(Note this blog entry is a long paper. To read it off line, you
can download it as a word file (without pictures) at this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vegb45l0ba8yg0g/christ%20church.docx?dl=0 )
**********************************************************************
When the Fayetteville Library bought
the old City Hospital complex, it acquired a former church building located on
West Rock Street, just south of the present library. The building and the parsonage
next to it had been purchased in 1981 by the hospital, which had then filled in
the tree-lined ravine separating the former church grounds from the hospital
grounds, destroying City Hospital Park and its sea of buttercups.[1] The hospital then paved everything.
 |
| Former Christ's Church building viewed through the southern windows of Fayetteville Public Library, 2015 |
Made of light-colored bricks with a
glass cross embedded in its front exterior, the old church building merited
little notice as part of the hospital. During the three-plus decades the
hospital owned it, the building served many mundane purposes. When it was torn
down this summer, its fate was mostly unlamented. However, its destruction was
a sad occasion for those of us who remember it as it was in the 1950s when it
housed Christ’s Church and vibrated with the fervor of its pastor Fred
Huckelberry. And we recall with equal sadness the missing wood-frame house just west of the church where Grace Reese Atkins, the church’s former minister, eminence grise, and soul, had lived.
With the demolition of the former church
building, the repository of many memories disappeared. The church’s ghosts are
now homeless. However, even with the old church building gone, the church’s
story should be preserved to fit into the mosaic of Fayetteville’s history.
Toward that end, the following is a short history of the church known from 1952
to 1964 as Christ’s Church and the people who breathed life into it.
Grace Reese Atkins and Central Christian Church: 1933 –
1950
The church that later became Christ’s
Church started on June 11, 1938, in the home of Emma Lehman where a small
congregation held “cottage services” until January 1939, when it rented a
meeting room on Center Street, just off the town square, and adopted a church charter
that created Central Christian Church.[2] Like the
First Christian Church on College Avenue, established in 1848, the new church
adhered to the principles of the Disciples of Christ, but Central Christian did
not officially affiliate with it.[3]
As part of the American Restoration
Movement, Central Christian Church declared itself to be non-denominational and
non-sectarian. It was part of no organizational hierarchy. Its charter stated that
the Bible is the inspired word of God and that Jesus is the son of God, and it pledged
to “follow the pattern of the New Testament Church” in all matters. Members of
the church were expected to make decisions about the plain meaning of words in
the New Testament to govern the church and guide its doctrine.
The driving force in creating the new
church was Grace Reese Adkins (1884-1973), who had moved from Mondovi, Wisconsin
to Fayetteville in 1902 with her recently widowed father, Edwin Reese; four
brothers; and four sisters. She had been a precocious child, learning to read
before she started school (“though no one knew how or when”) and writing poetry
when she was eight. She later recalled, “My
childhood
seemed to revolve around books, scissors, and pastepots.”[4]
In her first years in Fayetteville,
she worked as a teacher, and she also sometimes attended the University of
Arkansas.[5] She joined First Christian Church,
where Nathaniel Madison Ragland was the pastor. During those years, she furthered
her deep belief in and zeal for the Christian Church at least in part through
her interactions with H. S. Mobley, the district evangelist of the Christian
Church of Northwest Arkansas.[6]
In 1909, she married Ary Archer Atkins
(1886–1964) of Winslow, and the couple lived there until returning to
Fayetteville in 1920. While in Winslow, she and Ary had a daughter, Mildred Grace
(1910–1991) and a son, Harold Reese (1914–1986).[7]
The 1920 census showed that she, Ary, and their two children lived at 234 Block
Street in Fayetteville. She listed her occupation as a magazine writer. Ary worked
as a manager of Budd’s Department Store.[8]
Mrs. Atkins used her extraordinary
energy, drive and intelligence in work related to her three main interests: religious
education of young people, writing, and the Restoration Movement. Her efforts
in youth religious education were evident in 1917 when she was president in the
district Sunday School Association. In 1919, she became secretary of the Washington
County Sunday School Association and, as head of the section addressing Sunday
schools for children, helped planned its annual conventions at the University
of Arkansas.[9] After moving back in Fayetteville, she rejoined
First Christian Church and was for many years the superintendent of the children’s
division of its Sunday schools.[10]
Mrs. Adkins not only sought to improve
religious instruction for youth locally, she also used her skills as a writer,
poet, and composer to produce instructional and inspirational materials for students
and teachers nationwide. While living in Winslow, she had written a book with
the racy title, The Sex Life of Girls
and Young Women, that the Standard Publishing Company, a religious publisher,
issued in 1919. The book focused on biblical teachings of what girls and young
women should know and what they should not do. An academic reviewer writing for
the journal Social Hygiene,
described the book as “A very unscientific, stupid, and well-intentioned book.”[11]
Mrs. Adkins also wrote didactic
fiction and non-fiction for magazines, mainly those affiliated with the
Restoration Movement, such as Christian
Standard, The Lookout, and The Restoration Herald. For example, she had a serialized novel, titled
“The Challenge,” published in the Christian
Standard magazine in 1921 and an article on education. “What We Must Do
About Johnny,” published in 1923 in the same magazine. During that time, she was also composing music.
Two of her early songs, The Bumblebee and Lullaby, were published in the
September 1919 issue of the Progressive
Teacher and Southwestern School Journal.
