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St. Lucie Tape #6R
History of Fort Pierce Churches
September 15. 1966
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I do feel highly honored, though, to be called upon to speak
before this group, because I've noticed, with a great deal of interest
the many outstanding people you've had here to speak to you before, and I
feel I have a great deal to live up to. I heard a little story last night.
Maybe some of you heard it on the late show, or maybe you all don't keep
the hours that I keep. But anyway, I was watching this movie and it was
a story of some people who were living on a little island off the coast of
the Carolinas about two hundred years ago. These people were very devout
Anglicans, and there were just a few people on the island and one day
a shipwrecked man c ame somehow, or another made his way to their shore.
They took care of him very carefully, but one day when he was able to eat,
they noticed with a great deal of shock and amazement that he didn't say
grace before he ate. And they commented on this fact to each other and
the lady said, "Well, he just can't be an Anglican if he doesn't say
grace." And another member of the family said, "Well, surely he must
be a Baptist." So, I don't know, I didn't know that Baptists were noted
for not saying grace, but anyway, they didn't stand very high in that man's
estimation. I'd like to comment f rst on the real difficulties that are
involved in this kind of report. You would be amazed, and I won't mention
anything specifically, but you would be amazed to know how many churches
have not preserved their records very carefully. Some of you when I
mentioned things and some facts will not agree with me. I found that out
in our church project that there was a great and a very violent difference
of opinion on some things. But I have tried to authenticate whatever
information I have, as best as I have been able to do, with material taken
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from papers that are printed and dated from books that are printed
and dated, and from other reliable sources. And so I feel that what I
have is well authenticated, especially on the history of the first
Baptist church. Now I dodnot have, and have not been able to get the
detailed information on many of the churches. I'd like to read, in the
beginning a very beautiful poem that I think you will enjoy, and in fact,
I'm sure you will agree with:
God builds no churches.
By His plan that labor has been left to man.
No spires miraculous arise.
No little mission from the sky falls on a bleak and barren place
to be a source of strength and grace.
The humblest church demands its price in human toil and sacrifice.
Men call the church the House of God toward which the toil__
pilgrims trod,
In search of strength and rest and hope,
As blindly through life's mist they grope,
And there God dwells.
But it is man who builds that house and draws its plans;
Pays for the mortar and the stone,
That men may seek for God alone.
The humblest spirit in mortal skin where God abides, was builf by men.
And if the church is still to grow, there still the light of hope
to through across the valley of despair,
And still must build God's house of prayer.
God sends no churches from the skies,
Out of our hearts they must arise.
And perhaps you have recognized it. It's one of Edgar Cayce's poems.
And so that is hte story of the churches of Fort Pierce. I'm sure that
Gold was in the hearts of the people as they planned. But it was the
people themselves in the face of many difficulties and hardships who
built the churches. And the early history of organized religion in our
area bears out the truth of this poem. And it makes us aware more than
ever perhaps of the debt that we owe to these early settlers, not only in
a material way, but in a spiritual way as well. It was true in this area
as it has always been true when people have migrated from one place to
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another that it didn't take them very long to figure out some way to have
some type of worship service. The earliest thing that I can find about
this is that Mrs. Elizabeth Carlton, who lived out west of town made it
a practice, before there were any churches or Sunday schools or anything
here to have worship services for the people on her ranch. And then
quite often as the boats made their way down the Indian River, an' itineraft
preacher would stop off here in Fort Pierce and stay overnight or stay
a day or two and he would always take advantage of the opportunity to
preach and everybody, it didn't make any difference whether they Vere
Methodist or Baptist or Presbyterian or Episcopalian or what. Everybody
went to hear the preacher. It didn't matter what denomination he was.
They were so hungry to have somebody preach to them. And it is interesting
to remember and I'm sure you have all heard this story that when the
first funeral was held in this area there was no preacher around to
participate and to conduct that service. And so one of the layman of
the community had to offer the prayer and Mrs. Jennings, Mrs. Jenny
Jennings, and Mrs. Lizzy McCartey sang the duet, provided the music for
that. the very first effort that any organization of a church began
in 1884. Mrs. Emery in her little book which many of
you may have read, My Pioneer Days In Florida she tells that in that year
two young Baptist missionaries came to her home looking for a place to
stay and their names were Michael and Savage. I haven't been able to
find out their first names but I did write to the Florida Baptist Historical
Society at Stetson University and ask them about this fact and they bore
it out in every detail that there were two young missionaries that
traveled up and down the east coast here, wherever they heard of a place
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that had no church. They would do what they could to help the Baptist
people of that area to start a church. And so they stayed in Mrs.
