MARVIN METHODIST CHURCH

MARVIN METHODIST CHURCH

You may have never heard of Marvin Church. And, you probably never knew it was in Laurens County, much less that actually it still is.  Yet, many of you ride by it nearly every week and never knew it was there.  Wearing a disguise of clay bricks, Marvin Methodist still stands more than one hundred and thirty years after it was first built.  Transported from its original location on the New Buckeye Road in northeastern Laurens County, the small one room church is now a part of Centenary Methodist Church, which recently closed its doors after nearly ninety years of service to the Lord.

The story of Marvin Church actually goes back to January of 1866, when Professor Gustavas Adolfus Holcomb, a teacher from Riddleville, Georgia, opened a school on the old W.O. Prescott Place on the Dublin to Sandersville Road.  Sixty seven students came to class on the first day, eager to learn.  Holcomb's school house was a one room log structure, measuring only eighteen by twenty feet.  Obviously with less than five square feet per pupil, the facility was not large enough to accommodate the students.  Parents rushed into action and added a forty by fifty-foot shelter. The ten-foot-tall addition rested upon heart pine posts.  The floor was made of rough pine planks nailed to a foundation of logs.  The cover was made from five- foot pine boards, cut from local woods and fastened with nails made in a local blacksmith shop.   One end of the shelter was boarded up entirely and the others were left open except about three feet around the three sides at the bottom, which gave an appearance of an enclosure.

The primitive school house had no heat.  On colder days, the teacher and the students built a large fire out on the grounds and positioned their school benches as close to the heart of the fire as possible.  In the school's early days, twenty of the older kids were denied the opportunity to attend school because they were serving in the Confederate army.  These young men, who had experienced vast extremes of heat and cold, spent most of their time in outdoor classrooms.

In 1867, the Methodist Conference sent the Rev. John Morgan of Guyton, Georgia, to serve as the minister of the Dublin Circuit.  At the time, there were only four Methodist churches in the circuit.  The main church was in Dublin with three churches located in eastern Laurens County at Boiling Springs, Gethsemane and what would become Lovett Methodist Church, but which was then a small church about one mile north of Lovett, known as "Gopher Hill," taking its name from the fact that gophers had chosen this sand hill for easy digging of their holes.

Church services began in the school, which was affectionately known as "the Shelter."  Rev. Morgan kept his appointments to preach on the third Sunday of every month.  The Rev. Thomas Harris, a Christian Church minister from Sandersville, preached to his flock late in the evening on every fourth Sunday. Frederick W. Flanders, a member of a clan of Methodist ministers from Johnson and Emanuel Counties, filled in when ever he had a free Sunday.

For nearly a decade, the plan of filing engagements had to suffice until a permanent church could be established.  After ten years of planning and hoping, it was the energy of a young minister, H.M. Williams, that provided the impetus to build at church at "the Shelter."

During the four years in which Rev. Morgan served the yet organized and unofficial church, local residents subscribed twelve hundred dollars to build a permanent house of worship.  Any building needs a plan and it was obvious that Col. John M. Stubbs was just the man to design the church.  Stubbs, a lawyer by profession and a man of many talents, lived just up the road at Tucker's Crossroads, the seat of his wife's family, the Tuckers.  Mrs. Stubbs' father was Dr. Nathan Tucker, the largest plantation owner in the area and one of the largest property owners in the county.  Stubbs tried several plans and attempted to come up with final cost estimates.  He settled on his design which included a magnificent edifice with a tall steeple.   His estimate of a cost at five thousand dollars discouraged many citizens whose resources were scant in the days of Reconstruction and its aftermath.  The young lawyer's ambitious plans were abandoned in favor of the status quo.

 Only when Rev. Williams rekindled up a new interest, did the citizens of the community come forward with their pledges and subscriptions to pay for the framing and weather boarding.   A new site one mile south from "the Shelter" was chosen as a more desirable location at a meeting at the old "Shelter."  

Sixteen people stepped forward to form the new church to be named Marvin. The members represented many of the oldest and wealthiest citizens of the community.   They were: Elijah F. Blackshear, Mrs. Elijah F. Blackshear, William H. Walker, Mrs. William H. Walker, Kinchen H. Walker, Richard A. Kellam, Mrs. Temperance Kellam, Miss Addie F. Kellam, Winfield B. Smith, Alfred A. Morgan, Laura M. Smith, Mrs. Polly Garnto, Mrs. Rebecca Davis, Mrs. I.M. Blackshear, David S. Blackshear, Mrs. Susan Mason and Mrs. Winifred Mason.  

