During the years when Bucklesberry had no local church, evidence suggests community residents worshipped at the original Bear Creek Meeting House. As the only established church in the area, albeit some ten miles away, it certainly was not "local." Bear Creek Church's new building, however, was a bit closer for Bucklesberrians. Located directly by the railroad where the old depot formerly stood in Moseley Hall township (now La Grange), the new Church building was completed and dedicated in 1857, which, interestingly, was only three years before Hickory Grove Church was built in Bucklesberry in 1860.

Before Hickory Grove Church was built in 1860, and decades before their congregation was established, Bucklesberry had no local church. The few options available were miles away and required long commutes. In his 1810 profile of the physical and social infrastructure of Lenoir County, former Kinston Commissioner John Washington (1767-1827) noted there were only a handful of organized churches at the time, which in his words included:

Historically significant, Hickory Grove is the first local church built in Bucklesberry. A forty-six page book (see https://t.ly/KUxSv), written by church members, affirmed Hickory Grove's original building was initially constructed in 1860 and bricked a century later in 1964:

The landscape of Bucklesberry has changed dramatically since the beginning of its colonization in 1720-1730. Notably, there are considerably fewer wooden clapboard and lap siding structures, although they were commonplace in the South for several centuries. The countryside today is speckled with farm buildings finished mostly with laminate veneer, vinyl, or metal siding.

Digitally archived land records have recently come to light that unequivocally confirm that the settlement of the Bucklesberry area began in the early 1700s. A total of 131 deeds and surveys dated 1729 to 1759 prove Bucklesberry was opened for colonization fully a century before the traditionally held year of 1825.