History of the First United Methodist Church in Double Springs

In the later years of the Nineteenth century (1800s) and early years of the Twentieth century (1900s), there were two Methodist congregations in Double Springs. The two congregations mentioned by William Tidwell alludes to the split in the Methodist Churches during the Civil War and that the local churches may have their roots in that era. However, at this time no conclusive evidence has been found to prove a history before 1888.

According to the "History of Double Springs First Baptist Church" by Lorus Briscoe Baggett which was published in the History of Winston County the following information suggests the Methodist Church was in existence in 1888.

"The Baptist and Methodist congregations met together in the Courtroom for services until they could build places of their own. The Methodist built a

one room building where the Church of Christ Pastor’s home was in(1980).

Now this building is an annex for The Baptist Church. The Baptist built their first building in August 1891.

Excerpts from the Baptist Association in 1898 are our earliest record of the

Methodist Church in Winston Co. That does not imply that this is the earliest date, however, it does imply that a church existed and was strong enough to own its own property.

Held with Double Springs Church, Winston County, and Alabama. September 16-18, 1898

22. Motion in order, to extend the special thanks of Body to the generous and kind hearted people of the Northern Methodist Church, who showing much of the Spirit of Christ, in granting to the Double Springs Church the use of their place of worship and to this Body during the present session, may the good Lord pour out a copious blessing unto these Christian people.

Ms. Alma Hoylman said that her family moved to Double Springs in 1909 and that the Methodist Church was already here. It was generally in the area described by Bill Tidwell as between Hwy 195 and Main Street. She also said that she began attending Sunday School in 1910. Listed below are some of the adults that attended then the Methodist Church during her childhood:

John and Carrie Curtis
Bill McCullars family
Carol Mitchell family
Butram family
John Wesley Howell family

William Tidwell indicated Mrs. Kate Burdick Hilton joined the Methodist Church in Double Springs in 1910.

A little after 1920, the Methodist Episcopal group was dissolved and most of the members joined the Southern Methodist Church. It is likely that there were few Northern supporters in the area at that time.

The following concerning the unification of the two Methodist Churches in the early 1920’s, is quoted from William Tidwell’s history of the Methodist titled "The Double Springs United Methodist Church and published in the History of Winston County in 1980.

Some original members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South were the

Corbin Family, Wilson Family, Howell Family, Hilton Family, and Speers family.

From the Methodist Episcopal Church came the Aaron family, Burdick family, Hampton family, Rice family, and Tidwell family.

The property on which the church now stands was purchased from J. W. Robinson in 1914. A home to be used as a parsonage was located on the property, but no church building was built here until 1927. Reportedly, Dr. John W. Robinson, a local dentist , had been elected the Sheriff of Winston County and was serving in that capacity at the time of the purchase.

Additional land between the church and Blake Drive was purchased from Mack and Docia Lovett in 1976.

In time, one Methodist church owned and met in a building that is still standing between Main Street and Highway 195. It was sold to the Baptists who used it for several years. It is was once used as a private residence. One congregation met in a building that was sold to the Church of Christ. That denomination remained at that site on Highway 195 until 2006. This building was later demolished.

Dorthy Lee in her "Memories of Double Springs Methodist Church 1932-1942" indicates some of the people attending. She was reluctant to list them for fear that she might offend someone she forgot. She mentions her parents Dave and Lillian Lee, her sisters, Charlsie and Ellen Belle, Pearl Claiborn, Alma Tingle, Eleanor Burdick, Onzell Steele, Eula Jean Hilton, Kathleen Hilton, Jeanne Wainwright Park, Bertha Falls, Opal Wilson, Bessie Tidwell, Ester Tidwell, Madge Campbell and Pauline Howell. There was also Kate B. and Kathryn Hilton, Margaret Burdick, and Annie Wilson Campbell. Many others were not mentioned.

This building was later demolished and a commercial building and a car lot was established on this piece of land.

Ms. Lee recounts a celebration of the Unification of the Methodist Church of the South and the Episcopal church in 1937 and says she didn’t know when the Methodist Church of the South "disbanded". She reports a similar celebration in 1939 for the 200^th anniversary of the Methodist Church.

In 1927, the present church building was occupied. Rev. Grady Aldridge was the first pastor to serve here. The building has undergone remodeling and additions at various times since, but upon careful observation, the configuration of the original building can be seen. The windows are unevenly spaced due to the original configuration. The most extensive addition was made in 1976. A social hall, pastor’s study, and several classrooms were added.