Some of her activities in the late
1910s and 1920s were outside the church. With her interest in writing and music,
Mrs. Adkins joined the Author’s and Composer’s Society of Arkansas. A bulletin issued
by the organization in 1918 noted that she was expanding a serial novel she had
written, titled The Girl of the Ozarks,
and it would be published as a book.[12] At a
1921 meeting of the Society, she recited her new poem, “The Ozarks.”[13] Also
during the 1920s, she also was active locally in organizations such as the
Jefferson School Parent-Teacher Association and the Fayetteville chapter of the
Women’s Christian Temperance Union, of which she was elected chapter president.[14]
In the late 1920s, Mrs. Adkins became
unhappy with the First Christian Church. She later recalled, “Old historic
First Church had long since lost its candlestick…. It had become a place of
departed glory, which wrung the hearts of those who loved the Gospel. I worked
actively there for 13 years, seeking in every way short of fruitless strife to
lure it back to Scriptural ways, but to no avail.” She decided, she said, “[T]o quietly slip
away,” adding, “There was no strife, no cleavage, I just slipped out quietly,
to do what I could where I could.”[15]
In 1927, while
still attending First Christian, she initiated an annual summer bible camp. Its
purpose was to assemble young people in a rural setting for a week or two of
religious instruction and fun activities. She named the gathering the Bethany
Bible Camp.[16] During the same summer, a church
in Willowby, Ohio also held its first bible camp for the same purpose, and that
camp, the Erie Side Bible Conference, is credited in a history of Disciples of
Christ bible camps as being the church’s first. The Bethany Bible Camp is not
mentioned. In the years that followed these pioneering efforts, bible camps
became regular and important features of Christian Churches.[17]
As Mrs. Adkins was quietly slipping
away from her church home in Fayetteville, she began working in the early 1930s
as a “community missionary in rural centers,” assisting small groups and
churches in small towns and rural parts of northwest Arkansas.[18] She wrote about those days,
“…I
began working out through the rural districts, as opportunity offered,
ministering to small, discouraged groups, and drawing the youth into camp
fellowship. I was ordained as a Christian worker and found many open doors –
which men were making no effort to enter. But always I was hampered by the lack
of home base here in Fayetteville to work out from, which would stand for the
Book and the Gospel.“[19]
To remedy
the problem of lacking a proper home church, Mr. Adkins helped found the tiny
Central Christian Church. She described
the early days of the church:
The
evangelist-leader I had so persistently prayed for failed to come. So, at long
last, we started services in a home [in 1938], with just two widows and their
small families to help. The depression still had the country in its grip. My
husband was the only man we had for many years…. But somehow we carried on….
After a few months of services in a home, we moved to a hall, and were hard
pressed to pay the rent. Few attended…. We lost one of our best charter
members, and almost our only paying member, because we would not take a sectarian
position on holiness. But we held on.[20]
From 1939 until 1950, Mrs. Adkins
served church minister, although others briefly stepped into the role at
different times. During those eleven years, she was Fayetteville’s only full-time
female minister. An article published on January 27, 1940 in the local paper
observed, “Central Christian Church is the only local church with a regularly
employed woman pastor. By preference she omits the title ‘reverend.’” Her guiding principal as minister was stated
in the church announcement published weekly in the local paper: “In essentials
unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things, charity.”
 |
| Northwest Arkansas TImes, Feb. 4, 1938 |
Even as she was preaching, organizing
Bible camps and vacation bible schools, and conducting her own bible training courses
in the 1930s and 1940s, Mr. Atkins continued studying, writing, and composing. A
scholar of the Restoration Movement, she intensely studied the writings of one
of its founders, Alexander Campbell, and kept close watch on its development. She
sometimes wrote serious articles based on her research. One example is her
article in the December 1948 issue of The
Restoration Herald titled “Who Are the Church?” She also continued to write
fiction: Her favorite was titled, “Bread Alone,” that was serialized in The Lookout, a Christian magazine for
young people, in 1933.[22] Another serialized story, “The Choice,” was
published weekly in the The Outlook, from
April 30 to June 25, 1950. In addition, Mrs.
Adkins wrote materials for special church services. Her program for celebrating
Mother’s Day was published in a small book in 1949 by Standard Publishing Company.[23]
Her poetry gained some attention
outside of church channels through a column titled “Ozark Moon” that appeared regularly
in the local paper from 1935 into January 1940. The column was written by
Walter Lemke (“Uncle Walt”), the chair of the University of Arkansas journalism
department, and it featured poems submitted by local poets. Mrs. Adkins, using
the pseudonym Priscilla, regularly corresponded with him, and he had high
regard for her poetry. He wrote:
Priscilla
has been sending in verses from time to time which are distinguished by vivid
vocabulary, expert construction and other earmarks of good verse. One quality
of Priscilla’s poems, however, defies analysis. She sees things that we don’t
see. Of if we do, we’re not aware of them.…We don’t know Priscilla except
through the column…. She must be a grand person, so we’ll her a grade of “A” on
her poetry and an “A-plus on her faith…”[24]
Mrs. Adkins' poetry was -- like her -- pithy, austere, and efficient, usually with short sentences
in short paragraphs. She often wrote poems in bunches. For example, she wrote
series of short poems on, among other topics, birds (“Notes on Ornithology”),
jobs (“Vocational Lyrics”), her childhood (“Leaves from Childhood’s Diary”), and
musical instruments (“About Musical Instruments”). Mrs. Adkins viewed writing poetry
for “Ozark Moon” as “pleasant relaxation in a strenuous life.”[25]
In 1938, a small press in Gilbert
Arkansas published a short volume on her poetry titled Fragments of a Song. Also,
some of her poems were published in a 1941 book featuring the short bios of writers
in the Ozarks and examples of their work. One of her poems in that book was titled
“Housewives”:
Your problem, which no mere man understands,
Demands
consummate art —
The
endless Martha tasks upon your hands,
When
you’ve a Mary heart.[26]
Beyond her articles, stories, and
poems. Mrs. Adkins also wrote numerous hymns. Six of those were published in different
hymnals.[27]
A version of one, “I’ll Wish I
Had Done More,” published in 1948, has been adapted for choirs and featured in
recent years in several European churches.[28] One
performance with over 300,000 views on YouTube is located at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=420nDNYoAx0
Even as Mrs. Adkins ventured into the
arts, her focus remained on her ministry. After meeting from 1939 through 1941 at
the old Woodman Hall building, located at 112½ Center Street, Central Christian
Church moved in January 1942 to a tiny building at 203 S. School Street, near
the City Hospital, that had previously been used at different times as a barbershop and as a restaurant. As the move was made, church members also were progressing
toward having their own church building. They purchased land nearby on West
Rock Street in 1943. Even with meager resources, the church was able to build a
basement on its West Rock Street land, starting it in late 1945 and completing
it in 1946. When it was finished, they began holding services there while
planning to build an auditorium over it.[29]
The Arrival of Fred
Huckelbury and the Rise of Christ’s Church
While meeting in the West Rock Street
basement in 1949, the congregation began searching for a full-time minister to
replace Mrs. Adkins, but it had difficulty finding one because the small church
could pay only a pittance from its collected tithes. In all practicality, the
church needed a minister who could attract enough members to pay his salary and
its other costs.
