2021 p. 18 Church membership declined from 62 in 1905 to 40 in 1919, and steadily thereafter. The last member, Lena Andrews Shackell, died in 1979 aged 102, and the last regular church meeting was held in 1981. The property reverted to the Kehukee Association, which still occasionally used the building for meetings. Later it was sold to a local resident who had already been volunteering in its upkeep.

+ Ministers of Kehukee Church William Surginer c. 1742–1750 Thomas Pope 1751–1763 John Meglamre c. 1766–1772 Burkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 pp. 138, 279 William Burges 1772– Silas Mercer (father of Jesse Mercer) c. 1776–1781 Joshua White –c. 1790 Lemuel Burkitt –1807 Joshua Lawrence 1807–1830 Biggs Burkitt and Read 1834 pp. 281–283 none 1830–1860 John W. Stamper 1860–1876 York 1993 § 8 p. 13 Pleasant Daniel Gold 1876–1879 Andrew J. Moore 1879–1919

Kehukee Association The Kehukee Association was formed at the Kehukee church, probably in 1769, by several Baptist churches (most named after nearby watercoursesBurkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 p. 183) in Halifax, Edgecombe, Warren, Bertie, and Camden counties.Burkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 p. 31Edwards and Paschal 1984 p. 80 Dozens more churches from surrounding areas joined in subsequent decades. Some of these later endorsed Free Will Baptism and left the association.Burkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 pp. 46–47 Provincial North Carolina's Regulator Insurrection (1768–1771) devastated the western base of Shubal Stearns' Sandy Creek Association, whose few churches in the province's east asked to join Kehukee instead.Sparks 2005 p. 176 Some of the old Kehukee Regulars accepted affiliation of Separatists without requiring re-baptism, precipitating a split in 1775 between these "United Baptists" and the hardline Regulars.Sparks 2005 p. 189 The split ended in 1786, when the reunited group was named the United Baptist Association.Burkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 pp. 41–46, 98, 102 In 1777, ten churches of the Regular Baptist faction made a confession of faith which was implicitly endorsed after the reunification.Burkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 p. 49Garrett 2009 pp. 127–128

Sometimes the Virginia and North Carolina member churches respectively met separately from the full conference of all churches,Burkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 p. 96 and in 1790 the two states permanently split amicably, the Carolina group regaining the name Kehukee Association while the Virginia one took the name Virginia Portsmouth Association.Burkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 pp. 109–110 In 1793, the Neuse Baptist Association, comprising the churches south of the Tar River, was split off for similar reasons of convenience.Burkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 p. 289 In 1803, there were 31 member churches in the Kehukee Association, most being members of one of its four regional "Union Meetings", namely east of Chowan River, Bertie, Flat Swamp, and Swift Creek,Burkitt, Read, Burkitt 1850 p. 154 the last including Kehukee church itself. In 1806 there was a third split, the churches on the right bank of the Roanoke seceding as the Chowan Association.Biggs Burkitt and Read 1834 p. 170

In the early 19th century, Joshua Lawrence of the Kehukee Association was a leader of the Primitive Baptist movement, which opposed the General Baptist involvement in mission boards, tract societies, and temperance societies. In August 1826 Lawrence prepared a "Declaration of the Reformed Baptist Churches in North Carolina", which was published in succeeding months and debated by Kehukee and its sibling associations. Kehukee's 1826 conference voted to send it to the member churches for consideration,Biggs Burkitt and Read 1834 p. 235 and its 1827 conference issued what became known as the Kehukee Declaration:Garrett 2009 p. 209Biggs Burkitt and Read 1834 pp. 240–241

Despite scattered earlier smaller-scale incidents, the Kehukee Declaration is considered by many historians to mark the birth of Primitive Baptism.Sparks 2005 pp. 201, 240 Alexander Campbell endorsed the declaration despite later evincing support for missions.Sparks 2005 p. 244

At its 1861 conference the Kehukee Association ordered a day of fasting and prayer to mark the Civil War.Hassell and Hassell 1886 p. 800 A similar resolution in 1862 was not carried out due to the disruption of Union Army occupation.Hassell and Hassell 1886 p. 801 The association's 1886 history claimed that Primitive Baptists were the only Protestant denomination with no ill will between its Southern and Northern members — the former having joined the Confederate Army while the latter stayed out of the Union Army.Hassell and Hassell 1886 p. 804 The association grew from 37 congregations in 1860 with 1,494 members, to a peak of 41 with 2,067 in 1879.York 1993 § 8 p. 6 It fell to 38 with 1,258 in 1919 and 26 with 1,135 in 1926. Membership declined steadily over the 20th century.York 1993 § 8 p. 16

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