A Growing Church 

Chapter VII

By 1903, H. M. Garnett had become pastor and membership had swelled to 129. A new building became a necessity. Property just east of the church was bought from Drew Ferguson at a cost of $1800 and construction was begun. This was an ambitious project and featured a spacious sanctuary with separate Sunday School rooms behind it, a baptistery and a pastor's study. Lamont Seals recalled with a young boy's pleasure the replacement of the old church pews which were very cold and uncomfortable. Others were relieved to have a heating system that worked and everyone was delighted with the Sunday School rooms. Since the second church building was not designed with Sunday School classes in mind, it was primarily one large room, the sanctuary. All Sunday School classes met at the same time in the sanctuary amidst great noise and confusion. Various scripture interpretations from Drew Ferguson, Mrs. D. P. Dorman, Mrs. Drew Ferguson, Art Nolen, Dr. T. N. Nix and others would entice the Sunday Schoolteachers to argue, to the amused interest of the students. 1

As pleased as the congregation were with the new building, the old one held some precious memories. It was in the old church such later church leaders as Lamont Seals, B. W. Fortson, W. W. Dormon, C. W. Seals, Mrs. Orrie Bridgeman, Mrs. C. R. (Roby) Fortson, Drew Ferguson and many others were baptized and began their church service. It was with some regret then, that the old white building and lot was sold to M. H. Kinabrew and later used to build the homes now occupied by Mrs. J. J. Smith and Beverly Smith. 2, 3

 This church house was furnished with a new organ, pumped by hand, usually by Raleigh Gill and later Burrell McClung. Sometimes this job would require two or three pumpers to keep up with Judge John S. Richardson, who as organist was infamous for his lengthy opening flourishes. Other organists of the day were Mrs. T. N. Nix, Mrs. D. P. Dormon, Hazel Dormon Starrit and Beulah Fortson. 4 The congregation was especially pleased to have the commodious new building when the State Baptist Convention met there for the 1907 Convention. It was at this convention Louisiana's first Week of Prayer and Offering for State Missions was planned. 5

By the time the new building was ready, Dr. Wharton was again pastor and the church was ready to face head on the evils of a new age. In light of this determination, the following resolutions were adopted:

"Whereas a Christian church is the recognized friend of all virtue and the uncompromising enemy of all vice and,  
Whereas it is her superlative duty to maintain a high standard of public morals; and especially to inculcate in her members the highest type of Christian Virtue.

Therefore be it resolved that the Homer Baptist Church this day set forth and adopt the following declaration of principles;

I. Resolved; That this Church recommends the attendance of each and every member at all of its services, unless prevented by some reason approved by a good conscience.
 
II. Resolved; That is our deliberate conviction what every member should contribute to the pecuniary support of the Church and support regularly, according to his ability, the several causes fostered by the Church.

III. Resolved; That it is the emphatic sense of this Church that Sabbath desecration is a sin of no less magnitude in the sight of God than lying or theft or other such wrongsand further that its practice is contrary to public morals, injurious to personal piety and highly offensive to the Church of Christ.  

IV. Resolved; That this Church denounces all forms of gambling as inconsistent with a Christian's profession and destructive to Christian influence and further that we consider all games of chance such as raffling, the buying of "futures" and ordinary betting of money or other consideration as gambling, pure and simple.

V. Resolved; That we vigorously condemn dancing believing it to be of doubtful social propriety, detrimental to personal piety and thoroughly unchristian in its tendencies.

VI. Resolved; That this Church denounces profanity as the most unreasonable and inexcusable of all public vices; and further, that we regard its indulgence utterly at variance with the demands of the Church and as highly pernicious in its influence upon others.

VII. Resolved; That the use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage, can find no justification in the life of anyone and is especially to be condemned in the life of a professed follower of Christ; we discountenance social or moderate dram drinking, condemn excessive drinking and declare drunkenness a breach of Church Covenant.