's home for quite some time. In fact she eventually added a
room onto her house for them. And the first services were held in her
home. These young men as we said had been working up around Cocoa and
somebody had passed the word along that there were no churches at that time
of any kind in Fort Pierce, and so that was their reason for coming here.
Shortly after they began holding these services in the home of Mrs. Bell,
they organized a Sunday school, and it was operated more or less just as
a mission. Then one happy day a man named Mr. Rabin Gaines Hood and his
family came to Fort Pierce and they were very staunch Baptist and he was
very much a Sunday school man and he was quite interested in seeing this
here group progress and do something more than they had been doing.
And he more than anyone else, I suppose, was instrumental in leading
this group'to organize into a church. Some of you may recognize the
name of And these were, the girls were Mr.
Hood's granddaughters. In 1889 the Indian River Baptist Association was
organized and the Uasociation at that time extended from the- an to Key
West. And I would certainly hate to have been the clerk of that association,
but that was, there were so few churches that the association of the state
did cover vast territories. And just by way of interest, this has nothing
to do with our subject here tonight, but it is interesting that the
first Baptist Sunday school in the state of Florida was organized in'Key
West in 1843. The records of this association indicate that the Baptist
Church of Fort Pierce, or the Fort Pierce Baptist Church was the real
title, real name of it at that time, became a member of this association
in 1890. Now this date is one point on which there has been a great deal
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of disagreement and in fact, I didn't know whether I'd get through
our historical pageant without a knock brown drag' out fight over this or
not. Butg, anyway when the associational records indicated that this
church became a member in October of 1890 that established the fact,
b because a Baptist church, group, is never admitted to the association
until it has already been constituted a church, and so it must have been
some"in the early months of 1890. We have never been able to find out the
exact day and month. However, the historical records left behind also
bear out that it was 1890. And so this church was organized with
nineteen charter members. Mr. S. S. was the first pastor and
he came here once a month for about nine years. Mr. Hood was the first
Sunday school superintendent. Among the charter members in addition
to and Mr-. Hood were Mrs. Elizabeth Carlton, Mrs. lucy Jane
Carlton, Carl Hood Mrs. D.H. Middlebrook, Annie Jessup Brown,
Thomas Bevil, Mr. and Mrs. James Bell, Mr. and Mrs. A.S. Mrs.
Mary Richards, Col. Ned Summerlain and Mrs. Polly Anne Summerlain, Mrs.
Elizabeth Bevil, Mrs. Sally Blankin, and W.T. Edwards. And there's one,
I haven't been able to find out who he was. We have searched records
and at the courthouse and everywhere and there's one more that we just, we
just don't know who it is. We think we know but we've never been able
to authenticate that or to confirm it. For a while services were held
in the school on Hill which is up in the area of the Brooks
Hotel, formerly the Out to Dinner Hotel, and formerly, we remember
a long ways back, but it was in that part of town. And this little school
house, sad to say, was also used for dances and these people said,"'well,
the Baptists can have church there on Sunday night, but they've got to be
out at a certain time so we can start the dance. Well, they would go up
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there and wait around, especially those who were, well, sort of rowdies,
I guess you'd call them. And if the preacher didn't say, "Amen" in
time, they'd go right up in the church and start rearranging the furniture
before the services were over. And then, sometimes if they were real
provoked at the preacher, if he preached a little bit too long, they'd
throw rocks and lemons at him. Now that is also an authenticated fact.
This little church had attending it a great many people who were of
other denominations until their churches were started. It was rather
difficult going to this church sometimes. They had some disagreements
and one of the most interesting ones to me was, there was aman, who was
from Connecticut, I believe, that wasMr. Tuggs, and Mr. Hood, of course,
was a southerner, and every year they had a big arguf ment
in the business meeting. Mr. Hood said, "We're going to use the progressive
northern literature." And Mr. Hood said, "No, sir. I will not use that
Yankee literature." And they would go round and round, and sometimes
one of them would win and sometimes the other one would win, as indicated
in the early minutes. One year they'& be using the literature from the
David C. Cook Publishing Co. in Illinois, and the next year they'd be using
that new Southern Baptist literature from Nashville. But I don't'they
argue too much about that anymore. The Baptist State paper, the Florida
Baptist Witness, in the November twenty sixth issue of 1890,had a little
item in there by the pastor. And it said, "We're trying to build a church
at Fort Pierce. It will be thirty by forty feet. We lack-a hundred dollars."
