As the days of June pass by, the weather has been mild, with only a few hot days and several that have remained comfortably cool – what a wonderful time to explore Greene County!
In our last installment, our journey left us heading north on Route 218 towards Waynesburg after exploring several churches in the eastern part of the county. Now, lets get ready to explore the western end of the county!
Beginning in Waynesburg, head west on Route’s 18 & 21 towards Rogersville. Route 21 from Waynesburg going west could be a story in and of itself, as lush green valleys, rolling hills, farms and beautiful rural communities populate your field of vision while you drive the gently winding route all the way to the border of the West Virginia panhandle.
Our journey, however, is going to lead us in a different direction. Follow 18 & 21 west until you come into Rogersville. The storybook town of Rogersville has a main drag through town lined with beautifully kept homes and a few small businesses that add to the charm of this historic small town. The Rogersville United Methodist Church sits in the middle of town. It is a beautiful red brick structure dedicated in 1905 that replaced a wooden structure destroyed by fire in 1903; however, the Methodist Church has a history in Rogersville that stretches back to the 1840s when meetings were held in the barn of early Rogersville resident Henry Church.
Just up the street, where 18 & 21 bend, many of these early Rogersville residents, some of which no doubt attended services in Henry Church’s barn, are buried. This is the old Rogersville Cemetery; look around the cemetery and see if you can find the grave of John Rogers, the man for whom Rogersville was named. He died March 14th 1879 at the age of 79 years.
Now that you’ve had a chance to get out and stretch our legs, let’s get back on the road! Continue heading west on Routes 18 & 21, following them until they split and head their separate ways just a mile or so outside of town. Bear left and continue following route 18. You’ll pass West Greene High School on the left. The rural beauty only increases on this leg of our journey. You’ll travel through the small, nearly nonexistent community of Holbrook, and experience more farmland and small vistas along the way. Soon, we’ll be high up on the ridge. The dramatic views with endless sight lines that give us a peek of the endless ridge lines and hilltops fading far into the horizon. About 9 miles outside of Rogersville, Bethany Church is on the right; drive past and turn around in the village of Nettle Hill to head back east on Route 18 to get into the church for easier access.
Bethany Church is beautifully tucked into the trees just below the hilltop that has been providing the final resting spot for Bethany’s congregants since 1871. Drive up past the church and into the cemetery; the hilltop is one of the highest in the area and provides amazing views of the nearby hills and valleys, and an excellent view of the upper portion of Blockhouse Run Road. Take note of Blockhouse Run, you’ll know it as you look east from the hilltop and see a beautiful turn-of-the-century farm tucked neatly back from Route 18, where Blockhouse Run meets the ridge.
When you leave the church and cemetery, you’ll make a hard left hand turn back onto Route 18, and after a very short distance you’ll turn right onto Blockhouse Run Road. Blockhouse Run will take you down the hill, through the woods and through a portion of State Games Lands 179. Follow Blockhouse Run several miles; once you are to the bottom of the hill, and just past the intersection of Roberts Run Road, turn left right at the pond, and you’ll end up at a T-intersection. The community of Pine Bank once stood in the area around this Intersection. A few homes remain, but long gone is the baseball field and general stores that once serviced the small town. Turn right onto Pine Bank Road (also referred to as Tom’s Run Road,) and follow it for just a little less than a mile, and you will see the Pine Bank Church and Cemetery spreading out over the hillside to your right.
Pine Bank Church is a place that is very special to me; I remember in my youth attending weddings, funerals and memorial services at that place, and nearly everyone buried in the churchyard is a relative of mine in some way or another. Early on, the Carpenter and Overturf families were amongst the largest supporters of the church, and before the completion of the church building itself, services were held in the homes of these families and several others that lived in the area. To me at least, Pine Bank United Methodist Church is the epitome of an old country church that has withstood the test of time.
As we leave Pine Bank Church, we’ll turn right, and get back on Pine Bank Road. Drive through the countryside for a few miles, you’ll pass the old Bethel Church on your left, and eventually you’ll come to another T-intersection. Tom’s Run Road will turn left towards Brave, but take the left onto Jollytown Road. It’s about three miles into the small village of Jollytown.
Jollytown is a town very much reminiscent of Washington Irving’s town of Sleepy Hollow; it’s a small town right along the waters of Dunkard Creek that even now looks much as it did when Titus Jolly originally laid it out in the 1840’s. The old Catholic church, a rarity in the western end of the county, still stands at the western end of town adjacent to the memorial dedicated to Jesse Taylor, the first soldier from Greene County to lose his life during the Civil War. Also in the middle of town, is the now closed Dye General Store. Jefferson Dye started this store in the second half of the 19th century and his descendants operated it until the early 1990’s, making it one of the longest lasting family-owned general stores in the nation.
This concludes our journey; lets get back on the road, and head west outside of Jollytown. Stay on Jollytown Road and it will take you right back to Route 18, just outside of New Freeport, where you can then turn right and head back into Waynesburg, or you can head left and explore more of Greene County by exploring New Freeport, Garrison, Deep Valley and the many other wonderful areas in the western limits of Greene County. If you’re lucky, and you’ve done your research, you may even be able to find the cornerstone of the Keystone State!