 |
| Fred Huckelbury at Christ's Church, mid 1950s |
On July 31, 1950, a 37-year-old
business man from Fort Smith came to conduct evening services at Central
Christian Church, and wowing its members, he was invited back to preach at the
next Sunday morning service.[29] The man, Fred Donald
Huckelbury (1912–1987), had been born near Van Buren into a large family. He had
followed the path of his father, a salaried laborer, and, after finishing three
years of high school, had worked at Lauck Lumber Company in nearby Mena. He had
been elected to represent the company’s Sawmill and Timber Workers Union, and
in that capacity had negotiated with the mill’s owner during a 1937 strike.[30]
Huckelbury, who married Indianola Faye Branham of Fort Smith in 1932, had moved with his family to California in
the late 1930s. The 1940 census showed him and Faye, plus three children,
living near Los Angeles. According to his draft board information, he worked as
a finisher for the Air Light Venetian Blind Co. and was never drafted.
Sometime in the post-war 1940s, Huckelbury
and his family had moved back to Van Buren, where he worked for the Sun-Tilt Venetian
Blind Co. in Ft. Smith. (He may have owned the firm.) While earning a living by
making and selling venetian blinds, he had apparently prepared himself for the
ministry. However, he was not the minister of any church in the Fort Smith –
Van Buren area in the late 1940s and early 1950s.[31]
 |
| Fred Huckelbury with Faye Huckelbury in Christ's Church. mid 1950s |
Whatever training for and experience
as a minister Huckelbury had before he visited Fayetteville in 1950, they were
more than enough: it turned out that he was very good at it. This thin, tall (6” 2”), intense man with
wavy hair impressed listeners with his talents as an orator and dazzled them
with his musical abilities as he played different instruments.[32]
Huckelbury was not a hell-fire bible
thumper and jumper like those found in many fundamentalist churches at the time; he
spoke clearly, firmly, and eloquently, delivering a reasoned message in a
smooth, deep voice. His scripture-based sermons appealed as much to the listeners’
intellect as to their gut, even as they delivered a firm message of right and
wrong.
Many Central Christian Church
members, especially its spiritual leader, Mrs. Adkins, thought Huckelbury was a
good fit for the church, and church members hired him to be their minister.
Mrs. Adkins later observed, “[I]n the time of our greatest need, [God] sent
Fred Huckelbury, a young businessman from Fort Smith to help us.”[33]
Huckelbury took over the ministry in
early 1951, though he continued to commute from Fort Smith for some months
after that. The first year of his ministry was difficult, but the Church had started
growing. Mrs. Adkins described the first year as follows: “Satan sent every
device to hinder – sickness, broken bones, business difficulties – everything.
But under his ministry, after months of grueling, heartbreaking effort, the
tide began to turn.”[34]
Central Christian Church took a big
step forward on November 11, 1951, when it held its first church service in the
newly completed auditorium that had been built over the West Rock Street basement.
It continued to expand and improve the building during the next few years,
adding an organ, a baptistry, and a back wing. In 1952, the church’s name was
changed to Christ’s Church, likely to emphasize its strictly non-hierarchical, non-denominational
character.
 |
| Newly Built Christ's Church, December 1952 |
Fueled by the tireless evangelizing of the
charismatic preacher, who was supported by the prodigious work of Mrs. Adkins,
Christ’s Church rapidly increased its membership, adding 77 new members from September
1951 to August 1952, 33 by baptism and 44 by transfer. Part of the church
resurgence was stimulated by a lively multi-night revival that Huckelberry held
in November, 1951.[35]
As the menu of activities offered to
church members of all ages grew, new members continued to join the church week
by week. For example, the Church Bulletin for March 21, 1954, reported that in
the previous week the church had added nine new members, four through transfers
from a Baptist church and five through baptism.[36]
A picture of the church building
published in the local paper on Dec. 24, 1952, included the claim that Christ’s
Church had more baptisms in the preceding year than any other Christian Church
in Arkansas. That claim was evidence of the growing success of the small
church.
