WIREGRASS JOURNAL | Documenting the Early Days of Pentecost in Alabama

Re-posted October 7, 2008 | This entry is directed particularly to members of Assemblies of God congregations in Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Houston, and surrounding Alabama counties. I want to share a sampling of what I have learned about the Pentecostal movement in southeast Alabama from about 1906 to about 1916, and to pose questions that I still have about the history. I hope it will reach Pentecostals, and others who are interested in their local history, and get them thinking about what they have heard and remember about the old days “when Pentecost came to Alabama.” I would very much like to hear/read your feedback. Many thanks goes to the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (http://ifphc.org/) for permission to quote from their archived documents and to post some of their historic photographs. See their posting about this project at http://ifphc.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/documenting-the-early-days-of-pentecost-in-alabama/ -- Rachel Dobson

Tent meetings, such as this one in Maryland in 1915, were common in Alabama and other places. Photo courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Springfield, MO. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifphc/sets/72157594309577534/



The Names and the Places

We know the names of many of the founding pastors and members, like Mack Pinson, Dan and Jim Dubose, Wayne Tomlin, J. S. Wooten...
An important part of Assemblies of God history that may slip away more easily than the names of the founders are the locations of the early Pentecostal tent revivals and camp meetings – the temporary places where the Holy Spirit changed people’s lives permanently.

Organizational meeting of the Assemblies of God at Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1914. Photo courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Springfield, MO. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifphc/sets/72157594313001794/

Documenting the Spirit-filled Places

This is part of a project to help locate and document some of the places in the history of the early Assemblies of God movement in southeast Alabama.

We already know some of the story of the early organizing of congregations in the area. Early Pentecostal newspapers, Robert Spence's The First Fifty Years, and other sources, many available in the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center in Springfield, Missouri, and congregational histories like that of El Bethel's in Coffee County by Laurelle Dubose Weatherford, provide a good foundation to which more details may be added as they are uncovered. (See the bibliography at the end of this post.)

Scene beside Wooten Chapel Assembly of God, about four miles south of New Brockton, Alabama, May, 2008. http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/ 2571143678/in/set-72157605566040085/

EARLY REVIVAL LOCATIONS

El Bethel Assembly, Coffee County

For example, Mrs. Weatherford writes in her history that in August of 1906, Rev. M. M. Pinson came to Coffee County and “erected a tent at New Tabernacle Church,” which was attended by Dan and Jim Dubose. From this revival grew the congregation that became the El Bethel Assembly of God. (Weatherford, p. 1.)

New Tabernacle Church, June, 2008.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/2754877328/in/set-72157605566040085/

El Bethel Assembly of God, May, 2008.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/ 2570327971/in/set-72157605566040085/

Enon Baptist Church, Coffee County

Enon Baptist, at the junction of Coffee County roads 147 and 148, was the site of a Pentecostal revival in the summer of 1907 when a deacon invited Dan and Jim Dubose, brothers who had received the Gift of the Holy Spirit “to start a revival in his church.” --Robert H. Spence, The First Fifty Years, p. 10.

Enon Baptist Church, May, 2008.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/ 2571144366/in/set-72157605566040085/

Highfalls Assembly, Geneva County

In June of 1907, Dan Dubose went to Rev. Pinson’s revival at Highfalls in Geneva County, “where he received the Gift.”

The meeting at High Falls was highly significant in that it provided a base of operations for the Pentecostal message and movement in southeastern Alabama. From this one revival, the nucleus for what is today the High Falls Assembly of God Church was formed and individuals, such as Dan Dubose, received personal experiences that would mean the formation of other Assemblies. --Spence, The First Fifty Years, p. 9.

Was the revival at the same place where the church stands today, or somewhere nearby? Is it possible to discover where other early revivals and camp meetings took place--gatherings that started Assembly of God congregations, and where early members were touched by the Holy Spirit?

Highfalls Assembly of God, May, 2008. http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/ 2571161630/in/set-72157605566040085/

Holloway Tabernacle, Geneva County

HEALED OF ASTHMA

I have been asked by some in these parts, who know the facts in the case, to write you of the healing of my two little boys, now five and seven years old respectively. The oldest one was born with asthma, and the youngest one took it after he was born. In November 1911, I had Bro. M. M. Pinson and Bro. Wayne Tomlin to pray for them, and the Lord healed them both, and they are still well, praise his name. -- G. W. Grimes, Coffee Springs, Ala.--Word and Witness, March 20, 1914, p. 1, http://ifphc.org.

