Was this Oakey Grove Church in Columbia? My ancestors founded an Oakey Grove AME Church there which changed its name to Oakey Grove Community Church. Were there 2 churches with the same name but different denominations? See the description of the church below: Saundra Brown OAKEY GROVE A.M.E. CHURCH In 1897, Mr. Benjamin G. Smith (Benjamin G. Price-Smith, 1849), Mr. William M. Price (1860 GA), Mr. Benjamin McClendon (1855 GA), Mr. L. A. Grace, and Mr. Henry Jenkins established a church, and in 1898, purchased a one acre parcel of land on which now stands Oakey Grove A. M. E. Church in Haleburg, Alabama for the sum of five dollars from Mr. and Mrs. H. Davis. The original structure was wood frame. Benjamin G. Smith (aka Price-Smith) and William M. Price were brothers. The first 3 founders are my great great grand ancestors. Not only were these gentlemen the Founding Fathers of the church, but also were the first trustees of Oakey Grove. Some of the pastors of this early church were Rev. Samuel Cunningham who married Margaret E. Smith (daughter of founder and trustee Benjamin G. Smith); Rev. J. N. Jones; Rev. Davis; Rev. Coleman; Rev. Lewis; Rev. Owens; and Rev. Arline. In 1940, Rev. E. V. Burkett along with the help of Mr. Bora Hayden and others, led what became known at that time as "the New Deal" movement in an effort to withdraw the church from the African Methodist Episcopal Church Conference. Their church was in the 9th Episcopal District - A.M.E. South Conference. As a result of their movement, several churches, including Oakey Grove, withdrew from the conference. The other churches that pulled out were in Tennessee; Gordon, Alabama; Base Springs, Alabama, and Graceville, Florida. Today, the church has a new name OAKEY GROVE COMMUNITY METHODIST CHURCH. The first pastors to lead the church after its succession from the A.M.E. Conference was Rev. Martinez and Rev. O. W. Lewis respectively. Sometime later, Oakey Grove joined The Southern Regional Council of Community and Independent Churches. The first leaders of the church under this organization were Rev. J. W. Cotton and Rev. Miller respectively. In the late 1940's, the small wood frame structure was devastated by fire, and the present day structure was completed by 1951. The church records were also destroyed as a result of the fire. The Key and Salter families there are descendants of the McLendon family. Jimmy Salter married Eddie Dean Key, the great granddaughter of Joseph McLendon, the brother of Benjamin McLendon. In 1998, Jolyn Salter, a McClendon descendent was the Youngest Member. Much later, the Hayden family became the leaders of the church, so much so that Oakey Grove was once referred to as "The Hayden Church" for many years. Today, the Mother of the Church is Mrs. Ophelia Stovall Hayden. The Haydens are kin to the founders Benjamin McLendon, and William M. Price (brother of Benjamin Price) who married Lucinda Henderson, the sister of Horace H. Henderson. Horace H. Henderson is the grandfather of Horace Hayden, husband of Ophelia Stovall. Benjamin McLendon's daughter, Elizabeth McClendon Moore had a son Enoch who married Aretha Hayden (daughter of Horace Hayden and Ophelia Stovall). In 1998, the First Lady of the Church was Mrs. Verna Powell. Powells, McClendons, and Hutchins are kin. The African Methodist Episcopal is an offspring of the Methodist which was founded by John Wesley in England and America in the eighteenth century.The Methodist movement itself began in 1739 when John Wesley,an Anglican,started within the Church of England a movement to improve the spiritual life of his Church. The movement became widespread. Many of the followers of the movement emigrated to America. Wesley,realizing the future for the spread of Methodism in the Colonies, ordained Dr. Thomas Coke, an Anglican priest, and sent him to organize the Church in America. Dr. Coke arrived and called a General Conference in Baltimore, Maryland in December 1784. At this "Christmas Conference, Richard Allen (founder of the American Methodist Episcopal Church),was present as an observer only, and was not a delegate or a voter. Methodism grew as the Methodist riders went from point to point, from settlement to settlement,and from plantation to plantation. The African Methodist Epi! scopal Church sprang from the American counterpart of the Methodist Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church has a unique and glorious history. It is unique in that it is the first major religious denomination in the Western world that had its origin over sociological rather than theological beliefs and differences. The immediate cause of the organization of the A.M.E.Church was the fact that members of the St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia Pa., in 1787 segrated its colored members from its white communicants. The Blacks were sent to the gallery of the Church, to use the venerable Richard Allen's own words. One Sunday as the Africans, as they were called, knelt to pray outside of their segrated area they were actually pulled from their knees and told to go to a place which had been designated for them. This added insult to injury and upon completing their prayer, they went out and formed the Free African Society, and from this Society came two groups: The Episcopalians and the Methodists. The leader of the Methodist! group was Richard Allen. Richard Allen desired to implement his conception of freedom of worship and desired to be rid of the humiliation of segregation,especially in church. Richard Allen learned that other groups were suffering under