our history

Columbia Baptist Church members held worship service in a brush arbor tradition before formalizing their church in the Town of Columbia. The land where the church presently sits was purchased in the 1800s.

The church was started in the rock house in the town of Columbia on July 9, 1870. The original building was facing the opposite direction of its current design. The church had a recording secretary, S. D. Anderson; a pastor, Reverend James Barrett; and 4 deacons, Tilman Jeter, Tolton Woodson, James Willis and Henderson Crank.
 

Services were held on the 2nd Sunday of each month but was later moved to the 1st Sunday of each month. Services are now being held on the 1stand 3rd Sunday of the month. 

The Payne family donated the land for the cemetery for poor white people, of Columbia, in 1822. It later became a cemetery for African Americans. West of the cemetery is the free African American burial site called Free Hill, where many African Americans are currently buried. There also was a log Church built on Free Hill that free African American formed. This log church is no longer visible.  For more information about Free Hill please see links below:
 

• Free Hill : survey report, 1937 Aug. 3 - Library of Virginia (exlibrisgroup.com) 
• FLUVANNA COUNTY, VA - SURVEY – “Free Hill”   iles.usgwarchives.net/va/fluvanna/history/freehill.txt 
• Uncovering the stories within Fluvanna’s historically Black cemeteries – Fluvanna Review
• Columbia Free Hill Cemetery in Columbia, VA - working hours, burials list, pictures and map and GPS locations | People Legacy  

Who was your first pastor? Reverend James Barrett, 1st

Other Pastors

Reverend John Richardson

Reverend Scott Huekless

Reverend William Mayo

Reverend I. A. Hines

Reverend Samuel Lee

Reverend Allen Hughes

Reverend A. Mason

Reverend David Johnson

Reverend Lloyd Martin