Historic Polegreen Church

In 1748, the meetinghouse here became vital to the colonists' struggle for religious and civil liberty when Samuel Morris and other Hanover Presbyterian dissenters called the Rev. Samuel Davies (1723–1761) to become pastor. Davies, a great orator who inspired Patrick Henry, was Virginia’s first licensed non-Anglican minister. He promoted literacy among enslaved Africans in several colonies with funds he raised in England. In 1759, he became president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University). Polegreen Church burned in June 1864 just before the Battle of Cold Harbor when Confederate artillery fired on it to dislodge Union sharpshooters.

Department of Historic Resources, 2007