the same conditions. After study and consultation, five churches came together in a General Convention which met in Philadelphia, Pa., April 9-11, 1816, and formed the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The name African Methodist came naturally, as Negroes at that time were called Africans and they followed the teaching of the Methodist Church as founded by John Wesley. The young Church accepted the Methodist doctrine and Discipline almost in its entirety. BACKGROUND ON A.M.E. CHURCHES IN ALABAMA African Methodism sprang up in the City of Mobile as far back as 1820, but was crushed by slavery. In 1864, Rev. J. P. Campbell, who was afterward one of the Church, and Rev. M. M. Clark, visited that city and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the name of the African M. E. Church. In 1867, Rt. Rev. A. W. Wayman, presiding Bishop of Georgia, appointed missionaries in Alabama. As far as we have been able to gather information here and there, the organization was fully started in 1867 and 1868. The early pioneers of this work were Revs. lazarus Garner, Cain Rogers, (but Cain Rogers is now in the M. E. Church), Peter Lipscomb, Harry Stubbs, R. B. Bailey, F. H. Smith, G. B. Taylor, Louis Hilary and Jacob F. Crozier. The General Conference sitting in Washington, D. C., May 1868, elected the Rev. James A. Shorter, Rev. Thomas M. D. Ward and the Rev. John M. Brown to the episcopacy, and at the same conference set apart Alabama as the 7th Episcopal District, and appointed the newly elected Bishop John M. Brown to preside over the same, making him our first Bishop, who stamped his scholarly and classical elements upon every thing he touched in our early pilgrimage. On July 25, 1868, Selma Ala., the first annual Conference was organized. The Rev. Louis Hillary and Rev. R. B. Bailey were the first secretaries. At that time we had 6 churches and 31 missions; at that time we had 5,617 members, and now we have 57,000; our churches were valued at $4,350, now the value is $340,000. Churchese were then located at Selma, Eufaula, Cahaba, Greensborough, Florence and Opelika. At this Conference we had five traveling Elders, ten traveling deacons, and seven licentiates; three of these Elders and nine deacons were transferred from the Georgia Conference to Alabama, and two Elders and one deacon from the Louisiana Conference. Selma was the historical center of Alabama's African Methodism. From here went out the four Presiding Elder's Districts to do pioneer or mission work, as if pointing to the four cardinal points. The districts stood then: Selma, Montgomery, Union Springs and Mobil. They stand now 22. ALABAMA CONFERENCE: Montgomery, Union Springs, Eufaula (BARBOUR COUNTY), Opelika, Old Columbia (HENRY COUNTY), Troy (HENRY COUNTY), Good Water, Ozark. NORTH ALABAMA CONFERENCE: Birmingham, Blockton, Florence, Montevallo, Huntsville, Blossburg, South Birmingham CENTRAL ALABAMA CONFERENCE: Selma, Mobile, Camden, Greensborough, Demopolis, Thomasville, Greenville SOURCE: HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN ALABAMA with Biographical Sketches by Rev. W. H. Mixon, D. D. Nashville, Tenn. A.M.E. Church Sunday School Union. 1902 (illustrated) From: "john elliott" <[email protected]> To: "Saundra Brown" <[email protected]> Subject: Oakey Grove Community Methodist Church--Haleburg,Aabama Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 10:45:44 -0500 Saundra, Thank you for the post on the message boards and on my personal e-mail concerning your family ties and the Oakey Grove Church in Haleburg. I have made copies and filed them in my historic records of the area. As a member of the Henry County Historical Group, Inc., the Alabama Preservation Alliance, and the National Trust of Historic Preservation, I wanted to address your concerns about a historic marker at the Oakey Grove Church. I am very familiar with the church and its dear members and have been there to funerals of dear friends of mine and of my family there. In 1995, I was blessed to speak there for morning worship. My father, the late Haleburg Mayor John Elbert Elliott, III, was the man that appointed the first woman and the first black town council members in Haleburg. He appointed now former Mayor Louie Jones to the town council against the objections of some in the predominately white community. Dad simply said, "It's time--past time!" Dad died in the middle of ! his term as mayor in 1994. I donated $500.00 in my Dad's memory to have the brick sign and name marquee in front of the church completed as it stands today. For many years I had driven down Hayden Drive and had seen it in shambles and thought that would be a good gift to give to the church first in the love of Christ and secondly in memory of my Dad. In 1996, I was the campaign manager of Brother Louie Jones to have him elected the first black Mayor of Haleburg. He served a brilliant term getting much completed. It was his goal to take the ideas of my Dad and see them through along with his unique prospective added to all of the projects. Now, after I have rambled, to address the historical marker. The markers are not given free by the Historic Chattahoochee Commission, but are placed on a matching funds grant. Presently, if Oakey Grove wanted a marker, and the Commission and the Henry County Historical Groups, Inc. approved it, then the church would have to match the grant for the marker in the sum of $1,500.00. That is the way that Mount Zion is going to have their marker. They will pay for the matching grant funds of the marker themselves. Then there is the case