I've often wondered if he wgs just throwing out a little hint to the other
Baptists to help him out. They did that quite often in those days. But,
anyway, he said,"This will be the only church house between Melbourne
and Key West.' I thought that was not too clear whether it would be only
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Baptist church house, or the only church of any kind. I haven't been
able to clarify that. But they did get their building and Mr. Alexander
Bell and Mr. A.C. Bitner were a great help in securing that building.
The first little building stood where the East Coast Lumber yards are
at the present time. And then later they moved the church up to where
about where the eity hall is, on Avenue Eight. And people would come in
boats Mrs. was telling me the other day that she went
to Sunday school there and quite often they went in a boat to Sunday
school. And they baptized in the river there Well thkchurch
felt the need to have a larger building and they sold the building finally
in the twenties to the First Christian Church and then for a while they
had a tent. Well, it was really a tent tabernacle, with saw dust on the
floor and everything. And it was located where the Fifth Street Post Office
is at the present time. And they had services there until the, what we
call the old building on the corner of Orange Avenue and Tenth Street, was
built. And that was dedicated, I believe, in 1924 and we seem to have
come a full circle as far as that is concerned because the Pastorate was
built at the same time and, of course, all of you haven't noticed but
the Pastorate has been torn down. in recent weeks. The-itrness gave a lovely
bell to the church and when theysold the little church there was some
feeling that we should keep the bell but it did go to the Christian church
and, I believe it was, I can't remember the year, but I think it was 1933
that there was a terrific storm and the little church, now the Christian'
church was rather severely burned and the steeple was torn down and the
steeple was out there on the grounds of the church. And so they decided
to give the bell back to the Baptists and they brought it over to our
church and it was out there on the lawn, and I was real sentimental about
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it, but I don't think very many other people were, because they wanted
to get that bell moved from the grounds. I don't know how the
felt about it, but anyway, they heard that the man up at the
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Gardens would like to have the bell U-his collection. So
went to him and said," Well now, if you'll give twenty five dollars to the
First Baptist Church I'll let you have it. So he gave twenty five
dollars to the First Baptist Church and gave a lifetime pass
to the gardens. And I suppose he's gotten his twenty five dollars back from
the Baptisgwho go out there to visit the garden by this time. I don't
know. One interesting sideline is that in the early twenties there
were some disagreements in the church and some of the people wanted
to organize another church. And they organized a little church down on
the river, very close to where the McCartey home is, beyond the radio
station. It was called the Riverside Baptist Church. But in a couple
of years they felt that this was not a very good location and somebody
gave them some land out in the Pinewood area and so they built a church
out there and while they were building that church they went to church in
the old court house. And this church completely disbanded, They just wiped
themselves off the map and these same people went back in 1925 in the
courthouse and organized again and called themselves the Parkview Baptisit.
Church. To me that is just sort of interesting. In 1925" the First
Baptist Church became the First Baptist Church. They changed their name
a
from the Fort Pierce Baptist Church to FirstBaptist Church and then
the beautiful new sanctuary was dedicated in 1927. The present membership
is about one thousand five hundred and seventeen. A number of churches in
Fort Pierce about, well all the other Baptist churches all spring off the
First Baptist Church. So the missions that were sponsored then started by
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the First Baptist Church. The Westside Baptist Church was a Sunday
school that belonged to the Presbyterians and, I don't make no comment on
why they were so anxious for us to have it, but they practically gave it
to us to take it and do something with it. And that's all I'll
say about it, but anyway, it is now the Westside Baptist Church. We
have always been very proud of the fact that the only moderate, proud in
a sense,of the fact that the only moderate Baptist missionary of World
War II was a member of this church, Rufus Gray, who grew up in this
community. There were a number of rather interesting motions made in
the early business meeting, I think. One of them was that, they made
a motion that none of the deacons were ever supposed to go fishing on
Sunday when the preacher was gone. And they added a little note to that
or even when he wasn't gone. So that didn't leave any leeway for the
poor deacons. I have not been able, as I said before, to get as much
information about the Methop$d4t Church as I would like to have, but I
haven't been able to find out when it was constituted a church. I even
called Mr. Alley, in Melbourne who was the district superintendent for
the Methodist churches to see if he had records available that would tell
us that date. And I have called innumerable people to try to find it out
and I haven't been able to find it out. They believe, most people think
that it was possibly 1896 or seven. But at any rate, the very first kind
of service, under the auspices of any Methodist people was in 1888 or possibly
in 1889 when there was just a little Sunday school started and Mrs. Jennings
was the one who was largely responsible for that. The first services of
the Methodist church were held in a little school house. It was a new
school house at that time on the Avenue D, 101. We even have the
address. That's one thing we do have. And then later on they have to
have a new building and so they went up to North Fourth Street, just
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beyond where is located. And some of you may know the building.