VIII. Resolved; That in all the relations of life, we strenuously insist upon private virtue no less than public decorum.

This increased emphasis on lay responsibility and obligation for moral behavior became the standard for years to come. Traditionally, members of the church regarded the fellowship to be a more or less closed system and did not seek to enlarge the membership through enlistment. This now suspect tradition was thrown aside and active recruitment began. A great part of this work was done through the WMU and Sunday School. Mrs. Drew Ferguson and Mrs. B. W. Fortson spent untold hours going from house to house enlisting new members and bringing them to church. In fact, their horse and buggy brigade became so well-known they laughingly called the horses, "Maude' and "Mag", the "missionary steeds." 6

Under the leadership of Mrs. Drew Ferguson and Mrs. Ruth Barber, the first Sunbeam Band was formed. This became the best loved area of service for several pastor's wives, including Mrs. J. U. H. Wharton, Mrs. Joseph Cox, Mrs. Thomas Talkington, Mrs. P. Q. Cason and Mrs. Bettie Garnett.7 Many area children would have their first memories to be of mission stories and activities within the church due to these women. Generations of Homer citizens can remember Mrs. Tap Taylor and her cradle roll recruitment activities. This tireless worker went door to door throughout the town enlisting newborns (and incidentally, their parents) for her Sunday School department. If this were not service enough, she thoughtfully included her daughter in this activity. As later generations know, this daughter grew to become yet another tireless worker, Avalyn LeSage.

By 1910 the church, now meeting each Sunday, decided the pastor's home was not sufficient for its purposes and launched yet another building program. The building committee, consisting of John S. Richardson, Edgar H. Fortson, Walter L. Ward, Guy Oakes and Len Langston, worried about their rashness, but bravely committed the church to install electric wiring, eighteen dollars worth, in the new home.

This suited the new pastor, Joseph C. Cox, just fine. He was a bubbling, energetic man who had left his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains at the age of eighteen to seek his fortune in the wilds of Nebraska. He worked as a cowhand and itinerant preacher for over twelve years before seeking formal education and accepting pastorates. He welcomed the return to moral basics and the church once again became diligent in encouraging attendance in its members. Persons who danced, drank or gambled could expect to be called to account for their actions.  

Mrs. Ola Allen recalls a Sunday service in which five teenage girls, all daughters of prominent church members, were made to stand before the congregation and admit to having attended a dance the night before. When the girls appeared unrepentant for their actions, they were told to leave and return only when ready to apologize. Chins high, they turned and left as a group. Grim-faced, their fathers hurried out after them and, after a intense, muffled conversation, brought the chastened girls back in. They meekly apologized and were permitted to stay. 8

When Brother Cox left to serve as a missionary in the Blue Ridge mountains, the church once again turned to their beloved former pastor, J. U. H. Wharton. Dr. Wharton returned to Homer and remained pastor until forced to retire in 1915 due to ill health. He remained in Homer until his death in 1925 and saw the church move into its present building.  

Membership during this time grew rapidly, adding an average of fifteen to twenty persons per year. The next ten years saw a paradox of untold prosperity and great sorrow with the oil boom and World War I. The War to End All Wars called over eighty thousand Louisiana men to fight, most of them in the muddy fields of France. 9 Civilians spent much of their new-found wealth on war bonds and women's civic organizations rolled bandages, knitted socks and collected rubber and aluminum. Two more pastors, T. W. Talkington and P. Q. Cason, served three years each during this period.
 
Residents of today's town would have a hard time recognizing the Homer of the early portion of this century. Burrell McClung and other church members recall streets so thick with mud passersby would sink to their knees in the muck. In one case, the mud in the streets was so bad a team of mules became irretrievably stuck on North Main Street near the Methodist church. Nothing was available to pull them free, so the owner finally had to put them out of their misery. Dead mules were no easier to budge than live ones, so the town simply let the mules sink and paved over them. 10 Soon these days were to change. The tiny town of Homer was jerked into the twentieth century by the discovery of nearby oil, changing the area forever.

