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The Historic Church Photographs Project By Bob Crouch and Joe Harrington |
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THE Marion Junction United Methodist Church 1888
On December 17, 1888 in the two-story Marion Junction schoolhouse Rev.
Marvin Peterson was in Dallas County to preside over the very first
meeting of the Marion Junction Methodist Episcopal Church South. Peterson was a professor from nearby Southern University at
Greensboro in Hale County. Southern
University later moved to Birmingham, merged with Birmingham College to
become the beloved Alabama educational gem now known as Birmingham
Southern College, one of the academic elite in higher education circles in
Alabama.
Marion Junction Methodist Episcopal Church South seemed well planned for
it busily began organizing, recruiting members for the new church and
seeking a building site. The
Board of Extension contributed $200 for the new church in 1890 and for
only $50 the Randall family sold a lot (210’ X 105’) to be used to
construct a church building. The
deed for this lot was dated March 6, 1891.
There were 38 charter members including the Randalls as well as
several other pioneer families including;
Smith, Bell, Ray, Moore, Spears, Gilmore, Hanner and Jemison.
The first church building was a simple square building containing a single
room and heated with a pot-bellied stove.
In 1907, sparks from the Old stove landed on the wooden shingled
roof one Sunday following services and caught fire. A bucket brigade of
members and neighbors quickly extinguished the fire and saved the church
from extensive damage. There
was some damage. During the
construction to repair the damaged roof, the church leadership decided to
move the entrance so an expansion was added to the north side and a new
north entrance replaced the former west entrance.
By 1910 the first of four major expansions took place. Five Sunday school classrooms were constructed and soon there
were 37 scholars filling these new rooms.
These Sunday school classes collected money each Sunday ranging
from as low as one cent to forty-nine cents in each class that averaged
about 16 cents a week. In
1911 Marion Junction evidently shared a circuit-riding preacher with
nearby Orville and Pine Belt. Marion
Junction’s share in paying the $1,200 annual preacher’s salary was
$696.
In 1915 the Women’s Missionary Society was organized at the church.
The name was changed to better describe the work of the women and
this group became the Women’s Society of Christian Service.
They added other duties to their missionary support.
At Marion Junction the women’s group took on the refurbishing the
1918 house that was purchased to become the church parsonage. In 1952 they
raised funds for a church piano and later an organ. Their society was
somewhat unique for it had a male member in the person of W. R. Randall.
The pastor was an honorary member.
In 1925 Rev. H. M. Ellis helped spearhead the second expansion.
Another three Sunday School Rooms were added and the pulpit and
choir loft were moved from the east side to the south side in front of the
new Sunday school rooms. Handy
in the workshop, Rev. Ellis personally built the U-shape tables and the
chairs for the new Nursery. These
same articles are in use today, some 89+ years later.
A decade or so later in 1953-54, a new foundation was laid and a large
dividable Sunday school room constructed.
Rest rooms and a kitchen were also built.
The church was rewired and new lights were available for the
sanctuary and choir loft. Rev. Don Marietta Jr. organized a Youth
Fellowship. Girl Scouts
and Cub Scouts were also organized at the church. In 1959 a lot was given
to the church by Randall family. This
made possible the addition of a hall and four additional classrooms on the
church’s southside.
In 2006, Marion Junction United Methodist Church had a membership of 21
but was still most active. Rev.
Tom Rimmer has led the church as its pastor since 2001.
The church had another refurbishing, foundation shoring, painting
and repair project in 2003. Thus,
this beautiful wooden building is safe, sound and secure for other
generations of worshipers at Marion Junction, AL.
Among their current 21 members are several pioneer members whose
age exceeds ninety. A. F. Colley is perhaps the church’s oldest member
and two retired Methodist ministers, Arthur Carlton and James Farrow, are
counted among the membership.
Mabel Caley Kelly Carlton joined the Marion Junction church as a
four-year-old little girl. She
was most active in the church and was the church pianist until they got an
organ and she began playing the organ in the fifties.
Now, over 90, Mabel Carlton continues to play the organ for the
Marion Junction United Methodist Church.
In May of 2006, Mabel Carlton wrote this history of the
118-year-old Dallas County Church on Church Street just off U. S. Highway
80 and she also heads a current church fund raising project. ******************** Robert H. Couch and Joe Harrington Enduring
Spiritual Legacies 1007 Felton Lane, Auburn, AL 36830 (334) 887-7348 Please send us the history of your 19th century wooden church in the Alabama West Florida Methodist Conference. .
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