Alabama Baptist churches boom in 1830s; seven celebrate 175th anniversaries this year

Alabama Baptist churches boom in 1830s; seven celebrate 175th anniversaries this year

Elwood Sims said his church is just a “little church bypassed by progress.”

“We’ve seen better days,” said Sims, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, Tyler, in Selma Baptist Association.

Nonetheless, the hint of a proud smile appeared, and he started talking through the church’s rich history, quickly making it obvious that his church’s “better days” are part of what drove that progress along.

Over the course of 175 years, Bethany Baptist has produced a Southern Baptist Convention president, many state convention leaders, a Harvard professor and planters of churches now large in size and scope. Sims listed one name after the other of influential people, all of whom had once been members of Bethany.

And though it is small in number now, the Bethany congregation is still active, meeting in the original wood-frame building built in 1850 for $2,500 by settlers from South Carolina.

“I have no idea how many members have come and gone over the past 175 years,” Sims said. “But I do know many have gone out from here to do great things.”

Bethany is one of seven Alabama Baptist churches celebrating their 175th anniversary this year. The number signifies a boom in Baptist churches at a time when the state was nothing but “clean air and forest,” according to Frances Hamilton, executive director of the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission (ABHC).

Around 1814, the first big wave of pioneers from the Carolinas and Georgia began moving across the country.
Many stopped in Alabama, settled and began building churches, Hamilton said. “They literally had to clear a path through the wilderness to build their churches,” she said, noting that Alabama had only just become a state in 1819. “They were pioneer people indeed.”

Ernest Fike, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church, Clanton, in Chilton Baptist Association, agreed that times were interesting when his church was born. “Andrew Jackson was president. There was good farmland, plenty of flowing water and lots of trees.”

And in the middle of peach and cattle country, settlers built Shiloh Baptist and started a cemetery.

“When a church has been there this long and has a cemetery, that means many, many people have family buried there,” Fike said. “A lot of people in the county have a heritage there at the church.”

And a lot of people in the country do, too, it seems. “We have a lot of visitors from all over. It’s seldom that I’m there and someone doesn’t swing through the cemetery to put flowers on a grave or look for a relative’s headstone as they work on their family tree,” he said.

There may be larger churches, names that are better recognized than his church’s, Fike said. “But there are very few with as long and as rich a heritage as Shiloh.”

Because of this impact, rural Shiloh packed out its sanctuary with more than three times its normal attendance at its anniversary celebration April 30.

Nanafalia Baptist Church in Bethel Baptist Association drew a crowd April 9 for the birthday party held for the church.

“We had a really great day. We set up a table with old photos and memorabilia to remember old times,” said Helen Ramsey, a member of Nanafalia Baptist for 40 years. “We’re an old church and a lot has changed over the years. At one point, our church had a fence around it to keep the cows and goats out.”

The early birthdates of these mainstay churches paint fascinating pictures of pioneer days for the younger generations. But they also cause some difficulty in marking exact beginnings — Camden Baptist Church in Pine Barren Baptist Association can attest to that.

Camden Baptist was born out of the beginnings of Wilcox County, when pioneer Baptists met in old buildings, country stores and settlers’ homes. But in the midst of its endearing, rugged start, founders neglected to leave concrete records of a birthdate behind.

A sign on one of Camden Baptist’s early buildings read “Established in 1831,” and records indicate the congregation celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1931. Because of this, the church registered 1831 as its founding date with the ABHC.

Other than that evidence, Will Philpot, minister of music and lifelong resident of Camden, said he has no records to validate that date, but rather several documents that seem to contradict that as the church’s date of origin.

“I find it odd that the other churches who joined to make up the new Pine Barren Association all came from other associations, but there is no mention that Camden Baptist Church was a member anywhere else,” Philpot said. “If it had been an established church for 19 years, you would think they would have affiliated with the closest association, as had all the other churches.”

Safford Baptist Church in Selma Association has a similar discrepancy in its records. “The history I have says the church began as Concord Baptist Church in 1832 — that’s when the minutes supposedly began,” said Pastor John Huelskoetter.

But the 1831 date the church has registered at the ABHC suggests that paperwork exists elsewhere that validates this year as its septaquintaquinquecentennial, or 175th anniversary. “We’ll be celebrating (one way or the other) soon. We have a lot of people who are very much interested in our church’s history,” Huelskoetter said.

Its contemporary in Pleasant Grove Baptist Association — Big Hurricane Baptist Church, Brookwood — is basing its Sept. 24, 2006, celebration date on oral tradition.

“Based on what we’ve found in our research and on oral tradition, it was 1831 — but it could have been earlier,” said John Scott, pastor of Big Hurricane Baptist. “Some records that suggest they might have been meeting as early as 1829.”

During its celebration, the church is planning to recognize a couple of member families who are descendents of the original congregation, plus unveil a historical marker outside the current church building.

“The old painted white church building as we know it once sat in the middle of the road — the dirt road ran around it on either side,” Scott said. The building has since been moved back off the road, was bricked and remodeled and is being used as youth worship space. A new sanctuary built in 2002 with the old building’s steeple on top now hosts worshipers on Sundays.

Although its location and facilities have changed, Scott said he hopes the church is still as central to the community as it was when it stood in the middle of the road. “We’re really excited about it. We are inviting former members, and we hope that members of the community will come, too,” he said.

Kathryn Kendrick said her church — First Baptist Church, Ashville — is central to her community as well, sitting not in the middle of the road but rather in the middle of town.

Its strong impact, she said, has come from coupling the church’s commitment to truth with its receptivity to change, said Kendrick, a member of the St. Clair Baptist Association church for 20 years.

First, Ashville — led by Pastor James Sampley — now averages 240 on a Sunday morning, up from the 100 or so it averaged for years.

“The Lord has started answering prayers unbelievably,” Kendrick said. “The new (members) and the old ones have been open to change, and we’ve seen the Lord’s work grow here. It’s fantastic.”