The first Board of Stewards was composed of Kinchen H. Walker, Richard A. Kellam, W.B. Smith and David S. Blackshear.  After the election of stewards, the next step was to give the church a new name.  Suggestions were sought from the members.  Some suggested the traditional names such as Evergreen and Olivet.   One person suggested naming the new church Guyton in honor of Joseph M. Guyton and Col. C.S. Guyton who had given the land for the site.  A disillusioned old gentleman rose from his seat in the back of the church and proposed  the name of "Luck and Trouble."   Rev. Williams asked the pessimistic old man, who was somewhat of an agnostic, why he suggested that name he supplied should be used.  He responded that "they were lucky to get it so far and trouble to get it further." Rev. Williams proposed the name of "Marvin" in honor of Bishop Enoch Mather Marvin.  Rev. Williams's suggestion seemed most popular and the new church was given the name

of "Marvin."

Robert H. Hightower instructed his mill hands to furnish the lumber from his mill, some sixteen miles away in Johnson County.  T.J. Blackshear volunteered to hall the lumber with a three-yoke team of oxen as his matching contribution. David Stout Blackshear directed the construction.  With little or no haste the the church was framed, weather boarded and covered The building remained unfinished until about 1885, when the work was finally completed.  During the interim, regular services were held at  "the Shelter."

After the organizing of Marvin Church, the membership increased until the day of opening the new church   A large enrollment of members were present.  The church was not dedicated until 1885.  Dr. J.O.H. Clark preached the dedication sermon. George C. Thompson was pastor at that time.  The following preachers filled the pulpit at intervals.  Rev. A.M. Williams, Rev. F.W. Flanders, Rev. Hudson, Rev. Powell, Rev. Hearn. Rev. H.A. Hodges, Rev. Joseph Carr and Rev. G.M. Prescott, a local preacher.

By the 1940s, the church, located on the western side of the Buckeye Road, just before it intersects with the Cullens/Ben Hall Lake Road,  was abandoned and was used sparingly for funerals in the church yard cemetery.  After decades of abandonment, the building was removed some twenty five years ago and annexed to  Centenary Methodist Church on Telfair Street, where it still stands today. 

LOVETT, GEORGIA

LOVETT, GEORGIA
A Look Back

The town of Lovett is the third oldest incorporated town in Laurens County, losing  the honor of being the oldest town not including Dublin or Brewton, which it finished behind  by a mere three days in 1889.   At the turn of the 20th Century much of the experiences in Lovett was published in the Macon Weekly Telegraph.  Then without any explanation the snippets of the shenanigans and shining moments disappeared leaving the historians with virtually no record of the events which happened there until surviving issues of the Dublin papers began to chronicle her past. But when the calendars began to replace the 18s with the 19s,  Lovett could be lively and Lovett could be lovely. And, Lovett could be lurid, but loving too.

Just after Easter Sunday, the Rev. George C. Matthews, a former minister of the First Methodist Church in Dublin and a founder of the Holiness movement in Georgia, was the featured speaker at the South Georgia Holiness Association's annual meeting.  The streets of Lovett were crowded with  hundreds of people, all in town to hear the elegant sermons of Rev. Matthews and a host of other prominent religious leaders.   Association organizers provided special daily train rides for the large crowds  from Garbutt's Mill to the meeting place, a large sixty foot by ninety foot cloth tent.  The professing Christians met for more than a dozen days.  The Rev. W.A. Dodge, Matthew's counterpart in the North Georgia District, spoke to the gathering, estimated to have been more than two thousand believers and sinners. As the session came to a close, thousands appeared at the tent.  They came on foot, on horseback, in wagons and on trains. They came early and continued to assemble after the climactic service began.  Rev. Dodge preached the morning sermon and spoke only to the men that afternoon.  Mrs. Crumpler spoke to the ladies, while the men folk talked about manly things.  It was reported that the meeting exceeded any other meeting ever held in Lovett in the good it did and "many sinners were moved to repentance and conversion - and the town was generally shaken up."