Through the efforts of Mrs. Atkins, who
resided in the house just west of the church at 429 West Rock Street, Christ’s
Church had multiple programs for children. In 1952, the church’s daily vacation
bible school, directed by Mrs. Adkins, enrolled 61 children and it continued to
grow each year that followed during Huckelberry’s ministry[37] Aside from
programs for children, the church had special programs for teenagers (including
a harmonica club) and college age adults, plus it had a men’s group, a women’s
group and bible study for all adults. The church even offered “university-level
bible courses” through the Arkansas Bible Institute it created in 1954.[38] The Institute was headed by Mrs. Adkins and the
courses were taught by Paul C. Davis (1904–1986), a former public school
teacher and former state representative who was at the time the elected
Washington County Clerk. In 1953, the church also began publishing its own
journal, The Gospel Challenge,
edited by Mrs. Adkins.[39]
 |
| Drawing of Christ's Church, Northwest Arkansas Times, December 23, 1961 |
From the beginning of Huckelbury’s
ministry, the church had continued the outreach programs that had been
initiated earlier by Mrs. Adkins when she had been the church’s pastor. and had
expanded them. Huckelbury and church members held rallies and conducted church
services in rural parts of the county. Three church members became ordained
ministers to assist churches outside Fayetteville. To extend the church’s
reach, it began in 1952 a weekly Sunday morning radio program on KRGH.
As the church began to take off in
1952, Mrs. Adkins was mightily pleased with what she saw. She was, at last,
realizing her dream. She wrote in Fall 1952:
…there
is something peculiarly fresh and different in …Christ’s Church. Somehow, in some measure, we have been able
to capture the vital essence of the Early Church. We have done it partly by
avoidance of stilted forms and customs – by “practicing in non-essentials,
liberty.” And by lots of knee work. Just lots and lots of it. Little by little,
our dreams of a Scriptural congregation are coming true. And the church is
spilling over into the country around, through radio programs, and rural
services and rallies, and the tireless efforts of Fred Huckelberry…. Cars from
the church go out with him, and almost every night is full.[40]
My experience with the church started
in the first part of 1954, when I was in the first grade. My mother had drug me
to the church after she, my dad, and I moved to a City Housing apartment
located just a few blocks from West Rock Street. In the summer of 1954, I
attended Christ’s Church’s daily vacation bible school. I would also attend the
summer bible schools in the three years that followed. My main recollections
from those early experiences are marching into and out of the church building
with a column of kids as a piano pounded out “Onward Christian Soldiers, Marching
as to War” and making the trip down the perilous path to the City Hospital Park
in the ravine behind the church. There we could (at last!) play. I also recall watching
a peculiarly fussy and peripatetic older lady orchestrate everything,
apparently worrying about every detail.
 |
| Certificate acknowledging completion of the 1954 Vacation Bible School at Christ's Church |
That fussy lady, her hands always
moving with nervous energy, was Mrs. Adkins, and during the dozen years I was
active in the church, I spent considerable time with her, mainly in her classes
and in practices for various church programs (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas,
etc.) she was directing. I remember her as a no-nonsense purpose-driven woman,
never particularly warm or harsh. Certainly, I was impressed with her large
living room, crammed full of books, papers, and a piano, where we would often
meet. It struck me as a place from the distant past where serious reading,
thinking, and reflection took place, and I liked being there.
In the years after I joined the
church, its growth and vigor of the church continued apace. The pastor and
church members, I recall, talked of a “spirit-filled” church, a church “on
fire” for Jesus. However, in 1956 it suffered a setback. I am not sure what
happened or why, but two men – brothers Odean (1918 – 1977) and Odell (1916 -
1991) Carnes -- who were church elders left the church with their families.[41] In early 1956,
Odean – a barber by trade – was pastor of Parkdale Baptist Church in
Fayetteville and a year later was the minister of a church with the name
“Central Christs Church” that met a few blocks from Christ’s Church. Some church
members left Christ’s Church to follow the Carnes bothers.
Despite this division in the church,
Huckelbury continued to fill the church until his departure at the end of
January 1958.[42] When Huckelbury left
Fayetteville, he moved to Julesburg, Colorado, where he became minister of the
Julesburg Church of Christ. In early 1960, he moved from Colorado to Corinth,
Mississippi, where he became pastor of the Harper Road Christian church and an
evangelist with the Christian Evangelizers Association, an organization created
by Cecil Todd (who had been a minister at the Christian Church in Fort Smith in
the late 1950s). The Association had its headquarters in Joplin, Mo. A newspaper story in 1960 described the
organization as follows:
The
Christian Evangelizers Association features national evangelists, Cecil Todd
and Fred Huckleberry, singing evangelist, Midget Lowell Mason, and the well-known
Blackwood Brothers Quartet as well as the Statesman and Prophets Quartets.
Christian
Evangelizers hold large tent revivals in various cities and help to establish
new congregations of Churches of Christ in those cities. They have been
televised and have also been on nation-wide radio programs.[43]
Todd later changed the name of the organization to Rival
Fires Ministry and became a well-known tele-evangelist. The organization still
exists and is headquartered in Branson, Mo. It is uncertain how long
Huckelberry remained affiliated with Todd and his ministries.[44]
For most of the rest of his life,
Huckelbury was the pastor of Harper Road Christian Church in Corinth, and he also
periodically conducted revivals for churches in other states. He retired in
1984 and passed away in Corinth in 1987. He and Faye are buried at Fairview Cemetery in Van Buren, Arkansas.