G. W. Grimes and Wayne Tomlin were both associated with Holloway Tabernacle. Was this church the site of this healing?

Holloway Tabernacle Church, June, 2008.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/ 2711825290/in/set-72157605566040085/

Holloway Tabernacle Historical Marker, June, 2008.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/ 2711013657/in/set-72157605566040085/

MORE GOOD NEWS...NEW BROCKTON, ALA.
Wayne Tomlin has just closed a blessed meeting in town, and will open in a new church just completed 7 miles south of Enterprise on August 22. --Word and Witness, August 20, 1912, p. 3, http://ifphc.org.

Where was this “new church...7 miles south of Enterprise”? Was it Holloway Tabernacle in Coffee Springs, or else in Central City or in another nearby community?

Wooten Chapel Assembly of God, Coffee County

Newspaper notices give clues to the location of revivals or camp meetings.
Did Wooten Chapel grow out of the local camp meeting “held four miles below New Brockton” in 1915?

LOCAL CAMP MEETING – NEW BROCKTON, ALA.

Aug. 7th to 27th. Will be held four miles below New Brockton, Ala. Expecting W. P. Mims from Clanton, Ala. also Rev. W. B. Jessup from Meridian, Miss. For information write J. S. Wooten, Rt. 3 Elba, Ala. All invited. --Word and Witness, August, 1915, p. 8, http://ifphc.org.

Wooten Chapel Assembly of God, May, 2008.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/ 2571143388/in/set-72157605566040085/

Bethel Assembly, Ariton: original location, Barbour County

Remembering and finding old locales bring back the Spirit-filled events that took place at these meetings, and honors the early Pentecostal organizers who made the spread of the Gospel their life’s work.

The original location of Bethel Assembly, June, 2008.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/ 2690983270/in/set-72157605566040085/

Bethel Assembly, now in Ariton, Dale County, was originally located further up Highway 51, just over the Barbour County line. “The Bethel Assembly of God of Ariton was begun after Rev. Martha Joiner and Rev. Donnie Metcalf held two tent meetings in the summer of 1921. Those who were converted desired to become a part of the relatively new organization, The General Council of the Assemblies of God. The church was set in order and was affiliated with the General Council in Springfield, Missouri, September 28, 1921, with approximately thirty members. A building was erected two miles north of Ariton, just off Hwy. 51 during the winter of 1921-1922. Rev. Dan J. Dubose was the first pastor.”

Source: the history page of Bethel Assembly of God: www.meetmeatbethel.com/History.htm.
Many thanks to Angela Downing for her help, and especially for calling members of Bethel Assembly to get directions for me to this location.

QUESTIONS

Here are a few other revivals and camp meetings that I hope to learn more about in this research...Do any of these names or places ring a bell with you? There are many more churches that grew out of revivals and camp meetings in the area.

Midland City, Dale County, Alabama

Where was the annual camp meeting at Midland City held?

MIDLAND CITY, ALA.

Our first annual camp meeting closed Sunday night. Bro. Wayne Tomlin of Enterprise, was in charge, and did most of the preaching. Other preachers and workers were with us and were blessedly used by the Lord. People came from far and near to hear the word, and the attendance was by far the largest in the history of the work at this place. God was present at every service to save, heal, and fill with the Spirit.-- H. W. Bryant.
--Word and Witness, October, 1913, p. 3, http://ifphc.org.

Dye Rock Church (Dale County?)

Another question is: Where was Dye Rock (or Die Rock) Church?

MIDLAND CITY

We have just had a big revival at Dye Rock Church near Midland City, Ala. Sister Joyner held a three days meeting and the Lord wonderfully blessed. The power of God fell on all one evening and little children from five years up began to praise God and shout and dance. Eight received the baptism as in Acts 2:4 and several were saved. We are looking for greater things from the hand of God. The enemy is stirred but the work goes on just the same. -- J. A. Moss, R. 2. --Word and Witness, August 1915, p. 8, http://ifphc.org.

"Die Rock" was one of “the original line-up of churches that were part of the old Southeast District” noted by Robert H. Spence in The First Fifty Years, p. 21.

"A Holy Place"

The Azusa Street Mission in 1906. Photo courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Springfield, MO. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifphc/260942939/in/
set-72157594313088839/

These early Pentecostal organizers and participants met the Holy Spirit in revivals and meetings throughout the Wiregrass region and all over Alabama in the early part of the twentieth century.

Although temporary, these locations will always be filled with the Spirit because of the people and the events that took place there. The sites of early revivals and camp meetings, like the mission at Azusa Street and the site of the General Council Meeting at Hot Springs in 1914, are places where holy events took place, places to be identified, and in Darrin Rodgers’ words: “shared...with the next generation.”

