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Dawson Links
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Light in the Valley: Chapter 1
Authors: Ray M. Atchison and Doris Teague Atchison
Beginnings:
Samuel L. Heath 1920 Early Baptist Churches in Alabama Long before a small group organized Edgewood Baptist Church in 1920, Baptists had been active in other sections of the state; and they had consistently followed a pattern. Whenever a few families moved into a pioneering community, one of their first priorities was organizing a church for the purpose of worship, fellowship, and perpetuating their beliefs. The first Baptist church established in Alabama was the Flint River Church, constituted on October 2, 1808, at the home of James Deaton, a few miles northeast of Huntsville. John Nicholson was the pastor; and later this church became associated with the Primitive Baptists. In South Alabama by 1810 Baptists were numerous enough to launch their first church in that region, Bassett’s Creek in Clarke County. It was constituted by John Courtney on March 31 with Joseph McGhee as pastor. It has a continuous history and today is a strong rural church. Once settlers had filed into the valleys of the Black Warrior and Cahaba rivers they, too, began to erect houses of worship. Jones Valley, Jefferson County Apparently the first white settler to locate in the area known today as Jones Valley, stretching from Bessemer to Pinson, was John “Devil” Jones, a native of Tennessee. He staked his claim in 1815 in the area of present-day Bessemer four years before Alabama became a state. Other farmers discovered the fertile soil and came in record numbers for the next few years. By 1820 the census listed the population of Jefferson County as 4,114, including 707 slaves. However, it was not until after the Civil War had ended in 1865 that Jones Valley experienced a massive influx. The discovery that Red Mountain iron ore could be smelted with coke made from coal mined in the region changed the economy after the 1880’s from rural to industrial. The focus of this burgeoning activity was the “magic” city of Birmingham, chartered in 1871. Jefferson County in 1890 boasted a population of 900,000, an increase of 80,000 from only thirty years earlier. This population explosion in Jones Valley was well reflected in the numerous churches organized by Christians of various persuasions, especially Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. Two ministers, Sion Blythe and Hosea Holcombe, led the way in constituting Baptist churches in this area. Blythe helped to establish three, and possibly four, of the earliest churches. It is thought that he established the now-extinct Enon Baptist Church of Pinson Valley, which was first in the area now encompassed by the Birmingham Baptist Association. He had previously organized, in March 1817, Mt. Zion, which is the present-day Springville Baptist Church. On September 5, 1818, Blythe helped constitute Canaan Baptist Church and on July 14, 1821, the Cahaba (now Trussville). Canaan, located in Bessemer, is the oldest continuous church in Jefferson County. It was organized in the home of Isaac Brown near Elyton. At first the members met in homes and then in the Jonesboro School. Hosea Holcombe, an early Alabama Baptist leader and historian, moved from South Carolina to Jefferson County in 1818 and on March 27, 1819, founded Ruhama Baptist Church in the East Lake section of Jones Valley. In September of that year he founded Hebron Baptist Church near Leeds. In September 1822 he was the prime mover in founding Bethel (later Rock Creek) in western Jefferson County. In 1821, he became pastor of the Canaan church where he served until his death on July 31, 1841. The common bond of fellowship and unity of aims in advancing the Gospel motivated these and other pioneer churches to group themselves into associations. By 1823, the date the Alabama Baptist State Convention was organized at Salem Church in Greensboro, Baptists of Alabama had formed at least eight associations. The earliest Baptist churches in Jefferson County belonged to the Cahaba (first spelled Cahawba) Association, which was composed of churches from these counties: Bibb, Greene, Hale, Jefferson, Perry, and Tuscaloosa. In 1833 the Canaan Baptist Association was formed in Jefferson County and in 1890 changed its name to the Birmingham Baptist Association. A Significant Celebration On Sunday, September 11, 1983, the Association celebrated its 150 years of service to the churches of the Birmingham area with festivities at Samford University. The activities