July 18, 2011 Coats
Museum News
One of the more intriguing documents in the Coats Heritage Museum is a 1938 map that shows the locations of the churches, churches with cemeteries, businesses, and schools in Harnett County. One can tell what kind of surface the roads had by looking at the markings on the map. This map was found in the trunk of Mary Alice (Johnson)Johnson who was sister to the 1912 Coats mayor, jeweler and photographer J.L. Johnson and it is on loan to the museum.
The location of three Coats area Primitive Baptist Churches are marked on the 1938 map. The churches are Gift, Bethel, and Little Flock which were well attended by people in the rural areas as well as by town folks. What memories did ninety-two year old Allene Honeycutt have of the Primitive Baptist Church when she wrote her autobiography, ”Remembering the Past”?.
Allene recalled that her parents, Sheriff W.H. and Lizzie Penny Turlington, were members of the Primitive Baptist Church. She wrote that a church had preaching services on Saturday and Sunday once a month at each of their churches. On Saturday, they went to church and took care of all the business of the church and they usually had only one preacher on that day; however on Sunday, two or three preachers preached resulting in church lasting until 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon. She remembered that they had a few minutes between the preachers to go to the bathroom. This is in the 1920’s so guess where the bathroom was. Of course it was an outside toilet behind the church with one for women and one for men.
Allene’s mother, Lizzie, always took tea cakes in her purse (pocketbook) for her children .That sounds British, doesn’t it? Allene said that there was a bucket of drinking water sitting on a table in the church for people to drink. Was there water for handwashing?
Delaney Turlington, daughter of Jeff Turlington, shared with me a story she has never forgotten that happened in a Primitive Baptist Church. Of course this could have happened in any church before they had climate controlled buildings. Delaney said the men sat on one side of the church and the women and children sat and on the other. The time frame of this story was when hats were expected to be worn by women in church and indeed they were. Delaney recalled that an insect of some sort was flying around her mother’s face and she swung her hand to swat it away and when she did, she hit her hat sending it flying to the back of her head secured only by the elastic band that was present on many hats during that time. The site of the hat flying off their mother’s head brought snickers and giggles from the children that were loud enough that the fathers on the other side of aisle turned around and gave disapproving looks to the children to remind them that they were in God’s house.
Allene also wrote that she remembered that the church seem to be made up of older people and had very few younger people. Question—when one is very young, does not everyone older than you seem to be old? She said the preachers all seemed to be REAL old. She said that there was no Sunday School for children but pointed out that the religious training occurred in the home with mothers or older siblings reading Bible stories to the younger children.
Each fall in the church a big association meeting was held. That was the time when neighbors and friends from all churches came together for the entire weekend-starting on Friday and ending on Sunday. How many preachers do you think attended? Typically there were 15 to 20 preachers. They divided their time up so there were 5 or 6 preachers a day. All the women carried lots of food and it was spread on the lawn at noon and following lunch it was back into the church for more preaching.
Allene wrote that young people attended the association which was a welcomed event because the girls usuall y got a new dress. It was a time to see old friends and to make new ones. The churches could not hold everyone so preaching went on outside with people sitting on benches. Sometimes the young people would listen until they became tired and then they would get up and walk around and enjoy being with friends.
The people who came from a distance would spend Friday and Saturday nights with church members who lived near the church. Allene said that the old Dushee Shaw Half Way House was across the road from her house. This road is the Raleigh-Fayetteville Stage Road. In the fall the front room of the old Shaw house was full of loose cotton not yet taken to the ginner. Her mother would give the overnighters sheets and blankets (quilts?) and all the men would go to the barn to sleep on the cotton while the women and children stayed in her house. She said she thought the men enjoyed sleeping in the old house and often told stories and jokes with no women present.
There was lots of cooking that had to be done during the days before Friday so that the mothers could attend the association for the entire three days. She remembered that her parents always had a crowd of company on the weekend of the meeting because everyone looked forward all year long to the Primitive Baptist Association in the fall.
A special thank you goes to the person who gave a memorial gift to the Coats Museum Endowment to honor the 100th birthday of Nell Penny Williams, a former teacher at Coats Union School and a strong supporter of the Coats Museum. She was 98 when she died.
Please be mindful that this Coats Museum News appeared in the Daily Record on July 18, 2011.