One of Huckelbury’s legacies is Rock
Solid Ministries, an organization that conducts Christian Church revivals
throughout the United States. It has two evangelists, both of whom live in
Corinth.[45] One of them is Tom Weaver,
Huckelbury’s grandson, the son of David and Donna Faye Huckelbury Weaver, who
were married in 1949.
The Rock Solid Ministries website
cites Huckelbury, “a mid-Twentieth
Century Restoration Movement Evangelist who held hundreds of revivals and
baptized thousands into Christ,” as an inspiration for its work.[46] It has posted on its website recordings of six
sermons that Huckelbury delivered on radio in Corinth in the early 1960s. The
sermons can be heard at this link: https://www.rocksolidministries.org/fdhaudio/
Christ’s Church After Huckelbury
When Fred Huckelbury left Christ’s
Church in early 1958, it was a thriving church with healthy membership and
diverse activities. It held Sunday
School before the main Church Service. It had Sunday evening, Wednesday night,
and Friday night services, plus many “fellowship opportunities” for its
members. It had a weekly radio program. However, time would show that much of
the success of the church had been due to Huckelberry and his formidable
talents.
The man who followed Fred Huckelbury
had big shoes to fill. The Church picked Sterling McBee (1922 – 1993) He was an
earnest man who graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1952. He had the style
and eloquence, but not the charisma, of Huckelbury. Also, he was handicapped
in his efforts to continue the vitality of the church by the fact that he lived
thirty miles away in Huntsville and had a full-time job there as supervisor of
the local Farmers Home Administration office. He simply could not devote the
same amount of time to develop the church as Huckelberry had.
 |
| Sermons by Sterling McBee at Christ's Church |
Perhaps it was unhappiness with his
performance that caused in 1960 a major split in the church that resulted in Mrs.
Adkins leaving it. Or maybe, Mrs. Adkins had doctrinal disagreement with McBee.
Whatever her grievance, by the middle of 1960, she had left Christ’s Church –
the church to which had devoted much of her life -- to join the recently
created Central Christian Church. Several other church members joined the seventy-six-year-old
woman in the exit, and her departure was a grave blow to Christ’s Church, which
nonetheless carried on with a diminished flock.[47]
McBee remained as the church’s
minister until November 1963, when he was transferred from FmHA’s office in
Huntsville to its office in Warren. The church selected Carroll Cole (1901–1973)
as its next minister. He came to Christ’s Church from Anniston, Missouri, where
he had been pastor of a Christian Church. Soon after he took over as minister in
early February 1964, Christ’s Church merged with Central Christian Church, and
Mrs. Adkins rejoined the church on West Rock Street. Its name was changed to Central
Christian Church.
Although eighty years old and in poor
health, Mrs. Adkins played the piano at church services every Sunday, taught
bible classes, and directed special church programs.[48]
She continued her church-related activities until 1967, when she moved to
Illinois to live with her daughter, Lois Johnson. She passed away in 1973 and
is buried in Fairfield Memorial Gardens in Fayetteville.[49]
Carroll Cole remained as pastor of
Central Christian Church for less than two years, leaving in September 1965.
The men who followed him as minister of the church at West Rock Street were as
follows:
Edward
R. Baker (June 1966 – February 1968)
Charles
Pickett (November 1968 – October 1970)
Carroll
Cole (October 1971 – July 1973) (passed away Dec. 1973)
Sterling
McBee (February 1974 – March 1976)
Herman
Paden (April 1976 – 198?)
These pastors presided over a
diminished church whose slow downward attendance trend was sometimes
interrupted by enthusiasm created by a new pastor, church rallies, and other
special events.[50] Despite their best efforts,
none of the ministers was able to recapture the magic of the Huckelberry years.
In 1981, the
church’s pastor was Herman Paden, who had occupied the pulpit for nearly five
years after he had replaced McBee (who had in 1973 returned to be the church’s
pastor, leaving again in 1976). Paden
and the church were approached by City Hospital directors about their desire to
buy the church’s West Rock Street buildings and land. The hospital intended to
expand and to do so it needed the church’s property.
 |
| The Northwest Arkansas Times reports the sale of the church building to the City Hospital, August 15, 1981 |
When the church resisted selling the
building that had been its home for thirty years, the hospital threatened to
initiate condemnation proceedings. In early August, 1981, a week before the
governing board was to vote to file condemnation papers, the hospital and church
reached an agreement: The hospital would
buy for $130,000 a church building at 904 West 15th Street that belonged
to the Pentecostal Church whose members were about to move into a new church
building. The hospital would then trade the 15th Street church building
for Central Christian Church’s West Rock Street properties.[51] The deal was made, and Central Christian Church
left its building on South Rock Street. It held its first services at its new
location on November22, 1981.[52]
Central
Christian Church still meets weekly and will celebrate its 80th
birthday in 2019. Its church building now is located at 3264 North 48th
Street in Springdale and its long-time pastor is Ed Cowan.[53] The congregation is a small one.
Conclusion
While the destruction of a soulless
building can be painful for people who recall the efforts that were required to
create it, the hopes and dreams of the people who populated it, and the dramas
played out in it, the loss become deeper when memories accompany it into
oblivion. In the case of Christ’s Church, and of the city hospital that bought
it, the memories associated with these institutions should not be lost; their
stories belong in the narrative history of the city.
Sometime in
the next few years, the Fayetteville library will construct new buildings over
the land long occupied by the church and hospital. It will offer space and
programs that, no doubt, will be the envy of most cities. As this wonderful
addition to the city contributes to the learning of its citizens and enhances
the enjoyment of life of all who visit it, the library should find ways to tell
the story of the institutions that preceded it in its new location and to honor
those who made those institutions important elements of the city’s past.