of priority that the Historic Chattahoochee Commission has on the amount it allots in its budget each year for the placement of markers. So it will be a while before the Mount Zion marker is erected. The old churchhouse is historic in that Mount Zion was built in 1871 and is among the oldest, if not the oldest, African American, wood frame, house of worship located in the Wiregrass of Alabama. The year of construction, 1871, was only six ye! ars after freedom from slavery and is a tribute to the freedmen and women who declared their religious freedom with a church. Prior to the Civil War, the slaves were members of the church that their master was a member of in most cases. In a reference to the old Smith Plantation, the original owner, Bartlett Smith, lived in Columbia in a town home and had his slave quarters and overseer on the huge spread of land on the Chattahoochee River north east of Haleburg. In 1835, the First Baptist Church of Columbia was established. One of the charter members of this aged church was Gen. Bartlett Smith. Also a charter member was a slave, January Smith, the buggy driver for General Bartlett Smith. So a slave was in the list of charter members of this 170-year-old white church. A side note here, the Smith Plantation will be remembered on the bold Chattahoochee River for many years to come for the river takes a sharp bend on the old Smith Plantation. Even today, barge operators on the Chattahoochee River know this place as �Smith�s Bend��but little do they know the history that is wrapped around that name. Also, in 1836, General Smith built a large two story plantation house on the plantation and moved onto his property There is a long list of marker requests that the Historic Chattahoochee Commission must weed through to place the markers each year. They serve the entire Lower Chattahoochee River Valley in both Alabama and Georgia from Columbus Georgia to Chattahoochee, Florida where the Flint River joins the Chattahoochee and forms the Apalachicola River to the Gulf of Mexico. There are about a dozen sites around Haleburg that outdate the Oakey Grove Church in age�this being a very conservative number. I am in agreement that the church should have a marker. I want to see as many markers as possible in the Haleburg area. And if Oakey Grove is ready to make the financial commitment, it can approach the �powers that be� and wait in turn for the marker to be placed. Does this help you better understand the marker program? Mount Zion is presently in the front running for it has restored the old churchhouse and the marker would be a part of that restoration. Another thing is that Mount Zion was used as a school through the years before there was a school. It also served as a school when the Sandy Ridge Colored School burned. My opinion is that this was probably arson of a racial origin though I have no facts to prove that statement. Another thing about the Mount Zion Church is the adjoining cemetery that is the oldest freedman cemetery in a broad area of the Haleburg area. Though there are many marked graves, there are possibly near 100 graves in the cemetery that are not marked due to the fact that the cemetery has been there over 130 years. It was the community burial grounds for the Haleburg area. I do know that another church that is in consideration in the marker program is the old Bellevue Church in the Barnes Community northeast of Haleburg that is also an old church that served the African American community in that section of the Old River Road. There are several African American churches on the Old River Road and no white churches. Why? Because at the time of freedom in 1865, the former slaves stayed on the plantations they had worked on prior to the Civil War and obtained land that the former plantation owners could not pay taxes on due to the harsh taxes imposed by the Radical Republicans during the horrid years of Reconstruction 1867-1877. It is all a rich melting pot of history, isn�t it!? Until we shall visit again, I remain Your faithful and obedient servant in Christ, Steve Elliott Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 11:10:30 -0600 From: "Kathy and Farrell" To: [email protected] Subject: [ALHENRY] Kirkland/Brown Hoping that someone will know something about these folks. Dimetius Brown who married Bartow Kirkland...I think Bartow may have been a minister or jp. Inez Brown who married Hubert Kirkland. I have an obit for Inez but it raises a lot of questions for me. It states that she was 51 (this was in 1977) and she had died suddenly. She had lived in Columbus , GA and Bristol, FL prior to living in Headland. (She was listed as a native of Dale County). She was a member of the Oakey Grove Baptist Church near Abbeville. Survivors included: husband- Hubert Kirkland, of Headland; daughter-Angela Meis of Fulda, Germany; son-Larry Kirkland of Headland; STEP-FATHER and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Peterson of Headland; two sisters-Mrs. Pauline Burke, and Mrs. Mary Nell Arnold. Inez was the daughter of David Brown (brother to my ggrandmother, Minnie Mae) and Vassie Brackin. I found a SSDI listing for Vassie Brown that has 6 Jan 1897 birth and Oct 1973 death. If this is the correct Vassie she would have died 4 years before Inez and not be listed as survivor. Plus, Marvin Peterson was a nephew of David Brown (he was son of Mary Brown Peterson). Would Pauline and Mary Nell be whole, half or step siblings? Can anyone help me unravel this??? Thanks, Kathy --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you�re looking for faster.