A new parsonage was built in 1966. The old parsonage, which was on the property when it was purchased, was demolished in 1980. The building sat vacant for several years during the 1990s and was renovated and rented in 2005 in order to provide income for renovations and additions to the main building.

The Main building’s roof still has the original rough sawn timbers, but has been augmented with new rafters and joist. The Sanctuary was repaired and renovated in 2005/2006. The original building had a unique feature of the front door being on the SE corner forming a triangular porch. During the renovations, the old doorway was exposed and evidence of a previous renovation exposed for a brief time. Also, during the renovation process, various workers discovered several artifacts. They include songbooks from the 1920s, Adult Sunday School Books from the 1930s and an antique button hook. There are few explanations for the Button Hook, other than that they could have still been used until the late 1920s. Because the Sunday school Books were left in the interior walls and ceiling under the insulation, leaves few explanations for the literature other than they were intentionally left by someone during the past with the intent of them being found as a sort of "Time Capsule". Those articles have been placed in a display case in the hallway of the Classroom addition. As a matter of interest, during the 2005-2005 renovation some current song books and Sunday School lesson books left in the hope that future Christians would find them. The Classroom addition of 1976, which was designed with the forethought of expansion, was completed by adding a third floor to the backside of the building during the 2005-2006 renovation.

A letter was sent to all members and the congregation announcing a Special Charge Conference to be held on June 22, 1994 for the final vote. That meeting was held and the vote passed

According to the Minutes dated August 4, 1994 a petition was circulated with a group of the dedicated members who met on the evening of June 22, 1994 after the Special Charge Conference and decided to keep the church open. They proudly pointed to the fact that no Services were ever missed. "Hang on" is what they did, until the turn of the millennium, when attendance was down to about half a dozen. That group of faithful Methodists kept the door open, even though their average age was more than seventy years. They were:

• Larmon and Mildred Aderholt
• Harry and Elizabeth Linns
• Joyce and Bob Martin
• J. T. and Margie Watkins
• Ada Bee Farris
• Elizabeth Bonds

Around 2001, the church again was energized with the assignment of Rev. Albert Rivera, who had no problem with sharing the leadership of the church. The church’s new strength was based in the leadership of the congregation, instead of only on the pastor.

Mildred Aderholt who served as Secretary Treasurer during those lean years without many members provides this list of Pastors beginning with:

• Rev. Grady Aldridge - 1927
• W. P. Campbell – 1955
• Bro Johnson 1955-1956
• Richard Raya – Birmingham Southern student
• E. W. Smith - 1958
• Frank Turnbow – 1961
• Felix Miles – 1963-64
• Tom Smithl – 1965
• Paul Kellum – 1966-68
• Billy Holcomb – 1968-70
• William Hart – 1971-73
• I. D. Howard – 1974-75
• Woodrow Lamon – 1976
• David Nelson – 1977-79
• David Eddleman – 1980
• Dr. Ron Shell – 1981
• Gilbert Posey – 1982
• Walter Cash – 1983-84
• Neil Goss – 1985
• Vernon Byers – 1986-87
• Steve Wise – 1988-89
• Mark Brown – 1990-91
• Leldon Hardin – 1992
• Bill Weems – 1993
• Bro. Gus Buttram – 1994
• Douglas Fergurson – 1995-99
• Albert Rivera – 2001 – present

John Wesley was an ardent opponent of slavery. Many of the leaders of early American Methodism shared his hatred for this form of human bondage. As the nineteenth century progressed, it became apparent that tensions were deepening in Methodism over the slavery question. In this matter, as in so many others, Methodism reflected a national ethos because it was a church with a membership that was not limited to a region, class, or race. Contention over slavery would ultimately split Methodism into separate northern and southern churches.

The slavery issue was generally put aside by The Methodist Episcopal Church until its General Conference in 1844, when the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions clashed. Their most serious conflict concerned one of the church’s five bishops, James O. Andrew, who had acquired slaves through marriage. After acrimonious debate the General Conference voted to suspend Bishop Andrew from the exercise of his episcopal office so long as he could not, or would not, free his slaves. A few days later dissidents drafted a Plan of Separation, which permitted the annual conferences in slaveholding states to separate from The Methodist Episcopal Church in order to organize their own ecclesiastical structure. The Plan of Separation was adopted, and the groundwork was prepared for the creation of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Delegates from the southern states met in Louisville, Kentucky, in May 1845, to organize their new church. Their first General Conference was held the following year in Petersburg, Virginia, where a Discipline and hymnbook were adopted. Bitterness between northern and southern Methodists intensified in the years leading to Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 and then through the carnage of the Civil War. Each church claimed divine sanction for its region and prayed fervently for God’s will to be accomplished in victory for its side.