Internet Resources

Part of the purpose of this research is to create resources that will be available to anyone who is interested in the early history of the Assemblies of God in south Alabama. Blogs and Flickr.com are just two ways to post information and images on the internet, so that others can view and post comments, even their own reminiscences. At my Flickr set, “Early Pentecost in Alabama,” you can view more photos, and read text from primary and secondary sources on the history of Pentecostalism in Alabama:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/sets/72157605566040085/

An Internet Community through Public Libraries
In addition, a world map on Flickr allows the photos to be "geo-tagged" or linked with their location on the map.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/map/

And, a basic Flickr.com account is free, so that others who have historical photos are able to post their own, and contribute to a growing body of knowledge on the history of Pentecostalism. Even if you don't have a computer yourself, many public libraries have free computers that allow users to browse the web and view Flickr and other sites.

The Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center - the official archives of the Assemblies of God, USA - also has a Flickr account with wonderful historical images of early revivals, camp meetings, posters, and the founding individuals of the organization:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifphc/sets/

WIREGRASS JOURNAL | Public libraries with internet access

Public Libraries in the Wiregrass and surrounding areas in southeast Alabama that have computer/internet availability are listed below. If your library is not listed here, but it does have internet access, please contact me. For more information on other libraries in Alabama, go to http://www.librarytechnology.org/publiclibraries.pl?State=AL OR http://www.publiclibraries.com/alabama.htm

Coffee County
Elba Public Library 406 Simmons Street, 334-897-6921
http://www.elbaalabama.net/life-in-elba/library “Computers available with internet access.”

Enterprise Public Library 101 East Grubbs Street 334-347-2636
http://www.enterpriselibrary.org/
“Computer Access Four computers available to patrons for research and educational purposes (one hour time limit per day), one computer for e-mailing (fifteen minute limit), one word-processing computer.”

Covington County
Andalusia Public Library, 212 South Three Notch Street, 334-222-6612, ONLY have online catalog http://www.andylibrary.com/default.htm. No description of services.

Opp Public Library (Cross Trails Regional Library), 1604 North Main Street,
334-493-6423 http://www.opplibrary.com/
Yes, they do have computers available for public use.

Crenshaw County
Luverne Public Library, 148 East Third Avenue, 334-335-5326
http://library.luverne.org/
Must have a library card to use computers – some limitations, but basically they are available for research: http://library.luverne.org/computer_usage.asp

Dale County
Ozark-Dale County Public Library, 416 James Street, 334-774-5480, http://www.odcpl.com/
“Free Internet is offered to adults and children. Children under the age of fourteen must be accompanied by an adult seventeen years of age or older.”

Geneva County
Geneva Public Library 312 South Commerce Street 334-684-2459 (Emma Knox Keenan Public Library) http://www.genevapubliclibrary.org/ . See an article about their computers here: http://genevapubliclibrary.org/content/blogcategory/44/50/

Houston County
Houston-Love Memorial Library, 212 West Burdeshaw Street, Dothan, 36303; 334-793-9767.
http://www.houstonlovelibrary.org/
http://www.houstonlovelibrary.org/computerlab.htm
Computer classes listed on a calendar (which may determine when computers are available for general use by patrons?)

WIREGRASS JOURNAL | Select Bibliography

These are sources used in the Wiregrass Journal posting: Documenting the Early Days of Pentecost in Alabama.

Newspapers:

Word and Witness (Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center: www.ifphc.org).
Christian Evangel (Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center: www.ifphc.org).
Dothan Eagle (Alabama Department of Archives and History, and www.Ancestry.com).

Books and Internet Resources:

Robert H. Spence, The First Fifty Years – A Brief Review of the Assemblies of God in Alabama (1915-1965), Assemblies of God, 1960s.
Laurelle DuBose Weatherford, “El Bethel Assembly of God History,” self-published, 1992.
Historical Atlas of Alabama, edited by W. Craig Remington and Thomas J. Kallsen, 1997.
USGS Geonames Database: http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic.

Photographs:

Historical photographs from the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifphc/sets/.
All other photographs by Rachel Dobson. These photos and more, including Shady Grove Assembly and Chancellor Assembly in Geneva County; Wicksburg Assembly, Houston County; Bethel Assembly, Dale County; Haw Hill Assembly and Wise Mill Assembly, Coffee County; and two churches in Brownville, Conecuh County, are posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/racheldobson/sets/72157605566040085/.