commemorating this significant anniversary began in the afternoon at the football field with an old fashioned ice cream supper, cutting a huge cake, giving prizes for the best costume (replete with mustache and beard), viewing a panorama of churches, and listening to “old timey singing” and barbershop quartets. In the evening the celebrants and guests moved to the Leslie S. Wright Fine Arts Center to view a video presentation of the Birmingham Baptist Association at work and to enjoy historical highlights presented in drama by the Rev. Bob Curlee. After a musical feature, Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs, native Alabamian and distinguished Southern Baptist leader, delivered a stirring challenge to the assembly to continue with fervor the work begun by their associational forefathers. Shades Valley While Jones Valley was experiencing phenomenal growth stimulated by the commercial boom, the vast tract of land over Red Mountain to the south, Shades Valley, was slow to develop. The origin of the name Shades Valley has led to much speculation. Fanna K. Bee and Lee N. Allen’s explanation, based upon careful research, seems plausible:
In 1886 the Clifton Land Company attempted unsuccessfully to develop in Shades Valley a town to be named Clifton. It was designed to form a triangle with Birmingham and Bessemer. Three years later the company reorganized as South Birmingham Land Company and sold inexpensive lots (maximum $50.00) to Negroes, who settled in the community of Rosedale. They were mainly domestics who walked in trails over the mountain to their work in Southside. In the early 1900’s a few white families built summer homes near the present site of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church. In 1909 two entrepreneurs, Stephen Smith and Troupe Brazleton, formed the Edgewood Highlands Land Company, purchased a large tract of land southwest of Rosedale, and promoted the development of Edgewood Highlands and a number of other subdivisions in the Edgewood area. Smith built for himself during 1909-1910 a large, imposing home on Knob Circle directly across the street in front of today’s Dawson Memorial Baptist Church. In 1920 he sold this house to John A. Coker, a longtime officer of the Birmingham Paper Company. This property and the Cokers were destined to play a major role in the history of Edgewood Baptist Church. Earliest access to Shades Valley from Jones Valley required almost a day’s journey on dusty, unpaved roads either around Red Mountain through Irondale or by Green Springs Road through Walker’s Gap. In order to make this land more easily accessible from Birmingham, the developers began constructing the Edgewood Electric Railway, which was completed in 1911 at a cost of approximately $150,000.00. The roadbed for this railway required a deep cut of seventy-two feet in Red Mountain at Lone Pine Gap near the site where the statue of Vulcan now stands. This streetcar rumbled over Red Mountain and wound its way to Edgewood Lake before returning to Birmingham. Its line ran through Rosedale, down Central and Manhattan avenues, turned at Winkler Avenue (now Evergreen Street) to Oxmoor Road, and then followed Broadway to the lake where the spacious Edgewood Country Club was located. When the trolley outlived its usefulness, a project was begun during World War II to use the tracks for scrap metal. Since it proved financially prohibitive to tear out the old tracks, they were covered over in 1968 when Broadway was resurfaced. Before World War I much of the now heavily populated area between the present Green Springs Highway and U.S. Highway 31 was virtually undeveloped other than small patches cleared for farming and mining. There were several dairies, and since there was no stock law the cattle roamed freely. The citizens who lived in the subdivision being developed by the Edgewood Highlands Land Company voted on June 12, 1920, to establish the town of Edgewood. Dr. John T. Callaway was an early mayor. The residents were so annoyed by the wandering animals that the Council’s first ordinance prohibited owners from allowing any “horse, ...mule, goat, cow, or any animal of the cow kind” to roam at large. Apparently, this ordinance had little immediate effect. In an inter-view, J. M. Ward stated that in September 1920 when he became the first principal of Shades Cahaba High School (now Shades Cahaba Elementary School), a wire fence had to be erected around the grounds to keep the cows from eating the shrubbery and crushing the flowers. The stately oaks standing today beside the Shades Cahaba building were