During Reconstruction (1867) the MEC Bishop came south and renamed the Methodist Episcopal Church of the South under the original name Methodist Episcopal Church. The southerners and die hard rebels still refused to be part of the northern Methodist Episcopal Church, and so the split remained, but now the two names were Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) and Methodist Church of the South or Southern Methodist.

The Civil War dealt an especially harsh blow to The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Its membership fell to two-thirds its pre-war strength. Many of its churches lay in ruins or were seriously damaged. A number of its clergy had been killed or wounded in the conflict. Its educational, publishing, and missionary programs had been disrupted. Yet new vitality stirred among southern Methodists, and over the next fifty years its membership grew fourfold to more than two million.

The African American membership of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, had declined significantly during and after the war. In 1870 its General Conference voted to transfer all of its remaining African American constituency to a new church. The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (now called The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church) was the product of this decision.

It was during this period that Alejo Hernandez became the first ordained Hispanic preacher in Methodism, although Benigno Cardenas had preached the Methodist message in Spanish in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as early as 1853.

The Methodist Episcopal Church did not suffer as harshly as southern Methodism did during the war. By the late 1860s it was on the verge of major gains in membership and new vigor in its program. Between 1865 and 1913 its membership also registered a 400 percent increase to about four million. Methodist Protestants, United Brethren, and Evangelicals experienced similar growth. Church property values soared, and affluence reflected generally prosperous times for the churches. Sunday schools remained strong and active. Publishing houses maintained ambitious programs to furnish their memberships with literature. Higher educational standards for the clergy were cultivated, and theological seminaries were founded.

When The United Methodist Church was created in 1968, it had approximately 11 million members, making it one of the largest Protestant churches in the world.

Since its birth, United Methodism has experienced a number of changes in its life and structure.

It has become increasingly aware of itself as a world church with members and conferences in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States.

While its membership in Europe and the United States has declined noticeably since 1968, membership in Africa and Asia has grown significantly.

An increasing number of women have been admitted to the ordained ministry, appointed to the district superintendency, elected to positions of denominational leadership, and consecrated as bishops. In 1980 Marjorie Matthews was the first woman elected to the Church’s episcopacy.

The Church has endeavored to become a community in which all persons, regardless of racial or ethnic background, can participate in every level of its connectional life and ministry.

United Methodism has struggled with a number of critical issues. It has created and refined theological and mission statements. It has discussed and acted on matters of social importance such as nuclear power and world peace, human sexuality, the environment, abortion, AIDS, evangelism, and world mission.

The Church has been concerned with the faithfulness and vitality of its worship.

It published a hymnal in 1989, which included a new Psalter and revised liturgies for baptism, the Lord’s Supper, weddings, and funerals. Its 1992 General Conference authorized a new Book of Worship. A Spanish language hymnal, Mil Voces Para Celebrar, was published in 1996.

The United Methodist Church represents the confluence of three streams of tradition: Methodism, the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, and The Evangelical Association. With other churches that are also members of the body of Christ, it humbly and gratefully offers up its praise to God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit for creating and sustaining grace. It seeks further grace as its ministers to the world.

Finally in 1938 the two churches plus the Methodist Protestant Church were re-united as The Methodist Church.

The UMC website reports:

The majority of Methodist Protestants favored the union, although it meant accepting episcopal government, which they had not had since their church was organized in 1830. Following overwhelming approvals at the General Conferences and annual conferences of the three churches, they were united in April 1939, into The Methodist Church. At the time of its formation the new church included 7.7 million members.

On October 26, 2005 I talked with Ms. Alma Hoylman, age 103, through her sitter, about her early days of the Double Springs Methodist Church.

Later, I talked with Gus, age 94, and Becky Buttram about the church. Gus was not hesitant about saying the church was over 100 years old. He also said that the church had always been on the same plot of ground and Becky added that the original donor was the Brewer family. Lois Brewer who lived directly across Guttery Street was the daughter of J. V. Robinson, who signed the original deed in this article. Gus died in Jan. 2006.

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