But, as it goes in small towns of the day, the good news turned to bad news, within a cycle of the moon.  Pebe Hall and Miss Radford of Lovett had gone down to the Big Ohoopee River at Snell's Bridge for a day of jollity and picnicking.  Leaving their friends on the banks of the river, Pebe and his best girl rowed their boat into the center of the stream. All of a sudden the boat wobbled throwing the couple into the swollen stream.  They cried out for help, and help was on its way.  But before they could be rescued, the popular couple disappeared down to the sandy bottom of the muddy water. The pall of their deaths lasted a long time in the minds of their many friends.

It would only be three fortnights before another dead body would be found in the merciless waters of the Big Ohoopee near Snell's Bridge.  A crowd of men were seining the river for a mess of fish when to their utmost horror the fisherman found a solitary leg and a man's head.  Attached to what remained of his neck was a 150 pound iron bar.  A closer examination of their nets revealed a satchel and several articles of clothing.    Investigating officials determined the dismembered remains belonged to one George Yates, who had disappeared three months earlier on March 4th.  There were suspects.  Just to make sure, Georgia governor Allen D. Candler offered a one hundred dollar reward for the villainous perpetrators.

Within a week, George Yates rose to the surface, not from the water or his grave, but he had been alive all the time.  Thoughts of the identity of the corpse turned to Jack Benedict of Athens.  Thought to have been wearing similar clothes at the time of his disappearance led Dr. Benedict, the brother of the suspected victim, to examine the remains and determine that the skull sizes matched. Believing that the Athens physician was simply seeking closure to his brother's fate, the investigation continued.    J.T. O'Neal, a convicted bootlegger who had vanished after his release, may have been the casualty of vindictive co-conspirators he helped to convict.    Johnson County Ordinary J.E. Page continued to investigate the true identity of the mystery man.

Just as the citizens of Lovett were trying to overcome the horrors of the river deaths, a small epidemic of smallpox terrified every man, woman and child.  Between two and three dozen cases of the deadly disease were reported in a small area between Harrison and Lovett.   Physicians were summoned and comprehensive vaccinations were begun, ending the crisis.

Another month brought another tragedy.  On the 9th of August, Bascom Flanders was trying to find a seat on the wood in the tender of a fast running train when he lost his balance and fell to the ground striking his head against an series of immovable cross ties.  Little hope for his recovery was given.

On the lighter side, the farmers of Lovett were enjoying a plentiful season, raising enough corn, fodder and provisions to provide for their families for another year, without being forced into debt.  Ike Askew brought the first two bales of cotton into town on August 9th.    Mr. E.A. Lovett paid Askew $5.80 for his prized bales.  By the end of the month, heavy tropical rains severely damaged the unpicked half of the cotton crop. Fears of losses were erased by the first of October, most of the

farmers were happy. But Lovett continued to grow.  Sidewalks were given much needed and overdue repairs and three new handsome homes were erected that summer.  The young people were preparing a concert and a traveling showman thrilled the congregation of folks with a ascension of his hot air balloon.

The townsfolk of Lovett were proud of the wonderful springs on Tucker's Mill Creek. Although unnamed in a newspaper article, these springs are now known as the "Thundering Springs," which are located three crow fly miles west of town.  Folk medicine believers swore by the healing effects of the mineral laden waters which erupted from the earth.  The boil of the spring was constant and constantly rose about a foot above the surrounding water level.  The springs were ideal for swimming and bathing because even the poorest swimmer could never sink below his heart.   Determined divers attempted to touch the bottom, but the force of the boiling water pushed them back to the surface.  It was said that on cloudy days, the roar of the springs, which emanate from miles and miles away,  rival the loudest reports of an approaching  thunderstorm.

After a festive, and somewhat lively,  holiday season and the end of the 19th Century, promises of bigger and better things were abundant in Lovett.    On the very first day of the 20th Century, six inches of snow covered and killed  a fine crop of winter wheat and oats in the fields. J.T. Lovett was chosen as the century's first mayor.  E.A. Lovett, A.T. Cobb, W.J. Stewart, P.M. Johnson and Z.M. Sterling constituted the town's first council in the 20th Century.    Professor W.J. Daley opened the doors of the Lovett School.  Fifty kids came to class and more were expected to attend. E.F. Cary and W.J. Stewart established an Express office in town. Lovett farmers planned to increase corn plantings in the spring.  The farms and saw mills of the area were so profitable that the lack of available laborers became a problem.