Church roots.
by Lisa Y. Henderson
St. Matthews Church History (1890-1992)
St. Matthews Presbyterian Church was organized October 5, 1890 under the auspices of The Reverend Clarence Dillard. Reverend Dillard was then moderator of Shiloh Presbyterian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina and saw the need for and future success of a Presbyterian Church in Dudley.
Reverend Dillard worked diligently to get the Church organized and was its first Moderator, serving the Church from 1890 until 1913. There were nine known original members, most of whom have descendants who are members today. The original members were Mr. Washington Simmons, a teacher in Dudley; Mrs. Amanda Hagans, Mr. Wesley Budd and wife Julia, Mr. William Newkirk and wife Hattie Ann, Mr. Isaac Griswold and wife Cherry, and Mrs. Tempsy Boseman.
Fourth Generation Inclusive 
I was just searching for various sources of information on Rev. C. Dillard, for whom Dillard High School was named. Am thinking about writing a short column on him in my Sunday article in the Goldsboro News-Argus. Anything more you may have on Rev. Dillard would be appereciated.
Am also wondering if you would be willing to grant permission for me to use your material. Would also like to know your name. Thanks
Hi, Sherwood. I can’t take credit — that post was extracted from the website listed at the end of the piece. I featured it because it mentioned that several early members of the church were members of families who were part of southern Wayne County’s antebellum free colored community. I have run across Clarence Dillard in my research — most notably in the context of the state normal school, of which a relative, Henry E. Hagans, was an early principal — but have not focused specifically on him. All this to say, I don’t have more to share on Dillard. As for using material from this blog, I always appreciate a shout-out, but this is a essentially a curated site and very little is original. I have taken pains to annotate all sources, though, both primary and secondary. I have quite a bit of material related to Wayne County both here and at my genealogical blog, http://www.scuffalong.com (original writing for which I claim copyright there). Please let me know if if you find anything in particular you want to use. My name is Lisa Y. Henderson, and I can be reached at lyhend at aol dot com. Thanks!
Sherwood, my most recent post at http://www.scuffalong.com contains a newspaper article that mentions C. Dillard’s appointment to a poll-holder position in 1889, just a few years after he arrived in Goldsboro.
I just came across this interchange as I was checking e-mails (old ones). Did we ever finish our communications. I did write the article on Rev. Dillard and had many positive comments about it.
Sherwood
I’d like to read your article. I have never researched Rev. Dillard directly, so there’s not much I know about him other general facts and his intersection with my relative H.E. Hagans.
If you will contact me directly on my e-mail, I will try to send a copy. I am not very familiar with this medium.
Also interested in where you are from, Perhaps you told me that, if so I missed it.
My email address is lisayhenderson at yahoo dot com. I grew up in Wilson NC, 20 miles north of Goldsboro.