It was the first time in their 125 years and my
60-something years that I have ever been there, though it is about 15 miles
drive through the country from my home. The folks were nice and welcoming, and
I enjoyed the visit. Songs were sung and prayers were made, but the focus of
the afternoon was the history of the church. Jack Whitaker directed the
service. Representatives of the Shelby-Doches Baptist Association and the Southern Baptists of Texas
Convention made brief talks. Ed Williamson, a former pastor and local
resident, presented the history of the church.
Though I have never been to Bethany Church, our
family has some intriguing connections to this community, church, and school. Coincidental
in terms of topography and titles, we live in Oak
Flat also, though in Rusk County.[iv]
In 1896, our church, Smyrna Baptist Church in Rusk County, called J.
R. Carmichael, “a young, unordained preacher from Bethany Church,
Nacogdoches County...Bethany Church was requested to ordain Bro. Carmichael.
Meantime, following the scruples of the time, the minutes explicitly stated that
Bro. Carmichael was called ‘as supply until he has been ordained and then as
our pastor for the next year.’”[v]
Brother Carmichael’s wife was Ida
Whitaker, who I believe is a relative of Jack Whitaker of Bethany
Church, the person in charge of the anniversary program. After Brother
Carmichael moved to the Smyrna area, his wife joined Smyrna Church upon an
experience of grace for baptism. J. R. Carmichael was a distant relative of the
Vaughns and Parkers of Smyrna Church, all being descendants of the large Parker
family of Greene and Taliaferro counties in Georgia, who came to East Texas in
the 1850s.[vi]
During the pastorate of young J. R. Carmichael (b.
1871), an older cousin, Marshall
Lewis Vaughn (my great-grandfather, b. 1858), surrendered to the
gospel ministry. He was licensed to preach during this time. When the Sulphur
Springs Church called for his ordination, Smyrna ordained him October 17, 1897.[vii]
Elders J. R. Carmichael and M. F. Spivey formed the presbytery, perhaps assisted by others whose names are no longer known.[viii]
According to Nacogdoches Baptist Association
minutes, in 1906 Vincent
Thornton Vaughn, Marshall’s older brother, pastored Bethany Church. In
1910, Marshall Vaughn pastored Bethany Church. When Marshall pastored the
church, Robert
P. Goldsberry was Bethany’s church clerk. R. P. Goldsberry in 1873 was
a charter member of the Smyrna Church in Rusk County, and was a member of the
earlier Mt.
Carmel Church.[ix]
In the 1911-12 school year, Benjamin
Lewis Vaughn, Marshall’s son, taught at the Oak Flat School in Nacogdoches
County, which, according to the history presented by Ed Williamson, met in the
same building as Bethany Church. As far as I know, this is the only place Uncle
Ben taught school. After that school year, he died of typhoid fever on August 21,
1912. Two of his pupils, siblings Ruth
and Glen
Pearce, wrote a memorial for their teacher – which was published in a newspaper.[x] Sadly,
16-year old Glen died only a month after his teacher. Ruth (Mary Ruth Pearce
Davis) died in 1977.
My regular readers may not find much of interest in
this personal rambling. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the connections we
have with a church to which I have never been before. What is it they say about
six degrees of separation?
There is something fascinating about peering into
the history of people, places, and institutions.
[i] According to the program,
Bethany was organized at New Harmony and then later moved to Oak Flat. I do not
know this first location, other than assuming it was apparently in the Cushing/Linn
Flat vicinity.
[ii] “Texas
Baptist Statistics - 1895,” East
Texas Family Records, Volume 6, Number 2, Summer 1982, p. 9. E. D.
Blankinship pastored Smyrna Baptist Church from 1899 to 1901.
[iii] “Bethany
Baptist marks 125 years,” The Daily Sentinel, November 14, 2019.
[iv] Apparently,
at some time a map-maker or other official dubbed this community “Oak Flats.”
Those of us who live here call is Oak Flat, singular. We ought to know. It is
our community.
[v] Centennial + 5: History of Smyrna Baptist
Church, of Rusk County, Texas, 1873-1978, James Wyatt Griffith,
Henderson, TX: Printing, 1978, p. 13.
[vi]
J. R. Carmichael was the son of William M. Carmichael and Sarah Ann Brandon, and
the grandson of Reuben Carmichael and Sydney Frances Parker.
[vii] Ibid,
p. 15. Sulphur Springs is about halfway between Bethany and Smyrna.
[viii]
Milton F. Spivey was the son of Harvey Reddick Milton Spivey and Lucinda
Catherine Heaslet. The parents are buried in the Walnut
Grove Cemetery at Wonders, near Garrison. M. F. Spivey died in 1903,
but I do not know where he was buried.
[ix]
He was Elder S. F. Baucom’s father-in-law, though by 1910 Goldsberry’s
daughter had died and Baucom had remarried. S. F. Baucom was the son
of FNU and Francis Baucom. After her husband’s death, Francis Baucom married
Edward T. Parker.
[x] Perry
Rawlinson of Cushing gave me the clipping that I have. A Cushing or Nacogdoches
newspaper probably printed it.
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