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From: "Pat Creel" <>
Subject: [CREEL-MS] Union Baptist, new pastor, A. J. Creel 1908
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:33:57 -0800


copied - new pastor, A. J. Creel
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008809130320
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com




September 13, 2008

Union Baptist recounts history, prepares to celebrate future

By NOAH SANFORD

The year was 1908. Without automobiles, more people lived near the city, yet
nearly everyone had at least a few farm animals and farmland, as agriculture
was king.

Nearing 17,000, Covington County's population was higher than it was in
1990, and Mississippi's population was more than double that of Florida.
Edmond Favor Noel was governor of Mississippi, and there was a hotly
contested Presidential race between William Jennings Bryan and William
Howard Taft to succeed President Teddy Roosevelt.

In the Foxtrot community south of Seminary, however, there became a need for
a place of worship for several families who called the area home. On Sept.
21, 1908, 10 people met on the Walton Schoolhouse steps to fulfill that need
and organize a church.

Now, 100 years later, the Union church family will celebrate the its
centennial celebration at 10 a.m. Sept. 21.

Church history

The 10 charter members - Allen and Mary Ann Bryant, Jonas Bryant, Rheuben
Bryant, W. W. and Mahala Lott, T. J. and Elizabeth Norris and John M. and
Melvina Mooney - decided to meet in the only location that was not someone's
residence, the Walton Schoolhouse, an institution which had begun as a
one-room log cabin around 1850 on the George Walton farm.

Several families lived in the Foxtrot community, including the Waltons,
Norrises, Bryants, Mooneys, Lotts, Triggs, Ingrams, Dearmans and Fairchilds,
and the small church grew quickly. W.W. Lott and T.J. Norris were chosen as
the church's first deacons, and Jonas F. Bryant was elected as church clerk.
After prayerful consideration, the church was named Union Baptist, and the
Rev. I.L. Stone was called as pastor.

The first revival, then known as a protracted meeting, was held in August
1909 with the Rev. A. A. Bryant as guest speaker. The next month, the first
baptismal service was held in the Okatoma River at the old Ingram Bridge
where nine were baptized. Also in 1909, Union voted to join the Pearl-Leaf
Baptist Association.

The Rev. Stone resigned in 1914, and it is recorded that the new pastor, A.
J. CREEL was paid $100 per year, equivalent to $2,200 today.

By the early 1920s, when the Walton School burned, both the school and
church moved into a larger building at the corner of what is now Union
Church and Marson Trigg roads. The new building became known as Foxtrot
School, which was named after the community, a thickly wooded rural area
that was home to many foxes. Around the same time, Union began using a song
leader.

Many today know Union Baptist as Union South Baptist Church. That change
came about in July 1928. Another Union Baptist Church joined the
association; so, in order to avoid confusion, the churches were referred to
as Union Junior (located north of Collins) and Union Senior. Union Senior
eventually became known as Union South, and Union Junior as Union North.

During the Great Depression, the early 1930s, members of the church were on
a mission - to have a building of their own. Many trees were donated, and
men of the church gathered with their own mules, wagons, crosscut saws and
axes to cut the trees.

The trees were taken to Sumrall to be cut into lumber and then transported
back to two acres of land purchased in 1921, a site directly across from the
present church's site.

Members worked to construct the first sanctuary and permanent building,
which now serves as the children's wing. On July 30, 1933, the new church
was dedicated.

Sign of the times

The 1940s brought many changes for the church. Sunday school began, services
were held biweekly, the building was wired for electricity and painted, and
Sunday school classrooms were constructed. Members with salaries donated
money and farmers donated certain portions of their crops with the agreement
that other members would help gather the crops. When bills were unable to be
paid, the deacons anonymously paid the difference.

In the 1950s, the church voted to end the one-year limit on pastors, hire
pastors full time, build a pastorium and a new sanctuary, divide the old
sanctuary into classrooms and brick the outside walls.

On Aug. 4, 1963, Union met to dedicate the church building debt-free.

In 1973, the church voted to build a more contemporary pastorium, replacing
the one built 20 years earlier.

After a decade of growth, a fellowship hall, kitchen, pastor's office and
classrooms were added in 1990.

Recently, in preparation for the centennial, members painted the sanctuary,
Sunday school rooms and fellowship hall, as well as installed flooring and
carpet and recovered pews.

Over the past 100 years, Union Baptist Church has experienced 38 pastors, 38
deacons, 21 music ministers, and 15 student ministers. The church currently
has more than 500 members and is growing.

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