WIREGRASS JOURNAL | Flickr Update

Early this morning I did my usual Flickr check from my work computer, and there was no connection (see below, July 7, 2008). But later in the morning someone on our School of Library and Information Studies list-serve made the general announcement that Flickr was now accessible through University of Alabama computers. Great! Later in the day, I got official notice from the UA College of Arts & Sciences, but no explanation. Am curious to know more, but for now I did learn the lesson not to put all my photos in one basket, so to speak. Thanks to everyone who gave me advice. Below is what all the hullabaloo is about:
http://www.panoramio.com/user/1835188
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27582502@N06/sets/72157605566040085/

WIREGRASS JOURNAL | Posting in Panoramio

The University of Alabama has blocked access to Flickr.com from all its computers, plus any off-campus computers signed in to on-campus servers. As a result, I can not access my Flickr site to upload, edit, or view photos that I'm using in University of Alabama graduate research. (But you may be able to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27582502@N06/sets/72157605566040085/)

Therefore, I am resorting to Panoramio to post many of the same photos (http://www.panoramio.com/user/1835188O). Panoramio has several of the capabilities Flickr had, with a few organizational weaknesses - but they aren't blocked by my educational institution! I will be recreating the same or similar notes for these photos over the next couple of weeks. AND, I hope to have new ones to add after another research trip soon.

If I sound a little aggravated, it is because I feel that whoever planned this blocking of file-sharing didn't think about all of the ramifications for those of us doing legitimate UA work. Flickr is being used increasingly for educational purposes. Ironically, I just handed in a paper as part of this research on how to develop several Web 2.0 formats, including Flickr and blogs, to create local history research resources, aimed at library and archives users.

These Flickr sites - including one created by the Library of Congress, the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, and others, which I and others might use, also can't be viewed from any UA computer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/; http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifphc/260942907/in/set-72157594313088839/; http://www.flickr.com/photos/textimagepoetry/sets/72157594560457004/; http://www.flickr.com/photos/xxno/map/.
I'm sure there are many others.

WATSON JOURNAL | Robert H. Willis, Jr., World War II Pilot, Watson Farmer & Teacher

[Note: The following is a tribute to her father written by Delta Willis, posted here with her permission.]

Chief pilot of a “Flying Fortress” group praised by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for bombing strategic sites in Germany during World War II, Robert Hamilton Willis, Jr. of Watson AR (Desha County) died June 17 after complications following surgery at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Pine Bluff.

Willis was a 1942 graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Born December 26, 1920 in Snow Lake, "Bobby" Willis was an avid outdoorsman and sportsman. In 1948, the Watson Baseball Team benefited from 14 innings of pitching by Mr. Willis.

Both Mr. Willis and wife Margaret Willis were Watson High School teachers fondly regarded by three generations of students. After his retirement from teaching agriculture and science, Willis continued to farm, freelanced as a tree spotter for timber companies, and served as an expert witness on the boundaries of the lower Arkansas River, hunting grounds since childhood.

His father, Robert H. Willis, Sr., helped develop Watson, home to a cotton gin partly owned by the senior Mr. Willis, who also built the local branch of the McGehee Bank, the local U.S. post office, apartment buildings and several stores on Watson’s main street. His mother, Mae R Willis, served as Watson postmistress, and was a world traveler. During the 1927 flood, young Willis helped rescue local people, livestock, and his mother's piano.

Enlisting in the Air Corps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Willis learned to fly solo in Oklahoma, then trained at Muroc Air Force Base, located in California's Mojave Desert. Muroc became famous for test pilots profiled in Tom Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff,” including Chuck Yeager and early astronauts. Now Edwards Air Force Base, the 6-by-12 mile expanse of dry lakebed and clear, un-congested skies were ideal for student pilots in B-24s.

Willis was part of the Eighth Air Force based in Eye, near Norwich, England. Flying with Captain Willis was co-pilot Jeff Burnett, formerly of Dumas, and a University friend who enlisted at the same time. Willis and Burnett were part of the 490th Bombardment Group sent to England in April of 1944. They traveled on the converted Queen Elizabeth Cunard liner out of New York harbor.

Their first mission was two days after the invasion of Normandy. Willis recalled “I went in very low over the tree tops, right behind Ken Kavanaugh,” the LSU champion quarterback who flew 30 missions during WWII. When Kavanaugh dropped his bomb, Willis’s plane picked up a piece of concrete. “We were too close,” he said, which had a double meaning. When the planes returned to the U.S. Air Force base in England, the air strip was dark. Mr. Willis believed the mission was so dangerous, they had not expected the planes to return. The 490th Bombing Group continued to hit bridges, rail lines, vehicles, road junctions, and troop concentrations in France. Willis’ tenth mission in the B-24 was over Noball, France. Selected by his commander to deliver maps to General George S. Patton, Willis flew a C-54 “to a designated spot in France where the packaged maps were tossed out the plane door, and later collected by Patton’s men on the ground,” Willis recalled during an interview with his granddaughter, Jennifer Willis, a junior at Wellesley College, who recorded his remarks for a school report.