The term "roaring twenties" could have be created just to describe Claiborne parish, especially the town of Homer during those days. Oil was king and prosperity invaded the area so quickly housing could not be had for the families of oil fieldworkers. Many people who five years before would not have dreamed of renting part of their homes to strangers found themselves gladly accepting boarders and the sums they were willing to pay for shelter.  The school population expanded so rapidly the school house could not shelter the children and different grades had to meet in various buildings around town while officials scrambled to build. 11 The new policy of active enlistment and recruitment of members caused the church roll to increase dramatically. By 1924, the now too tiny church house could not hold its 560 members and the search for a new building was begun.

Dr. Wharton, though quite ill by this time, had led a pulpit committee in search of a new pastor. He knew of a young man by the name of Shervert Frazier who was educational director of First Baptist Church of Shreveport. This young man had so impressed the pastor of that church, Monroe E. Dodd, that he had been encouraged by Dr. Dodd to preach his first sermon at the age of sixteen, only a week after being converted. Brother Frazier was very young, not yet thirty, and brought a youthful energy as the church tackled the largest building program to date. Under his direct leadership, the BYPU expanded to include young people from other churches and the WMU introduced both the Royal Ambassadors and Girl's Auxiliary to the church. The church decided to sponsor the Boy Scouts and aid the group financially. Offerings began to pour in and special gifts such as the $1800 earmarked for the "Seventy-Five Million Campaign" in support of missions and educational work, were quickly raised. Gifted and tireless lay workers such as the E. H. Fortsons, Mrs. B. H. Moore, Mrs. J. L. Dormon, the J. E. Grays, Mrs. R. E. Kelly, Mrs. G. A. Campbell, Miss Irma Brooke, the Herman Meltons, Melton Oakes, Miss Thelma Seals(Garison) and Miss Julia Naremore (Coleman) among others gave untold hours of service to the growing church.

Sunday School attendance rose sharply and for the first time in its history, the church had no trouble meeting its expenses. After searching for a suitable lot for the new building, it was decided to buy the site of the old Ragland Hotel which had burned in 1921. This was considered a prime location, next to Dr. Gibson's hospital. (This hospital later became Norton's Funeral Home, then was bought by the church to  serve as an overflow area for educational purposes. This Old White Building, so-called by generations of children and teenagers, hosted many Vacation Bible Schools, Training Union and Sunday School classes and a variety of activities before being torn down to make way for the present day Family Life Center.)

Five years would be enough time, the church decided, to pay the $100,000 required to finance the huge new building. The building committee, consisting of Mrs. Tap Taylor, J. Melton Oakes, D. W. Knighton, T. M. Naremore, E. H. Fortson, Mrs. Len Langston, Mrs. J. A. Wilkinson, Jonathon E. Gray and church treasurer Raleigh Gill took their task seriously and sought an architect to produce plans. A fund to buy a new piano for the church was begun and John S. Richardson started his campaign for a new pipe organ.(The old organ was stored in the Cradle Roll department for a number of years, then taken by Raleigh Thomas and used for knife handles. Some of these knives were donated to the church kitchen by Mr. Thomas) 12

In a burst of confidence, the church signed the deed to the new lot in December of 1923, voted to sell the old building for not less than $4500 and invited the State Baptist Convention to hold its 1924 annual meeting in the new church building. This caused a rush of activity, for the new building was finished by the middle of July in 1924. To commemorate the event, Dr. M. E. Dodd of Shreveport joined with his protégé S. H. Frazier, to preach the first sermons July 27, 1924. On that day, forty-one persons joined the church, thirty by experience. One last wedding, that of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh Collier, was held in the old building. 13

Events leading to the first wedding in the new building were undeniably romantic. Miss Iler King and others were "motoring" in the foothills of Arkansas, near the town of Menain the early 1920's when involved in a terrible wreck. Nearby towns people rushed to the scene and sent for the nearest doctor, a young railroad surgeon named E. A. Campbell. He came and quickly surveyed the grisly scene.  

