After recently reading some of the Ebenezer Baptist Church minutes, I received these comments from Clarence D. White on his memories of Ebenezer Baptist Church and the surrounding area when he was a boy. I grew up on a farm less than a mile from Ebenezer in the '50s and '60s. Our landlord was Miss Mary Battle, a spinster who was Judge of the Ordinary/Probate Court of Schley County. These Battles owned over three thousand acres around Ebenezer. The mother, I believe, was named Josephine. We called her Miss Jo. She and Miss Mary lived in Ellaville and were members of Ellaville Baptist. Miss Jo had several children including a son who lived in So GA or Florida who would bring his buddies in fall and winter to the land for quail hunting. We often attended the black Ebenezer Baptist where there were a few members with the Battle name. C.T. Battle, who was schools supt. for Schley at the time, was Miss Mary's cousin. My mother and I always suspected that there was a connection between the Tazewell Battles and the Ebenezer/Ellaville Battles. As a boy I saw the tornado that destroyed the white Ebenezer Baptist in late 1954 or early 1955. We were standing mesmerized in a window and saw the tornado coming, with the church frame, cows, etc. swirling in it, headed straight for our house. It came within less than a quarter mile from us when it mercifully veered off across a field, where it dropped piles of church pieces and other debris. The twister skipped around Ellaville, killing 5, I think it was. Would be interested to know the names of any black members of Ebenezer that might come from the church minutes. Clarence D. White [email protected]