MERLE MONAHAN/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
merlemonah@aol.com

COURTLAND—The Little Country Church on the grounds of the Southampton Heritage Village/Agriculture and Forestry Museum was the setting of a wedding Saturday, the first such event to be held there since the church was built two years ago.

Curtis Stacy and Sandra Whisenant were united in marriage at 3 p.m. before about 40 guests, who filled the tiny church to its capacity.

“It was a very nice,” said Bill Vick, Museum Board chairman. “We’ve been hoping to have events such as this in the church ever since we completed building it.”

The small white frame church was actually built to accommodate the donated contents of New Hope Methodist Church, a disbanded congregation that had been located just across the North Carolina border.

“Marvin Worrell and his family owned the furniture, consisting of beautiful oak pews, a podium, communion table, pulpit chairs, organ and piano. He had placed the contents in a small smoke house, converted to look like a church, on his property at his home near Como, N.C.,” said Vick.

Because of health issues, however, the Worrell family decided to donate the furniture to the museum, he added.

“After we received the furniture, circa early-1800s, we kept it here inside the main building while we looked for a suitable place, preferably an old church, in which to display it. We didn’t have any luck,” he said, “so museum members decided to build a church.”

With just a little bit of outside help, the members of the museum built the place themselves, Vick said. It was completed in the fall of 2011.

“The church is available for use for other functions such as this,” he said.

Vick said anyone wishing to use the church may contact him at 375-2523, Lynda Updike, Southampton Historical Society president, at 654-6785.