1. Mrs. Grace Reese Adkins, whose short biography is presented in this
paper, would have been deeply disturbed by the destruction of City Hospital
Park, had she lived to see it. She wrote about the beauty of the flowers in the
park in letters to the editor of the Northwest
Arkansas Times in 1960 and 1962:
There
is a beauty spot in Fayetteville which few people know anything about, namely a
lovely colony of buttercups in City Hospital Park, which increase in size from
year to year…I first discovered this colony in the early spring 1920, when I
was a patient in the City Hospital. I looked out of my window and saw the small
patch of yellow on the green slope of the hillside. Many years later we bought
a home on the edge of the park, and there they were still, but in greater
numbers. Each year they carpet a larger area….You ought to see them. They are
close to West Street, in a swale where the ravine flattens out and the sun
creeps in.
Letter to the editor. Northwest Arkansas Times, April 22,
1960, p 3; also see, Letter to the editor. Northwest
Arkansas Times, March 20, 1962, p. 16.
2. For a
brief history of the church, see “Central Christian Church.” Northwest Arkansas Times, December 12,
1981.
3. For a history of the Disciples of Christ, see
https://disciples.org/our-identity/history-of-the-disciples/
. A history of Fayetteville’s First Christian Church can
be found at this link: https://fccfayetteville.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Ragland-History-of-FCC-Fayetteville-high-res.pdf
4. Florence Woodcock McCullough. 1945. Living Authors of the Ozarks and their
Literature. Self-published, pp. 3.
Accessible at this link: https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.75436/2015.75436.Living-Authors-Of-The-Ozarks-And-Their-Literature_djvu.txt
Also, Mrs. Adkins’ description of her move to
Fayetteville in 1902 with her family is found in a letter to the editor she
wrote, published in the Northwest
Arkansas Times on May 6, 1969, p. 4.
5. Mrs.
Adkins alludes to her work as a teacher in a short summary of her life that she
wrote in 1945 for her entry in Living
Authors of the Ozarks and their Literature (see footnote 4.) She wrote, “It was only a step from public
school teaching to the field of Christian education.” In a letter to the editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times dated July 24,
1964, Mrs. Adkins wrote about attending an Arkansas history course at the
University of Arkansas during the first decade of the 1900s.
6. According to Thomas Elmore Lucy, known as
the “Globe-Trotting Poet-Humorist of Arkansas,” who was popular in the state’s
Chautauqua Circuit, H. S. Mobley (his first name was “Hazel, which he
understandably did not use) arrived in Washington County about the same time as
Mrs. Adkins to be the “district evangelist of the Christian Church in Northwest
Arkansas.” He traveled by horse and buggy to rural areas of the county to hold
“brush arbor” revivals and other services. For a while, Lucy had accompanied
him as song leader for some of the services. According to Lucy, Mobley had
“outstanding personalities among his converts” such as Grace Reese Adkins,
“author and community missionary in rural centers.” Thomas Elmore Lucy, “The
Shining Cave,” Arkansas Gazette,
June 23, 1946, p. 37.
Mobley (1869 – 1946) left this work as a
full-time evangelist before 1910. The census that year showed him living in
Prairie Grove and working as a “traveling agent” for a farmer’s organization.
In 1920, he was farming in Prairie Grove and working for a program to help
farmers improve their crops. The census that year showed that Edgar L. Reese,
Mrs. Adkins brother, was among the people living on his farm. Mobley spent some
years in the 1920s in Washington D.C. as a lobbyist for farmers and later
traveled as a speaker for International Harvester Co. In the late 1920s, he returned to farming in
Prairie Grove and was elected nineteen times to one-year terms as president of
the Washington County Farm Bureau. He regularly served on the state board of
the Farm Bureau during these years.
7. In 1925,
Mrs. Atkins had another daughter, Lois Margaret (1925 - ?).
8. Advertisement. Northwest Arkansas Times, March 2, 1923, p. 3. According to Mrs. Adkins, her husband was “a quiet
person, not given to public work.” Grace Reese Adkins. 1952. “Rugged Paths to
Victory.” The Restoration Herald,
vol. 17 no. 1, September, pp. 5, 7.
9. “Fourth
District S.S. Convention August 27.” Fayetteville
Daily Democrat, August 22, 1917, p. 3; “County Sunday School Convention May
26-27.” Fayetteville Daily Democrat,
May 24, 1919, p. 1; and “County Sunday Schools to Meet Here Tuesday.” Fayetteville Daily Democrat, June 27,
1921. Mrs. Adkins was president of the district Sunday school association and secretary
of the county association.
10. “Sunday Rally Day at First Christian.” Fayetteville Daily Democrat, Sept. 27,
1922.
11.
H.W.D. 1920. “Review of the Sex Life of Girls and Young Women.” Social Hygiene, vol. 6, p. 303. Accessible
through Google Books.
12 “Initial Bulletin Issued by Society.” Arkansas Gazette, December 29, 1918, p. 16. Also see,
“Authors and
Composers Society Holds Meeting.” Arkansas
Gazette, January 8, 1919, p. 1 and “Appears in New Dress.” Arkansas Gazette, Feb 8, 1920, p. 45. I
have not identified the magazine in which the serialized novel was published
nor found any evidence it was published as a book.