Fatality odds for bomber pilots were exceptionally high, and the B-24s had few of the navigational advantages of modern aircraft. Cockpits were noisy and cold. After September 1944, and 10 successful missions in the B-24, Willis flew 25 missions in Boeing’s B-17. His bomber named “Shiloskilofras” was part of strategic missions during the Battle of the Bulge, and struck enemy oil plants, tank factories, and airfields in such cities as Berlin, Hamburg, Munster, Kassel, Hanover, Cologne, and Merseburg.

It was during an attack on German oil supplies over Merseburg in December of 1944 when his plane became the 57th American plane struck by anti-aircraft. According to news reports, 56 bombers and 30 fighter planes were downed that day in flak so heavy that surviving pilots could not see their formation. With holes all over the plane as well as in the Plexiglas nose and top turret, Captain Willis went into a steep dive to avoid hitting another crippled B-17. After that, “It was just impossible for us to get any altitude.” At 12,000 feet, they were losing 400 feet a minute. With his “Flying Fortress” so badly damaged it could scarcely reach the speed of a fast car, Willis and his co-pilot took turns nursing the aptly-dubbed Heavy plane home using only one engine.

“The trouble began when flak hit the left wing between the Number 1 and Number 2 engines,” Willis told a reporter during the War; “Flak got the Number One engine over the target and we lost Number Two west of the Channel.” They were quickly joined by two Fighter planes, escorting the B-17 to protect her it in its vulnerable state. Willis told the Fighter pilots, “not to get below us or behind us, because we were going to throw stuff out.”

“Then I said [to my crew] ‘Throw everything out, all your guns, the ammunition, anything that weighs a pound. Throw out everything but your parachute.’”

After ballast was tossed, they encountered more problems. Because of damage to the rudder controls, it was impossible to turn the plane to the left. By the time they crossed the so-called Siegfreid line, (the German wall of defense, located on the German/French border;) the plane was making only 90 miles per hour.

The crippled bomber was the last of its group to return, to an airfield so littered with other damaged planes (“Many crash-landed;”) that bull-dozers were needed to clear the strip, illuminated only by flares. Down to 400 feet and still sinking, the bomber came in so low on approach that a high tension wire was sliced, sending up a flash the control tower misread as a fatal crash. Willis circled again and landed successfully. “I didn’t put my landing gear down until the last ten seconds,” Willis said. A Boeing official, told that a B-17 had returned from Germany on one engine, initially dismissed the feat, saying it was impossible.

In addition to citation letters from FDR, Willis was awarded the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and promoted to Captain. He finished his Air Force service as a flight instructor at Drew Field near Tampa, FL.

Teaching agriculture at Watson High School, Willis also served as a Vocational Agriculture instructor to many veterans of the Korean conflict. In that role he guided Sergeant Shriver on a muddy "buck shot" tour to a remote farmhouse off the levee near Yancopin, to show how young men were learning skills to improve their own homes and farms.

The birth of his first grandchild in Honolulu inspired Mr. Willis to board a plane in 1988 for the first time since his service in the Air Force. For four decades after the War he had refused to fly. Like many surviving pilots, Willis felt his luck aloft was overdrawn.

The longest surviving member of his 8-man flight crew, Robert H. Willis is part of what Tom Brokaw deemed “The Greatest Generation,” because of their service, and sacrifice. “It is a generation of towering achievement,” Brokaw wrote, “... witness to sacrifices of the highest order. They know how many of the best of their generation didn't make it….”

Robert H. Willis is survived by his wife, Margaret Lee Willis; two sons, Robert H. Willis III, of Napa CA and Mickey Willis of Watson; daughter Delta Willis of New York, NY; three grandchildren and one great grandchild.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Ducks Unlimited www.ducks.org

WIREGRASS JOURNAL | Flickr Slideshow

As part of this project, I have created a slide show of my first research trip to Coffee and surrounding counties, on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27582502@N06/sets/72157605566040085/

After experimenting in both Panoramio and Flickr, I chose the latter to do this initial work in, because of the variety of other organizing and exhibition choices, NOT because of Flickr's lovely map. Unfortunately for me, Panoramio has the rich, beautiful Google Earth map as its foundation, but little in the way of organizing and exhibiting venues (like slideshows), except for tagging.

Most of the newspaper sources quoted in the slideshow are stored at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (iFPHC.org).