Louisiana AHGP

Part of the American History and Genealogy Project

H. M. Garnett

Henry Milton Garnett served as pastor of Homer Baptist Church from 1903 to 1905. By 1904, the membership for the church had swelled to 129 and a search was once again on to find larger facilities. Property just east of the old building on South Main Street was acquired at a cost of $1800. The J. J. Smith house presently occupies this site and was built from the lumber when it was sold and torn down in 1926. This was quite a building project. The new church had a spacious sanctuary, Sunday School rooms, a baptistery and a pastor's study. The sanctuary was described by those who remember it as a beautiful place, with stained and varnished wood walls and new, comfortable pews. Mrs. Beulah Fortson (wife of Edgar Fortson who was Sunday School Superintendent for many years) was the church organist. John S. Richardson, later church organist and donor of present organ, substituted for her when needed.

Brother Garnett later served as pastor for the Lake Charles Baptist Church; Redfish, Louisiana Baptist Church; Trinity Baptist and Chambers Hill Baptist of Fort Worth, Texas and the Vinton Baptist Church. He also had pastorates in Beaumont, Hillsboro, San Saba and Sinton, Texas.

He went to Baylor University after leaving Homer and later received a degree from Southern Seminary. While at Baylor, he became a close friend to John Franklin Norris, a controversial fundamentalist who was was violently anti-evolution and an extreme millenialist. Norris became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Forth Worth, and later charged with arson when that church lost over one thousand members and the church building mysteriously burned. The agitation begun by Norris later led to the revised statement of faith of the Southern Baptists in 1925.

Brother Garnett remained a friend of Norris but refused to follow his extremist stance, believing instead in changing and improving while working within the in place structure. He served as an associational missionary while in Texas. 29

Biographical Sketches| Claiborne Parish | AHGP

Source: Author's Notice: I hereby give permission for the free dissemination of any and all material included within the book and permit any non profit use of that material. Should any agency wish to use the material in a profit context, permission must be secured from the church body of First Baptist Church, Homer, LA 71040.  By Barbara Smith, Homer, Louisiana.