The building is still standing today and I can't talk to you at this
point what is there, and what it's being used for. Anyone knows I will
be glad for them to speak up and sell it., At any rate, this lumber was
furnishedby the father of Mrs. Paul Osteen and I can't recall the father's
name but the railroad had not been coming in here very long, which is the
reason that they pin point the date 1895 or 1896 because the railroad
came here in 1894. And they chose this location because it was right
close to the railroad and they wouldn't have so much difficulty in
unloading the lumber and they persuaded the trains to stop right there so they
could get the lumber right off the train. And that was where the .building
vas built. Mrs. Jennings, as mentioned here before was the leading light
in the early Methodist beginnings here. Shortly after that the population
shift, that part of town was called Edgartown at that time and for
various reasons the population began shifting itself towards what we
consider the main part of Fort Pierce now. It was called Karentown, and
so they decided to buy a location on North Second Street. And they used
that location for about 25 years until the present property was purchased.
It was very interesting, Mr. Lawson told me last night that the
ladies of one of the missionary societies, called the Women's Missionary
Society at that time. Not the Women's Society of Christian Service. But
they were appointed for some unknown reason to find the land and buy it
for the new church building. And so this property on Seventh Street is
what the women selected, and after they had selected it and paid some
money on it, the ladies who were on the committee were called in before the
official board of the church and they were really raked over the coals. And
they just, oh, it was terrific, he said the was they, well, I can't say
-i
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anything, but they just bawled him out.And the reason was that they said,
"What in the world did you go and buy land way out tin the country for?
We don't want our church way out in the country. I thought that was
quite interesting and I remember when the Delaware School was built, some
people thought the same thing, that it was too far out in the country.
The name of this church was changed from the Hendry Memorial Church to
the First Methodist Church in 1944, and the new parsonage was built in
1948. They were instrumental in beginning three new Methodist churches
in this area. Now I suppose the point of time that St. Andrews Episcopal
is the next one we should consider. They just had a most colorful history.
They said that in 1891 there were only five Episcopalians here and soma
of them attended the Bap.tist church but very shortly they began holding
their own services and these were held in the parlors of the Old Fort
Pierce Hotel with a lay leader. And then they held services in the Masonic
hall and they also used the First Baptist church building for services.
And it was classed as a mission for quite a long time. After the railroad
was built and came this far south they got some property on now Second
Street. In 1904 or five, I have both of those dates. One place I read
four and one place I read five. The building was consecrated and it
was Mrs. Tyler who adopted the name of St. Andrews for the church. They
have been responsible for missions in Vero Beach, Ockeechobee, and a
colored mission in Fort Pierce and also services in Walton at times.
But I remember reading an article some years ago about St. Andrews church,
and it said this church was on the move, literally and also figuratively
speaking. In 1922 this St. Andrews mission became a self-supporting
parish and in 1923 the church moved to another sight down on the river and
they felt it was an appropriate location because, of course, it was the
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fishermen who inspired the name of St. Andrews. In the great hurricane of
1928 a great deal of damage was done to this church and destroyed a great part
of their parish house and the church. It had to be rebuilt. Then in 1933
they had the terrible storm on labor day, this church being so close
to the river, I suppose, was severely damaged again. But it was rebuilt
and expanded. Then the third storm to damage this church was the -forty
nine hurricane and there was rather an interesting little story about
that. The church property and the rectory and the radio station, WRIA,
right close to it were inundated. They were just flooded with water, and
pounded by heavy winds. And the radio stations wires blew down and in order
for them to continue their emergency broadcasting, they rigged up a temporary
instillation of some kind on the roof of the rectory. Well the rector
at that time was the Rev. J. Samson Wolf and he was out of town at the
time of the storm but he came back home pretty fast, I guess, and he
returned to find the church turned a little bit on its foundations and he
found a note on his bedroom window. I guess it was somebody from the radio
station, a hot wire hire hanging outside his window,'Do Not Touch.See
the chief engineer next door.' So I don't guess that was very, you didn'-t
write that did you?