"That one's dead! Help the living," the onlookers urged as he paused by one motionless form. A practical course, he decided and turned to the others. Finally, the last of the survivors was stabilized and sent for further treatment.  

Dr. Campbell turned once more to the last victim. She would have to be declared dead and a doctor's job included that sad task. He bent down and discovered the "dead" girl was still breathing though shallowly and raggedly and was in critical condition. Angry he nearly let the girl die, he bent all his skills to helping her live. Days became weeks and he still nursed her. Gradually, though she would always bear these cars of that accident, she began to recover. When she was well, Dr. Campbell realized he had fallen in love with her.

He followed her back to her home town, trying to convince her to marry him. "Not now, I have to think about it," was her reply every time he proposed. Deciding stern times required stern measures, he set an ultimatum. She would marry him or not by Easter. If E. A. Campbell was not a married man that day, he would leave and never return.

At eight o'clock in the morning of Easter Sunday, the two were wed and lived many happy years together. It became the custom of the family to celebrate the couple's anniversary each year with the gift of lilies to adorn the church sanctuary on Easter Sunday. 14

J. L. Stone became pastor of the church in 1925 and the pastor's salary was once again increased, this time to $3600 per year. Though this seems small by today's standards, it is worthwhile to note this amount is twelve times the salary paid the pastor only thirty years before. All this and they reroofed the parsonage. As Lamont Seals put it, the church was "waxing fat," but continued to seek out worthy mission causes and raised over $40,000 for the Seventy-Five Million Campaign (a precursor to today's Cooperative Program.) 15  

The church continued to prosper and Byron Cox, a well-known musician and soloist at the 1929 State Baptist Convention, became our first paid choir director and youth leader. There were over five hundred enrolled in Sunday School and the State WMU Convention was held at the church in the year 1927. The WMU Convention was the second held in our church; the first was in 1907. During the WMU Convention of 1927, the keynote address on missions was given by Miss Georgia Barnett, a name well known to today's Louisiana Baptists. 16

The revival in June of 1927 added fifty more members and the ladies of the church through the WMU created a scholarship fund at the Baptist Bible Institute (later renamed New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary), furnished a room at Dodd College, sent money to the Children's Home, and eventually repaid the last thousand dollars borrowed to build the church. 17 One of the more ambitious projects was to supply the church with its silver service. This was accomplished by the intervention of Mrs. Tap Taylor and the saving of Export Soap Coupons by the WMU membership. By 1929 six hundred seventy-six pieces of silver had been added to the church collection by this means. (Those who remember her daughter, Avalyn Lesage, and her various charity works involving coupon collections know "the acorn does not fall far from the tree!") When sixty-two pieces of this silver were stolen from the church during the Christmas season of 1935, Mrs. Anis Neal repeated this feat with the saving of Gold Medal Flour coupons.

Footnotes:
l. Seals, Lamont. "Short History of First Baptist Church," p. 1.
2. Ibid., p. 2.
3. Harris, E. Glynn. "A Backward Glance, A Forward Look," 10.
4. Seals, p. 2.
5. Pate, p. 46.
6. Ibid. p. 46.
7. Fortson, "History of the Woman's Missionary Baptist Church." p. 20.
8. Ola Allen interview.
9. Huber, p. 289.
10. Harvey Hugh Emerson interview.
11. Ola Allen interview.
12. Melba Nelson interview.
13. Mary Earl Brown interview.
14. Dr. Tom Deas interview, Nelson Philpot interview, Claire Brown interview.
15. Edgar Fortson-F. J. Katz correspondence.
16. Pate, p. 87.
17. Fortson, "History of the Woman's Missionary Baptist Church." p. 12.

Church Index  | Claiborne Parish | AHGP Louisiana