The 2026 reunion of the descendants of John Dawson Castellaw (1780–1859) and Zilpha Spruill Castellaw (1778–1842) is set for Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026.
Few places are more closely connected to the Castellaw family than Holly Grove Baptist Church. For nearly 150 years, generations of Castellaws have worshipped there, taught school there, served as deacons and church leaders, and found their final resting place in the church cemetery. The church is not simply where the family attended—it exists in large part because of the generosity and leadership of several Castellaw family members.
The connection begins around 1880 when Nancy M. Johnson Castellaw (1844–1921) donated an acre of land so children living in the rural Poplar Corner community would have a school. Her husband, Thomas Jefferson “Tom” Castellaw Jr. (1841–1879), a grandson of John Dawson Castellaw (1780-1859), had died several years earlier, leaving her to raise their young family. Nancy later married John Edward Castellaw (1833-1896), her late husband’s brother.
Neighbors built a one-room log schoolhouse on Nancy’s donated land. According to family stories, it was built in a grove of holly trees, giving the community both its landmark and its name: Holly Grove. Nancy’s daughter, Jennie Castellaw Jacocks (1866–1946), became the school’s first teacher, beginning another tradition of service to the community.
Only a few years later, members of nearby Zion Baptist Church decided the growing community needed its own congregation. On Sept. 27, 1885, 38 members received letters of dismissal from Zion to organize Holly Grove Baptist Church. The church met first in the Holly Grove School before a permanent sanctuary was constructed in 1892. Among those charter members were numerous Castellaws, including Nancy Marianna Johnson Castellaw, Jeremiah Fletcher Castellaw (1847–1915), George W. Castellaw, James W. Castellaw Jr., Lucy Albina Castellaw, Mary Jennie Castellaw, Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw, and Alice Evelyn Castellaw, making the family one of the largest represented in the church’s founding membership.
The Castellaws continued shaping the church after its founding. In 1886, Dorsey H. Watridge donated the lot where the church building would stand. Then, in 1900, Jeremiah Fletcher Castellaw and his wife, Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw, donated the land west of the church that became Holly Grove Cemetery. More than a century later, that cemetery remains the resting place of dozens of Castellaw descendants and serves as one of the family’s most important genealogical landmarks.
The church has also preserved countless Castellaw family memories. The old Holly Grove School once stood only a short distance from the home of Robert “Bob” Castellaw and Zula Zera Watridge Castellaw, where generations of children grew up attending both the school and the church. Historic photographs from the 1940s show Castellaw children gathered on the church lawn, while family reunions held there in recent decades have brought together descendants from Tennessee, Texas and across the country.
Today, nearly 140 years after Holly Grove Baptist Church was organized, the names recorded in its earliest minutes continue to appear in the pews, on cemetery markers and on family trees. For the Castellaw family, Holly Grove is more than a church. It is a living reminder that the faith, generosity and community spirit of their ancestors helped build an institution that continues to serve Haywood County generations later.
For more information about the reunion, visit the Facebook event page.
For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.
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