•PART ONE
Through the years a multitude of churches, and faiths, have been featured in this column. I have affinity for country churches representative of the people in the region where they are built. My coverage began with Mt. Hermon Baptist Church many moons ago. My paternal great-grandfather William "Billy" Frank Ellzey was the Church Clerk, serving in this capacity from January 1894 to September 1932.
I considered the history of Centenary Methodist Church where my mother spent much of her youth with her best friend Yvonne Stafford.
Momma's great-grandmother Sophronia Magee Brumfield, described by the church as a fervent Methodist, had been one of the earliest church members.
And I also have given extensive coverage to Holy Family Catholic Church, the church in which my husband was raised and where in the late 1980's I attended many a Mass, in all honesty in a failed attempt to ingratiate myself with family. Yes, I know --- a pretty poor reason for going to church, but I have heard of worse.
And so, with motherhood in the early 1990s came the urge to return to my own faith, and church. With Daddy a staunch Baptist, I was raised in First Baptist Church of Franklinton. But my family was by no means there every time the doors were open. We did not attend on Wednesday nights, except at Revival time, or Sunday nights. But I was routinely in Sunday School on Sunday morning, followed by what I continue to call "big church." And my father often led the Assembly for Sunday School for his age group, which at the time seemed quite mature. I later learned that one of those Sunday School classes promotes to Ellis (Cemetery).
The pastors of my youth were Dr. A. W. Robbins who had been called in 1949 and Dr. Jerry Barlow who took the reins in the summer of 1981, following Dr. Robbins's retirement the summer prior. Melodious music was owed to Music Director Ms. Jerry Dick, pianist Dr. Lois Wales, and organist Dr. Brian Fussell.
And spiritual education came courtesy of a serious line-up of Sunday School teachers and assembly leaders: "Aunt" Lil Pettit, Ms. Aline Smith, Ms. Irma Robbins, Ms. Beverly Young, Mr. Richard Morgan, and Mr. Griffith Johnson, among others. Our Sunday School was held in the original brick church building which, fronting Cleveland Street, was located on the north side of the present-day Sanctuary, and also in what was considered the new Educational Building (built in 1962), situated to the east of the Sanctuary.
Having expounded in the past on the Half-Moon Bluff Baptist Church, dating to 1812 and the first Baptist Church in Louisiana, I won't perseverate on its significant history. But organized in 1873 and located on the north side of Mile Branch, about a mile north of the church site we all know, First Baptist Church of Franklinton directly descends from the Half-Moon Bluff Baptist Church which eventually split into a number of churches including, but not limited to, First Baptist, Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, Clifton Baptist Church, Bogue Chitto Baptist Church, Jerusalem Baptist Church, and Hays Creek Baptist Church.
First Baptist Church's early organization came hand in hand with the formation of a school by Rev. William G. Stovall, who arrived here from an area east of Angie known as Ball Town. The church was initially known as the Mile Branch Baptist Church under Rev. Stovall's leadership. The frame church building was located on the property of Alfred Richardson who on February 26, 1876, gave the title to the property to the Mile Branch Baptist Church. Historian Zuma F. Magee together with Alma Waller Magee found the title in documents saved after the burning of the Washington Parish Courthouse in March of 1897. The following signatures were on said title: W. G. Stovall, Alfred Richardson, John Stringfield, John C. Foil, John W. Ward, and John K. McLain, as Recorder. According to his obituary, John M. Stringfield (1818-1894) was a charter member of the church. By 1881, it was known as Franklinton Baptist Church, according to Associational records. And it became part of the West Pearl River Baptist Association.
Rev. Stovall departed in 1878, dying the year following on the Coast. In 1887 the Franklinton Baptist Church, with fifty members, joined the Magee's Creek Baptist Association, withdrawing from the West Pearl River Baptist Association - hence, the strong Mississippi influence, people, pastors, and pastimes - on our church. Enlightened, I finally understood why my father, a native of Tylertown, was so comfortable in First Baptist of Franklinton.
It is not only the Mississippi influence that is interesting. It is First Baptist Church's original and continued ties to education. The church was formed together with a school. Early pastors were school teachers. So, the legion of teachers, principals, and school superintendents that have been at the core of the church come as no surprise.
One of the early pastors was Rev. William D. Bene who arrived in Franklinton in 1894-95 as a teacher at the Franklinton Central Institute. It was under his leadership that First Baptist began weekly Sunday services. And under Rev. Bene, the church joined together with six others to form the Union Baptist Association, eventually becoming the Washington Baptist Association. And this was the church's first, invaluable tie with the Louisiana Baptist Convention, founded in 1848.
Upon Rev. Bene's demise in 1896, another instructor at the Franklinton Central Institute - Rev. W. H. Williams - became pastor. And First Baptist Church moved to its present-day location, on the corner of Cleveland and Self Streets, in 1897.
The History Committee of the 125th Anniversary of the First Baptist Church, comprised of Lillie Mae Ford, Eric Fussell, Vicki Knight, Mildred Magee, Charline McElveen, and Carolyn McElveen, are owed credit for the valuable information contained in this series of columns, which derived from their terrific booklet, which my parents saved, published in 1998. Other than my own memory, their publication is my primary source.
