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A brief history of the Free Grace Wesleyan Church
The
message of holiness was first brought to our island in
1933 by Reverend
H. J. Hervey from Wilmore, Kentucky, a representative of
the Northern
Methodist Conference. Services were originally held in
the old theater
building. In 1939, the first sanctuary was built, on
the site of the present
church building on Ferry Dock Road.
David
“Mr. Bud” Brooks (Fleita Gray Yeomans’ father) was the
lead carpenter
and the only paid member of the construction crew. The
other builders were Ed
Rose and Jimmy Lewis (Ira Lewis’ father and Ann Rose’s
grandfather) who
worked for groceries since they were members of the
immediate church family.
The congregation raised and sold chickens, shucked and
sold oysters,
took in sewing and quilted – doing all they could to
raise funds. There have been
two major changes to the outside of the building since
it was first built.
The
eight original charter members of the church – were Margery
Willis
(mother of Billy Willis
and Edith Gray Russell); Ed Rose; Jimmy Lewis
(father of
Ira Lewis and
grandfather of Ann Rose); Ruby Dee Lewis (mother
of
Patty Jean Taylor);
Johnny Lewis (brother of Ira Lewis and uncle of
Ann
Rose); Billy Guthrie;
Luther and Emma Yeomans (parents of
Garry Yeomans,
grandparents of
Trudy Rice, and great-grandparents
of Mardell Yeomans
Gillikin).
After
completion of the building, Samuel Davis painted an
inscription over the
outside door that read “Free Grace Tabernacle.” Big
pot-bellied stoves provided
heat in the winter, and summer cooling was by opening
the windows. People
mostly walked to church from nearby and from both ends
of the island since
there were not many cars. There was Sunday school,
Sunday preaching
services that sometimes lasted until 2:00 pm, Sunday
afternoon prayer
meetings, Sunday night service, Monday night Ladies Aid
meetings,
Wednesday night prayer meetings, Thursday night youth
services and
sometimes Saturday night prayer meetings.
The
Free Grace Church was originally non-denominational and
there were several
preachers until 1947 when the church joined the Pilgrim
Holiness Conference. The Pilgrim Holiness Conference later
merged with the Wesleyan Church, and thus we became the
present Free Grace Wesleyan Church.
Picture Archive -
History of people of the Free Grace Wesleyan
Church Family can be seen
here.
(Credit
to Mrs. Ann Rose, who gathered most of this
information
and to Mrs. Barbara Young) |