For more about the society, which had an
active membership of 122 in 1921, see a summary article in the July-August 1921
issue of the “The Arkansas Writer.” The article reprint is in C. Fred Williams,
et al. (eds.). 1984. A Documentary
History of Arkansas, University of Arkansas Press, pp. 198–199.
13. Note, Arkansas Gazette,
January 30, 1921, p. 29 and Note. Arkansas
Gazette, February 2, 1921, p. 4.
The February
1, 1921 meeting featured authors from Northwest Arkansas. Both Mrs. Adkins and
Thomas Elmore Lucey, mentioned in footnote 6, made presentations at the meeting.
14. “P.T.A. to Hold Social Meeting.” Fayetteville Daily Democrat, June 16,
1922, p. 2 and “District W.C.T.U. Meeting Held at Fayetteville.” Arkansas Gazette, March 19, 1930, p. 2.
15. Grace Reese Adkins. 1952. “Rugged Paths to
Victory.” The Restoration Herald,
vol 17(1), pp. 5, 7.
16. Bethany, a town mentioned in the New
Testament, was the home of Lazarus, who – according to the Bible -- was
resurrected by Jesus four days after he died. Bethany is also the West Virginia
city that was home to Alexander Campbell and is the name of the college he
established there in 1840.
17. Mrs. Adkins stated specifically that her
camp was first held the same year that the Erieside Camp first met. She wrote,
“I tried to strengthen the churches of the county through their youth by
organizing Bethany Bible Camp, the same year Erieside was started. But while it
did much good, it could not turn the tide of apostasy in the churches.” Grace
Reese Adkins. 1952. “Rugged Paths to Victory. The Restoration Herald, vol 17(1), pp. 5, 7.
The following is from a 1948 newspaper
article, likely based on materials written by Mrs. Adkins, that briefly told
the history of the Bethany Bible Camp:
Bethany
Bible Camp was one of the two first camps in the modern Christian Service
Movement for young people. The other was located in Erieside, Ohio. Both camps
started in 1927 without knowledge of each other and have served as models for
many years until the number of the camps now totals 197 in the United States.
The
main idea behind the service camps is education in Bible scriptures and
preparation for Christian work on a non-sectarian basis. A large number of
recruits for full time gospel and missionary work enter Bible colleges each
year from the services camps.
The
first site of Bethany Bible Camps was at Wesley, and the school house there was
used for assembly, tents for dormitories, and the improved outdoor kitchen for
cooking. It has also been held at Brentwood, West Fork, Farmington, and the
Adkins home north of Fayetteville, where tents, garage, basement and barn lofts
were combined to provide dormitory accommodations.
For
the past three seasons the camp has been held at the Highland Community
building with tents used for sleeping. A permanent camp ground has been
acquired nearby, but it is not yet ready for use.
“Bethany Bible Camp Pioneered
in Modern Christian Service Movement for Youth.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, June 24, 1948, p. 8.
For a discussion of Christian Church camps,
see the entry on “Camps” by Reuben G. Bullard in the Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement, edited by Douglas A.
Foster, published in 2004 by Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
18 “Community
missionary in rural centers” was Lucy’s description of Mrs. Adkins (see
footnote 6). Lucy knew Mrs. Adkins through the Arkansas Authors and Composers
Society of which both were members in the early 1920s and through mutual
association with H. J. Mosely and his family.
19. Grace Reese Adkins. 1952. “Rugged Paths to
Victory.” The Restoration Herald,
vol 17(1), pp. 5, 7
20. Grace Reese Adkins. 1952. “Rugged Paths to
Victory.” The Restoration Herald,
vol 17(1), pp. 5, 7
21. See these articles for descriptions of various Bethany Bible
Camps and vacation bible schools:
“Farmington.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, July 15, 1941, p 2.
“Bethany Bible Camp to Open July 10.” Northwest Arkansas Times July 9,
1942 p 4.
“Bethan Bible Camp Plans Reading Course.” Northwest Arkansas Times Aug
6,1942.
“Bethany Bible Camp to be
Held at Devil’s Den.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, June 9, 1945, p. 3.
“Preparations Made for Bible Camp of Christian Church.” Northwest Arkansas Times July 20,
1946, p. 2.
“Guest to Speak at Central Christian.” Northwest Arkansas Times July 5,
1947, p. 2.
“Youth Week is scheduled at Bible Camp.” Northwest Arkansas Times July 10,
1948, p. 2.
“New Course to be Featured on Bethan Bible Camp Program.” Northwest Arkansas Times July 9,
1949, p. 2.
“25 Enrolled at Church
Bible School.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, June 5, 1944, p. 7.
“Central Christian Church
to Have Bible School.” Northwest
Arkansas Times June 2, 1945, p. 3.
“Christian Bible School Continues.” Northwest Arkansas Times, June 29,
1946, p. 2.
“Evangelist [Billy James Hargis] to Hold Meetings Here.” Northwest Arkansas Times May 24,
1947, p. 2. Note. Northwest
Arkansas Times, May 31, 1953, p. 2.
22. Mrs. Adkins mentioned this story as her
favorite in her entry in Florence Woodcock McCullough. 1945. Living Authors of the Ozarks and their
Literature. Self-published, pp. 3-4. (See footnote 4.)
23. The title was Standard Mother’s Day Program Book. See “Work of Local Pastor Published.” Northwest Arkansas Times, April 30, 1949.
24 “Ozark Moon: Lines of Doctrine.” Fayetteville Daily Democrat, Nov. 14,
1935, p. 4
25. Florence
Woodcock McCullough. 1945. Living
Authors of the Ozarks and their Literature. Self-published, pp. 3-4. (See footnote 4.)