only small twigs when planted by Ward in the early 1920’s. Grove Park Another community that developed in Shades Valley was named Grove Park and located north of Oxmoor Road and east of the Edge-wood town limit. This subdivision had been surveyed in 1911 by the North Edgewood Land Company; but the home sites had not been sold until the Shepherd Sloss Realty Company promoted the development in 1923. The citizens organized the Grove Park Civic Association and considered annexation by the town of Edgewood. However, it was not until September 20, 1926, that the property owners of Edgewood voted to include Rosedale and Grove Park within its boundaries and change the name to Homewood at the suggestion of Judge Charles E. Rice, the mayor. In that year, Trinity Methodist Church chose to re-locate in Grove Park from its former home on Clairmont Avenue in Southside Birmingham. Hollywood Like Smith and Brazleton, Clyde Nelson also envisioned an over-the-mountain community which he began to develop in 1924 near Shades Cahaba High School. Hollywood was highly advertised as an independent community designed to attract the elite. The arresting ads invited prospective buyers to escape “Out of the smoke zone, into the O-zone.” Hollywood incorporated in 1926 with Clarence Lloyd as its first and only mayor. The neophyte city soon realized that it needed the municipal services and financial benefits that Homewood could provide and thus was incorporated into Homewood in 1929. Early Edgewood Churches Although the few Baptist families living in Edgewood before 1920 had no church of their own, they were welcomed at the Edgewood Presbyterian Church, the first and for a number of years the only church in the immediate vicinity. Choices were limited for Baptists. They could negotiate the narrow, dusty roads and attend churches in the country; ride the trolley into Birmingham to First Baptist (1872), Norwood (1885), or Southside Baptist Church (1886), or attend the nearby Presbyterian Church located on the corner of Peerless Avenue and Oxmoor Road. Edgewood Presbyterian Church was formed in 1912 through a merger of the Oak Grove and Rosedale Cumberland Presbyterian churches. In 1919 it changed its name to the Edgewood Community Church and invited all local residents to participate in worship if they were not convenient to their own churches. There would be no fear of pressure to join. In 1928 the church resumed its former name, for by that date other denominations had been established within a close proximity. In addition to Edgewood Baptist, which had reorganized in 1925, the neighborhood now included Trinity United Methodist (1926) and All Saints’ Episcopal (1928) as choices for newcomers to Shades Valley. The Founding of Edgewood Baptist Church, 1920
One night while the Callaways were attending a prayer service at the Edgewood Community Church an offering was taken toward the construction of a manse. Dr. Callaway leaned over and whispered to Mrs. Callaway, “I gave $50.00 and would have given $500.00 if the collection had been for a Baptist Church.” Thereupon, said Mrs. Callaway, she got busy trying to find enough Baptists in the vicinity to organize a church. At the Callaways’ invitation to interested Baptist families these five people joined them to organize the Edgewood Baptist Church in January 1920 in their home on St. Charles Street: Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Dismukes, Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm Phillipp Hildenbrand, and Lucy Dismukes. The first meeting of the Edgewood Baptist Church was sponsored by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) through the Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA). The newly-elected and first Superintendent of Missions of the BBA, Dr. F. H. Farrington, preached the sermon at this meeting; and the seven listed above came forward as charter members. A few others joined later, but the records of their names have not been preserved. Dr. Callaway and Hildenbrand were elected trustees; Mrs. Callaway, treasurer; and Hildenbrand, Sunday School superintendent.
J. B. Dismukes was a rural mail carrier who made his rounds in a horse-drawn buggy. His family had moved over the mountain close to his route, which included Edgewood, Rocky Ridge, New Merkle, and Irondale. Later their daughter, Lucy, returned to the Twenty-Seventh Street Baptist Church as pianist at the invitation of the pastor, Dr. J. O. Colley, Sr. W. P. Hildenbrand, a grocer, like many other settlers to follow, had chosen Edgewood for its wooded rural setting as an ideal place for rearing children.