?: I'm not that old.
I don't know about that. This little church has had more than her share
of historical figures. You remember that the late governor Dan McCarty
was baptized in St. Andrews and served on the vespers and after his sudden
and tragic death nine months after he took office as governor of Florida,
he was buried from St. Andrews in September of 1953. The State Supreme
Court Justice, Elwin Thomas and former Supreme Court Justice Arthur
Adams are also parishoners of St. Andrews. In July of 1959 the old
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St. Andrews Church in the very rather colorful and exciting ceremony
was taken to, was to be taken to Satellite Beach for the people there
to use. But it was not taken until the new church was completely
finished. The people continued to worship in the old church until
they were ready to hold their first service in the new church. They
played the cornerstone in 1960 and some of the interesting things put
into the cornerstone were contributed to the building fund, a wooden cross
from the old building, a coin, a prayer book, and newspaper clippings.
And in April of 1961 the new St. Andrews, very beautiful and lovely church
was consecrated by the bishop of the of south Florida. St.
the catholic church was the-started here as a mission in
1906. Now I did have two dates on that. I did some research on this
quite a number of years ago and got the date 1909 but told me
the other day that according to his records it was 1906 and they had only
fifty members. And Michael J.Curly who was a pastor in DeLand and bishop
of St. Augustine was the one who was the first pastor and he later became
an archbishop. The church where it is located on Orange Avenue was
completed in 1910 and it has always been in the same location. The building
on 33rd street was completed in 1960 and he says that his present membership,
now I did not get very much information here because this is in his own
handwriting. I wrote down some questions and he put them-down in his own
handwriting. Their present membership is 3,681. That was just the most
amazing to me. Rev. Beerholder became pastor in June of 1929 and there
has been only two other pastors, Rev. Michael Curly and Rev. Gabriel
I know that you may remember Father Gabriel, as he was
called, and how well loved he was all over this entire community. You
don't have to have me to tell you .how their school and other activities
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have grown. But that's all I've been able to find on the actual history,
although they did say that the first masses were held in someone's
home here. The Presbyterian church was started as a mission and was
held services as a mission for quite a number of years. It was constituted
a church in 1919, with seventy charter members. H.W. McCombs was the
first pastor and the services were held in the Woodman Hall on North
Second Street for quite a number of years. And the building that they have
now was finished in 1916 and they have not actually had any other building
but this one ,* on the corner of South Eighth Streetand Orange Avenue.
But they have remodeled it and reserviced it and changed it around quite
a bit over the years and added to it but it's always been that same building.
Dr. Howard became the pastor in 1936 and he is now the pastor in
And I wanted to ask right here if there's anyone here who is a descendant
of a charter member of any of these churches that I've already mentioned.
Would you talk?
?: My brother and myself.
Which one?
?: My brother was a charter member.
Of the Presbyterian church? Anyone else whose parents were charter members
of any of these churches?
?: I was a charter member of the Presbyterian church here.
Who was? We have no charter members of our church.
Mumble mumble.
Well I tell you, I haven't been able to locate these charter members and
maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to locate them anyway. I found one
interesting thing about the Presbyterian church and that was that they seem
to want to, over and over again through the years, prove the law-of gravity
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for some reason. For example, one year the church was beautifully decorated
by someone who liked to do that every year for the candlelight service,
and this particular year it was a real live tree, a palm tree. And it
had those little things on it, you know we call them dates. And along
about halfway through the service people began to hear this little
and all the little dates began dropping off
the little tree. Well there wasn't anything they could do about it. People
were grinning at each other but that's about all they could do about it.
And another time Mr. Edgar had furnished a beautiful background of candles
above the choir and for some unknown reason they all began to bend over
like this and drip the wax and the frames all down, pretty close to
the choir members, bck of their necks.
?: We even got a sense of humor don't we?
There was another one that I don't know whether I dare tell or not, but
a member of the church told me this that one time they had a visiting
minister there to try out, on a trial sermon. They thought they might
consider him for pastor, and he was preaching a way and all of a sudden
both of his dentures fellout right on the floor. And he was very nonchalant
about it and he picked them up and put them back into his mouth and went
right on preaching. I sure hope that doesn't happen to me. The First
Christian church was organized in the home of Mrs. May Reed and th4t- home
is still Von North Tenth Street and Miss Amelia Reed still lives there.
She's been living in that home for fifty years or more. And that's where
he First Christian church was organized in 1915 with sixteen charter members.