26. This poem was published in Florence
Woodcock McCullough. 1945. Living
Authors of the Ozarks and their Literature. Self-published, pp. 3-4. It is
based on a story in the New Testament (Luke) about Jesus visiting the house,
located in Bethany, of sisters Martha and Mary. While Martha was distracted by
preparing a meal, Mary sat and talked at length with Jesus. Martha was not
pleased.
28. Other songs in hymnals include “This is
the Way the Wind Doth Blow,” “‘Tis Written in his Word,” “All Through the Day while I am at Play,” “Under
the Snow,” and “The One that the Children Love.”
29. Note. Northwest Arkansas Times, July 21,
1950. Note. Northwest Arkansas Times, Aug. 7, 1950, p. 5
30. “Lumber Plant Resumes
Work.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, Aug 2, 1937, p. 9.
31. I found no records that
document his preparation for the ministry. A search of Fort Smith city
directories and the city’s newspaper for the years 1949, 1950, and 1951
provided no record of Huckelberry serving as the minister of a church in the
Fort Smith-Van Buren area during these years.
32. An article in the Northwest Arkansas Times reported that
he would be speaking to the “Fayetteville Bible Mission” and described his as
follows: “Mr. Huckleberry is known as a forceful speaker and talented musician.
He will bring with him a number of instruments, which he will play at the
service.” “Rev. Fred Huckleberry (sic) to Speak at Mission.” Northwest Arkansas Times, June 30, 1951, p. 2.
One of Huckelberry’s sisters was Mrs. Isabel
French, who wrote a weekly column, “Hills of Home,” for the Arkansas Gazette for more than two
decades. “’Hills of Home’ Writer Dies (Mrs. Isabel France).” Arkansas Gazette, Feb. 24, 1963
33. Grace
Reese Adkins. 1952. “Rugged Paths to Victory.” The Restoration Herald, vol 17(1), pp. 5, 7.
34.
Grace Reese Adkins. 1952. “Rugged Paths to Victory.” The Restoration Herald, vol 17(1), pp. 5, 7.
35. Grace
Reese Adkins. 1952. “Rugged Paths to Victory.” The Restoration Herald, vol 17(1), pp. 5, 7.
Also, “Fred Huckleberry (sic)
Revival Service.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, Nov 26, 1951, p. 2.
36. One of the members added
through baptism that week was Bernice Durning, my mother.
37. “Picnic Announced for
Christ’s Church DVBS.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, June 12, 1952.
38. See these articles:
“Berean Class Organized at
Central Christian.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, Jan 26, 1952 p. 2.
“Halloween Party Given at
O’Dean Karnes House.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, Oct 31, 1952 p. 2.
“Skating Party Given by
Christ’ Church.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, June 16, 1953, p. 2.
“Christ’s
Church Has Bible Institute Work.” Northwest Arkansas Times, March 27,
1954, p. 11.
“Christ’s Church to Re-Open Bible Class.” Northwest
Arkansas Times August 28, 1954.
“Boys of Christ’s Church
Organize Harmonia Club.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, Nov 11, 1954.
39. “Mrs. Adkins Editor of
Gospel Challenge.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, June 3, 1953.
40. Grace
Reese Adkins. 1952. “Rugged Paths to Victory.” The Restoration Herald, vol 17(1), pp. 5, 7.
41. Both were elders when the
church installed new officers for the coming year in late September 1955. “Christ’s
Church.” Northwest
Arkansas Times, Sept.24, 1955, p.
3. After preaching at a local Baptist
church during most of 1956, Odean Carnes was the minister of Central Christs
Church when it opened its doors 425 South Government Street near the beginning
of 1957.
42. I was probably the last
person that Huckelberry baptized at Christ Church. It was his last Sunday there
on January 28, 1958.
43. “Daniel Schantz Joins Evangelizers.”
Wilmington News-Journal (Ohio), Jan
11, 1960, p. 6. Note: Reading the article it is unclear because of poor
punctuation whether Huckelberry or “Midget Lowell Mason” was the “singing
evangelist.” It was Mason, who later was known as the “world’s smallest gospel
singer.” “Lowell Mason Will Sing at
Service.” Joplin Globe, December 31,
1975, p. 10.
44. See https://revivalfires.org/about/
46. See the short bio at https://www.rocksolidministries.org/fdhaudio/
47. My mother and most
long-time members stayed at Christ’s Church. I was attending church at the time
of the split, but as a teenager, I did not pay much attention to what was going
on and why.
48 Central Christian, Northwest Arkansas Times Nov 7 1964 and New Bible Class. Northwest Arkansas Times Feb 5, 1966, p. 5, I was in the Thanksgiving church
program she directed in November 1964.
49. “Obituary: Mrs. Adkins.” Northwest Arkansas Times, January 11, 1974, p. 2.
50. As the list shows, Carroll Cole, who departed
as minister in September 1965, returned six years later to again take on the
ministry. He fell ill in Summer, 1973 and passed away in December. He was
followed by Sterling McBee, the man Cole had replaced in January 1964.
51. “Hospital, Church Settle
Property Dispute.” Northwest Arkansas
Times, Aug. 15, 1983, p. 1.
52. “Central Christian
Church.” Northwest Arkansas Times,
December 21, 1981.
53. Tresa McBee Riha.
“Returning to the familiar.” Northwest Arkansas
Times, January 8, 2000. My mother continued attending the church until
health issues intervened in 2013. My dad joined the church in the late 1990s
and attended with my mother.