The organization of the Edgewood Baptist Church was officially recorded in the minutes of the Birmingham Baptist Association meeting in its 87th Session, September 7-8, 1920. Farrington reported that two churches, Edgewood Baptist and Republic, had been organized during the year. Edgewood Baptist listed a building budget of $5,500.00. Shortly after its organizational meeting, Edgewood’s members launched efforts to acquire property upon which to erect a church building. Two lots on Oxmoor Road east of St. Charles Street were purchased. On March 10, 1920, a warranty deed was executed by the Edgewood Land Company conveying to J. T. Callaway and W. P. Hildenbrand, trustees, Lots 5 and 6, Block J. Samuel L. Heath, Edgewood Baptist Church’s First Pastor
At the time that Heath became the first pastor of Edgewood Baptist Church he was a veteran of World War I in his late twenties and a ministerial student at Howard College. Later, he was very active in campus activities. For example, in 1921 he was president of the Divinity Club and was elected twice, 1922 and 1923, president of the student body. Dr. Brady Justice, a classmate of Heath’s at Howard College and later at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, described him as very personable:
While attending the seminary Heath married Lois Caldwell of Ensley, Alabama, a student at the WMU Training School. After graduation he served as pastor at various times of churches in Guntersville, Hartselle, and Lanett and was elected to a number of offices in the state Baptist convention. During the last year of his life he suffered ill health, the result of injuries sustained in World War I, and died on January 29, 1940, at the age of forty-nine. He is buried in Hartselle, Alabama. The First Interim
In 1920 a recession which struck the nation lasted for the next few years. The Edgewood community did not develop rapidly during 1920-1923, explained Mrs. Callaway, because the people who had purchased lots for $10.00 down and $5.00 a month could not afford to build their houses. Commercial and other ventures were on hold until the cloud of recession could be lifted. The economic downturn had temporarily impeded the influx of settlers into Shades Valley. However, the group remained confident of a future for their church as evidenced by their continued tithing and saving. In five years they had paid for Lots 5 and 6 and had accumulated $3,500.00 in cash.
The Baptist Woman’s Band (BWB)
Before 1993 an authentic history establishing the above dates of the BWB and the WMS could not have been written because the earliest records were not available to researchers. In that year, however, Annie Laura Burton (Mrs. Gene) found the record book of the first secretary’s minutes among the papers of her mother, the late Mrs. Robert Page. According to the preserved record book of the Baptist Woman’s Band, these were the nine members at the group’s organizational meeting: Mrs. W. J. Broughton (Elsie), Mrs. J. T. Callaway, Mrs. J. A. Coker, Mrs. Collins, Mrs. W. P. Hildenbrand, Mrs. Reese, Mrs. Smith, and Mrs. W. C. Sterrett. The following is a list of other members of the Baptist Woman’s Band whose names were recorded 1921-1925 by the group’s secretaries: Mrs. N. M. Arnheim, Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Balderson, Mrs. Broadnax, Mrs. Busby, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. L. H. Cullen, Mrs. Doster, Mrs. M. W. Fergu-son, Mrs. J. E. French, Mrs. M. Hardwick, Mrs. J. H. Holmes, Mrs. W. J. Horsley, Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Inscho, Mrs. Jackson, Mrs. E. C. Jenkins, Mrs. L. E. Jenkins, Mrs. John Marcason, Theory Mathis, Mrs. George