One of the more intriguing documents in the Coats Heritage Museum is a 1938 map that shows the locations of the churches, churches with cemeteries, businesses, and schools in Harnett County. One can tell what kind of surface the roads had by looking at the markings on the map. This map was found in the trunk of Mary Alice (Johnson)Johnson who was sister to the 1912 Coats mayor, jeweler and photographer J.L. Johnson and it is on loan to the museum.
The location of three Coats area Primitive Baptist Churches are marked on the 1938 map. The churches are Gift, Bethel, and Little Flock which were well attended by people in the rural areas as well as by town folks. What memories did ninety-two year old Allene Honeycutt have of the Primitive Baptist Church when she wrote her autobiography, ”Remembering the Past”?.
Allene recalled that her parents, Sheriff W.H. and Lizzie Penny Turlington, were members of the Primitive Baptist Church. She wrote that a church had preaching services on Saturday and Sunday once a month at each of their churches. On Saturday, they went to church and took care of all the business of the church and they usually had only one preacher on that day; however on Sunday, two or three preachers preached resulting in church lasting until 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon. She remembered that they had a few minutes between the preachers to go to the bathroom. This is in the 1920’s so guess where the bathroom was. Of course it was an outside toilet behind the church with one for women and one for men.
Allene’s mother, Lizzie, always took tea cakes in her purse (pocketbook) for her children .That sounds British, doesn’t it? Allene said that there was a bucket of drinking water sitting on a table in the church for people to drink. Was there water for handwashing?
Delaney Turlington, daughter of Jeff Turlington, shared with me a story she has never forgotten that happened in a Primitive Baptist Church. Of course this could have happened in any church before they had climate controlled buildings. Delaney said the men sat on one side of the church and the women and children sat and on the other. The time frame of this story was when hats were expected to be worn by women in church and indeed they were. Delaney recalled that an insect of some sort was flying around her mother’s face and she swung her hand to swat it away and when she did, she hit her hat sending it flying to the back of her head secured only by the elastic band that was present on many hats during that time. The site of the hat flying off their mother’s head brought snickers and giggles from the children that were loud enough that the fathers on the other side of aisle turned around and gave disapproving looks to the children to remind them that they were in God’s house.
Allene also wrote that she remembered that the church seem to be made up of older people and had very few younger people. Question—when one is very young, does not everyone older than you seem to be old? She said the preachers all seemed to be REAL old. She said that there was no Sunday School for children but pointed out that the religious training occurred in the home with mothers or older siblings reading Bible stories to the younger children.
Each fall in the church a big association meeting was held. That was the time when neighbors and friends from all churches came together for the entire weekend-starting on Friday and ending on Sunday. How many preachers do you think attended? Typically there were 15 to 20 preachers. They divided their time up so there were 5 or 6 preachers a day. All the women carried lots of food and it was spread on the lawn at noon and following lunch it was back into the church for more preaching.
Allene wrote that young people attended the association which was a welcomed event because the girls usuall y got a new dress. It was a time to see old friends and to make new ones. The churches could not hold everyone so preaching went on outside with people sitting on benches. Sometimes the young people would listen until they became tired and then they would get up and walk around and enjoy being with friends.
The people who came from a distance would spend Friday and Saturday nights with church members who lived near the church. Allene said that the old Dushee Shaw Half Way House was across the road from her house. This road is the Raleigh-Fayetteville Stage Road. In the fall the front room of the old Shaw house was full of loose cotton not yet taken to the ginner. Her mother would give the overnighters sheets and blankets (quilts?) and all the men would go to the barn to sleep on the cotton while the women and children stayed in her house. She said she thought the men enjoyed sleeping in the old house and often told stories and jokes with no women present.
There was lots of cooking that had to be done during the days before Friday so that the mothers could attend the association for the entire three days. She remembered that her parents always had a crowd of company on the weekend of the meeting because everyone looked forward all year long to the Primitive Baptist Association in the fall.
A special thank you goes to the person who gave a memorial gift to the Coats Museum Endowment to honor the 100th birthday of Nell Penny Williams, a former teacher at Coats Union School and a strong supporter of the Coats Museum. She was 98 when she died.
Please be mindful that this Coats Museum News appeared in the Daily Record on July 18, 2011.