And I was talking to Miss Amelia Reed and she said that just the minute
the Presbyterians got out of the Woodman Hall the members of the Christian
church moved in, and took it for their services. Now they have, se far as
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we, I can tell, the only church that has, except for one other, that has
any charter members with them, and that's George and Amelia Reed and
Ivy Ling, so far as I can learn. Ahd 6f course the story about the bell
and the dying of the Baptist church building belongs in this story, too.
And they have just completed their lovely new church. A very personable
and intelligent young kind of prosecutor, Mr. rurt Ditton told me that
a very cute story about himself. He's a member of the First Christian
church and he gave me permission to tell you. Although he wanted me
to preface by saying that he did turn out alright because he's chairman
of the Board. At any rate, up in the attic of the church they had built some
very small classrooms, just little tiny classrooms and the flooring was
ghat had been there for the attic and there were wide cracks in the flooring.
And sometimes when they would be taking up the collection from the children
or the offering, I should say I suppose, sometimes a penny would roll
down in these cracks. And sometimes they would lose money there. Well,
one Saturday afternoon when Burt was quite a young boy he and Jimmy Reed
wanted to go to the movies and they were just flat broke. So Jimmy Reed
had the bright idea of going up there and, now Burt said it was Jimmy's
idea but he went along with him. He said he was right with him. Anyway
they took a crowbar and they went up there to see if they couldn't get
some of that money. So Jimmy was using the crowbar and he was prying the
planks up and Burt was reaching under. He got some money under there, but
just about that time something happened and Jimmy lost control of the
crowbar and this heavy timber came down on Burt's arm and he was in such
pain that he just nearly fainted before they could get him out of it. But he
had time to think. And he said he was just thinking that was the Lord
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telling him, "Burt, you better get out of here right now." So when the
old church was torn down someone did find the money up there and they brought
Burt a dime at that time. And he still has it. But he said said, "Please
tell them I turned out all right because this year I'm chairman of the
Board of the First Christian Church. The primitive Baptist, this is
very brief, was organized in T.W. Jeffreys home and some of you may not
know that he was the preacher and he was the father of Mrs. Mick Thomas
who has a bakery on the South Dixie Highway. It was organized in December
26, 1931, with seventeen charter members and then I have forty five
members. And I have one more that I think you'll be interested in and that's
the Denton Memorial Presbyterian Church in White City. The land for this
church was .given by Mr. George C. Denton and it was started as a mission
Sunday school in 1893 and they hold their own Sunday school in the White
City school house. And their first building down there was built in 1915
and they still have that building, although it has move I think to the back
of the property. And it was organized by the Southeast Presbyterian in
April the sixteenth, 1924 with twenty six charter members. I believe that
the name is the one that is the most prominently mentioned, you
might recognize in the organization of that church. They have a hew
building but they .are still using the old one and one of the most
interesting things about this church is the splendid camp program and youth
program that institued by the Sayers, when they were, when he was pastor
of that church. And they have a hundred and thirty eight members. The
clerk of that church told me a little story and he said,"If you get in
trouble about this little story just tell them that I said you could tell
it'.' At any rate when they got ready to build a new building the
the pastors home was in very bad condition and he said they really should
St. Lucie Tape #6
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have built the manse first, but they didn't. They built the church
first. Anyway, the manse linked so that they just couldn't get it
fixed. They couldn't get the roof fixed where it wouldn't leak. And
so everytime they felt a storm was coming up or it began to rain a little
bit, Rev. and Mrs. Sayer would have to jump up and move the whole bed
clear across to the other side of the bedroom. Well finally they did
gt a new manse, a beautiful new home. At about the first or second
evening they were in their new home a storm came up and they were
awakened by the noise of the wind and the rain and the first thing- they
did was jump out of bed and just automatically move their bed over to the
other side of the bedroom. Today we have in Fort Pierce about, it's
b een difficult to ascertain this about fifty five churches,
not counting all of the colored churches. But the Chamber of Commerce
and the Fort Pierce Tribune when they had a church ---------- they'd lift
fifty five churches with a great many denominations and sects, and of
c ourse, we have many beautiful church buildings in Fort Pierce. I'd
like to close with what I feel is a tribute to all of our churches:
Beautiful is the large church with stately arch and steeple,
Neighborly is the small church with groups of friendly people,
Reverent is the old church with centuries of grace,
And a wooden church or a stone church can hold an altar place.
And whether it be a rich church or a poor church anywhere,
Truly it is a great church if God is worshipped there.
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