B. Miller, Mrs. B. E. Mims, Mrs. M. D. Mims, Mrs. Morrison, Mrs. A. S. Outland, Mrs. L. C. Owens, Mrs. P. R. Owens, Mrs. F. S. Papot, Mrs. Powell, Mrs. W. I. Pittman, Mrs. Ransom, Mrs. C. B. Ratliff, Mrs. Reed, Mrs. Sharples, Mrs. Sothe, Mrs. Clarence B. Stamps, Mrs. W. C. Taylor, Mrs. Tollett, and Mrs. B. T. Watson. These are the earliest members of the Woman’s Missionary Society (1925): Mrs. Claude Billing, Mrs. W. J. Broughton, Mrs. J. T. Callaway, Mrs. Will Campbell (Maude), Mrs. J. A. Coker, Mrs. L. O. Dawson, Mrs. David Ferguson, Mrs. J. E. French, Mrs. S. A. French, Mrs. W. P. Hildenbrand, Mrs. J. H. Holmes, Mrs. W. J. Horsley, Mrs. M. C. McDermott, Mrs. George B. McVay, Mrs. John Marcason, Mrs. George B. Miller, Mrs. W. F. Mims, Mrs. A. S. Outland, Mrs. F. S. Papot, Mrs. H. T. Parrish, Mrs. W. I. Pittman, Mrs. C. B. Stamps, Mrs. T. M. Steen, Mrs. W. C. Sterrett, Mrs. W. C. Taylor, Mrs. Binion C. Waller, and Mrs. J. M. Ward. At the initial meeting of the Baptist Woman’s Band in 1921 a constitution and bylaws were adopted setting forth the name of the organization and listing these officers: Mrs. J. A. Coker, president; Mrs. W. C. Sterrett, secretary; and Mrs. Reece, treasurer. The object of the Band, stated the constitution, was “to promote the spiritual and social welfare of its members and to foster personal service and missionary spirit.” The ladies decided to elect officers every three months. The following presidents were elected in succeeding years: Mrs. J. A. Coker and Mrs. Collins (1921), Mrs. J. A. Coker (1922), Mrs. Doster, Mrs. W. C. Sterrett, and Mrs. L. T. Wyers (1923), Mrs. Reese and Mrs. L. T. Wyers (1924), and Mrs. J. A. Coker (1925). In alphabetical order members of the BWB were scheduled to entertain in their homes. In reverse alphabetical order they were scheduled to “scotch,” a term used in their minutes--that is, to have charge of the devotional and program. Later they agreed to hold most of their meetings in Mrs. Coker’s spacious and conveniently located home on Knob Circle unless they were specifically invited to meet in others. This early Band engaged in many activities and became the model for the WMS groups that followed. The secretaries faithfully recorded their numerous ways of helpfulness, including these examples: pur-chased linens for the Baptist Orphanage at Troy; sent money to an orphanage; had a spend-the-day party to make gowns for the orphanage; gave sheets and money to the orphanage; gave a Christmas tree to the charity ward at Hillman Hospital, Birmingham; sent flowers in sympathy; wrote notes of sympathy to the sick and bereaved in Hillman Hospital; gave a bathrobe to an aged minister in North Birmingham; held a doll bazaar and sold jelly, preserves, and canned peaches; looked after people with new babies; sent a little gift to baby Glen Jenkins (later Mrs. Louis Dabney); helped in Kiddie Camp work and gave fresh vegetables every Friday; visited and reported on progress of the little church in Oak Grove and the Baptist Church of Shades Valley; in 1923 visited Oak Grove Baptist Church five times. In June 1924 Mrs. Sterrett started a weekly Bible study at her home and invited all members to attend. Building Fund
In December 1921 the Baptist Woman’s Band elected Mrs. Callaway treasurer of their building fund. All collections over $5.00 a month were to be placed into this fund. At the April 1923 meeting the secretary recorded: “It was made known that a meeting once a year was to be held on the Baptist property to prevent payment of taxes, and [it] was decided that we hold a circle of prayer on the lots… After the program we went down on the lots, held prayer, and were dismissed.”
