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Olivet Free Will Baptist Church
History |
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A Brief History of Olivet Freewill
Baptist Church
Olivet FWB Church had its beginning in the early 1870s when a group of believers in the community started a non-denominational Sunday School, with David Lockert as the Superintendent. Service were held in a cabin for a while, then in a tobacco barn. When Lockert School was built in 1878 across the road from the present church, services were held there until the church was built. In 1889, the group was organized into a Free Will Baptist Church by the Rev. John L. Welch Sr., while still meeting in the school-house. The group began to make plans to build a church and in March 1891, Sylvester A. Murphey deeded one acre of land to the church trustees for $12.50. The men of the community built the church with timber donated by William H. Biggar. The present sanctuary is that original building. Until the 1940s, an old pot-bellied stove stood in front of the pulpit, and on cold days, all the people would gather closely around it. The restored pulpit stand still bears several charred marks where some careless fire-stirrer placed hot poker while he poured in more wood or coal. Sometimes some of the Sunday School classes met outside or in the old school across the road, but often all would be meeting at once in different corners of the sanctuary. Since 1947 three major additions have been made to the building as well as other improvements. In 1963 a brick parsonage was built next to the church. We found the names of these organizing families in the old records. H.D. Elliott, D.E. Elliot, W.H. Biggar, John R. Gower, Richard Reding, James B. Nichols, H.T. Hinton, Sam Power, J.E. Fortson, David Lockert and John Powers. We praise God today for all those who had part in starting Olivet FWB Church, and those who have kept it going through the years! We wonder how many different people have preached and taught God's Word within these walls, how many different people have heard it, been saved and grown spiritually? PRAISE THE LORD!
Olivet Free Will Baptist Church 3363 Rossview Rd. Clarksville TN 37043 |
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