Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Barbecue, NC

Barbecue is an unincorporated community in Barbecue Township, Harnett County, North Carolina, and it is part of the Dunn Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Barbecue got its unusual name in the early 1750s, when an early settler named 'Red' McNeill saw steam rising from a nearby creek, which reminded him of the meat-cooking pits he had seen in the Caribbean — so he named it Barbecue Creek.

Deeds from 1753 and 1754 already refer to the local creek as Barbecue, confirming the name predates the Revolutionary War.

Barbecue was settled largely by Highland Scots who spoke Scottish Gaelic, and the community kept a strong Gaelic Presbyterian identity for generations.

Barbecue Presbyterian Church was founded in 1757 and formally organized in 1758 by the Reverend James Campbell, who became the first Presbyterian minister in North Carolina to accept a call and stay.

Barbecue Presbyterian Church famously never locks its doors — according to church tradition, an unknown traveler was found frozen to death at its locked door on a bitterly cold night in 1766, and he became the first person buried in the church cemetery.

Flora MacDonald, the Scottish heroine who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape after the Battle of Culloden, worshipped at Barbecue Church while living in North Carolina during colonial times.

Services at Barbecue Church were held partly in Scottish Gaelic until the end of the Civil War, and Barbecue became the 'mother church' for a number of Presbyterian congregations across the Harnett, Lee and Moore county area.