Realization of a Dream By 1924 the nation’s economy was in gear again and more people had moved into Shades Valley. In October of that year a committee of the Woman’s Band was appointed to take a census of Baptists in Edgewood. Their glowing report of 110 was the impetus for a Baptist rally held on December 5, 1924, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Cokers’ home. The favorable response to this rally led to a revitalization of the church. On Sunday afternoon April 5, 1925, a group of Baptists in Edgewood met at the home of the Cokers and revived Edgewood Baptist Church. Dr. and Mrs. Callaway, leaders of the 1925 group and representing the group of 1920, promised to the new trustees the deed to Lots 5 and 6 plus $3,500.00 which had been accumulated during the preceding years. Church and legal records indicate that Dawson Memorial Baptist Church can trace its history to the year 1920 despite the fact that the cornerstone has etched for posterity the year 1925. Also, much of the literature produced throughout the decades, including reports submitted by the church to the association and state conventions, continues to list 1925. However, there is no record in the minutes of the Birmingham Baptist Association that the Edgewood Baptist Church founded in 1920 was ever disbanded, or that a new Edgewood Baptist Church was founded. Furthermore, there was not a new deed issued to transfer Lots 5 and 6, Block J, from the Edgewood Baptist Church to the re-organized Edgewood Baptist Church of 1925. In addition, it was necessary for the trustees of 1920, Dr. J. T. Callaway and W. P. Hildenbrand, to sign a “waiver of notice” consenting to a resolution adopted by the membership of 1925 authorizing the trustees, Dr. J. T. Callaway, J. A. Coker, G. W. Garner, C. B. Stamps, and Hugh P. Walthall, to incur an indebtedness and to execute notes and a mortgage on Lots 5 and 6 in Block J and all future improvements thereon. Therefore, the Edgewood Baptist Church (1920) and the Edgewood Baptist Church (1925) are one and the same legal entity. A Reasonable Conclusion The members of 1920 could be called the generating, founding, or charter members of Edgewood Baptist Church. Rightfully, those of 1925 also referred to themselves as charter members. To be sure, in any final consideration or assessment it is not semantics that is most important but the fact that both groups, 1920 and 1925, were engaged in the Lord’s work and attempting to reach people in Shades Valley for Christ. The first group, certainly, deserves much recognition for posterity, especially the women of the Baptist Woman’s Band, for these staunch and dedicated leaders did stake a claim and cleared the way for those who followed. In fact, a number of them were among the core group that initiated the church’s second launching in 1925.
Light in the Valley History of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church Ray M. Atchison and Doris Teague Atchison
Copyright 1999
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When any institution is founded, there are foremost the leaders who sound the call for and inspire followers. Dr. and Mrs. John T. Callaway were the energizers in launching Edgewood Baptist Church in 1920. How God’s spirit worked its will in their lives is a fascinating story. Callaway, a native of Chilton County, Alabama, was a first-year medical student in Birmingham when he met Frances Nora “Fannie” Haggard at a meeting of the Baptist Young People’s Union. Miss Haggard was born in Tennessee, but her family had moved to Birmingham and she was at that time working in the Jefferson County Court House. Their encounter led to friendship, love, and eventually to marriage. The couple decided to build their home in the Edgewood community at 102 St. Charles Street and thus became numbered among the community’s earliest settlers.
Farrington assisted the group in selecting a part-time pastor, Samuel L. Heath, who was ordained at the Callaways’ home. Sunday School was scheduled for Sunday afternoons and preaching services were held on Sunday evenings. Heath’s ministry began in January 1920 and continued through May 1920, when he returned to his home at Equality, Alabama. He was paid $l0.00 a month for preaching.
Even though the Sunday School and worship services of the Edgewood Baptist Church lay dormant for almost five years, the spark that kept the church alive was the women’s missionary group. On June 3, 1921, a group of Baptist women met at the home of Mrs. W. C. Sterrett at 314 Sterrett Avenue and organized the Baptist Woman’s Band of Edgewood. The Band had continuous meetings from June 3, 1921, until April 1, 1925. Then, according to their secretary’s minutes for April 20, 1925, “The Baptist Woman’s Band of Edgewood held a called meeting at the home of Mrs. J. A. Coker for the purpose of organizing the Woman’s Missionary Society (WMS) of the Edgewood Baptist Church.”