MACON COUNTY, GA - CHURCHES St. Zion Lutheran ***************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm *********************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Dan Harvill Mt. Zion-St. Luke Lutheran Church is a very active congregation. They welcome your participation as they carry on the work begun by our ancestors. Mt. Zion-St. Luke Lutheran Church Rev Robert "Pastor Bob" Wolfert, Pastor P.O. Box 187 Oglethorpe, GA 31068 www.alltel.net/wepray/index.htm HISTORY OF MT. ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH 1938-1958 Compiled and Written by Dan 0. Harvill Webster's dictionary defines the word "evangelical" as "emphasizing salvation by faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ through personal conversion, the authority of the Scripture and the importance of preaching as contrasted with ritual". The unyielding conviction of a number of German Lutherans to this principle, ultimately brought a Lutheran Church to Macon County through a series of events and moves over a period of approximately one hundred years. Those families living in the German Palatinate and Salzburg areas in the late 1600's and early 1700's were "dutch headed" in that they continued to give instructions to their children on the Bible and circulating devotional literature after having been expressly forbidden to do this by the Roman Catholic Church which was the State religion of that time. Their zeal and their faith gave them the courage to continue to worship and teach Lutheranism in secret in their homes and with discovery of a secret Lutheran society in 1683 this resulted in imprisonment of their leaders and in 1684 the confiscation of all Lutheran books that could be found. The books were burned and a large number of Lutherans were banished and forced to surrender their children to the church. It was this religious tyranny and intolerance that started a mass emigration of many Lutherans from the Salzburg and Palatinate areas of Germany. Some of them moved to other areas of Germany and Europe, others chose America as their destination, and it is with this last group that the slow movement of Lutherans to Macon County began. The Salzburgers chose the Savannah River area of the English Colony of Georgia for resettlement while most of those from the Palatinate favored the Carolinas and in particular the counties of Newberry and Lexington, South Carolina. From Heidelberg and the area Southward came the Shealy's, Cloud's, Epting's, Coogle's, Kleckley's and others to South Carolina to establish new homes among and near other settlers of German descent. So it is with the "Dutch Fork" district of Newberry County that we begin our story of Mt. Zion Lutheran Church. CHAPTER I In 1836 from the "Dutch Level" community of what was then Marion County, Mr. David Coogle wrote to the South Carolina Synod that there were a number of Lutheran families down here and asked that a Lutheran minister come and settle amongst them. According to the 1830 census, there were 1436 people living in all of Marion County including 109 slaves. Familiar names listed from the Dutch Level community were Cloud, English, Rouse, Taylor, Waddell and Webb. There is no record of Kleckley's or Coogle's in this census; however, the census of 1840 for the newly formed Macon County includes David Coogle, Peter McBride, John F. Robinson, Andrew Shealy, Jacob Kleckley, John Coogle, John Helvingsteen, Daniel Smith, Elisha Cloud, William Dyess, Joseph Mott and Newton Williams, all names that appear on the early rolls of Mt. Zion Church. This indicates that the movement of these families to this area took place in the period 1820-1840. It is very likely that the 1830 census was incomplete and left off some families since the enumerator had a large area to cover and in those days it sometimes took as much as two or three years to complete the count. At the time of David Coogles's letter, jurisdiction for the Lutheran Church in all of Georgia rested in the "Evangelical Lutheran Synod of South Carolina and Adjacent States" and the only means of getting a licensed Lutheran minister or missionary was through that Synod. Further, it was only natural that the Macon County Lutherans turn to the land of their fathers for help in obtaining a pastor and thereby sustaining their family ties; the name "Dutch Level" undoubtedly came from the "Dutch Fork" community in South Carolina. The request for a minister was evidently looked on with favor by the Synod as the minutes for 1838 show that Brother J. Kleckley received a license to exhort and bury the dead, to be in force for one year upon condition that he appear personally at the next Synod. His move to Georgia came prior to 1840 since his name is on the census roll for that year showing a wife, seven children and five slaves. According to an account given by Mrs. Mary Belle Powers, Rev. Jacob Kleckley's father, Johannes Kleck was a Hessian soldier hired by the British to help subdue the revolting colonies. Arriving in South Carolina in 1776, he found a colony of German speaking people who spoke his own language and worshipped God as Lutherans using his own familiar liturgy. At that point he saw no reason to fight against these people and discarded his uniform to become a peaceful farmer in the Saluda River section of Lexington County, South Carolina. Fifteen years later Jacob was born (Nov. 1, 1791) and following in the footsteps of his father grew up to be a landowner and farmer. As a young boy he attended Mt. Zion Lutheran Church of Lexington County and later as a young man he preached at Mt. Zion and at other churches in the Dutch Fork. We have no record of his having been ordained or licensed until the 1838 minutes of the South Carolina Synod; he could have been acting as a lay minister or supply before that date. By the time Pastor Kleckley arrived in Macon County, he was married to his third wife, Mrs. Fannie Hamiter, who had been a wealthy widow and the owner of slaves. Their children were: Harriet, John, Catherine, Joel Thomas, Rhoda Ann, David and Nancy. We do not have any record of children born to the first two marriages of Jacob Kleckley, and it is from these seven children that many present day members of our congregation are descended. It was roughly 250 miles from his home in South Carolina to Macon County, Georgia, and the good Pastor with his family, slaves and belongings made the trip with horse drawn wagons, probably stopping over at various points to rest up thereby taking three or four weeks to complete the trip. We assume that his soon to be flock had a place for them to live so he could begin his work at once. Tradition tells us that the first place of worship was a cabin built near a spring on the lands of John F. Robinson which is still called "the meeting house" spring and is now owned by T. J. Coogle. It is not known how long the church remained at this spot; but at a later Synod was established closer by. On July 28, 1860, at St. John's Church in Spaulding County "The Evangelical Lutheran Church Synod of Georgia and Adjacent States" was formed and among those present were Rev. Jacob Kleckley and Rev. S. W. Bedenbaugh representing Mt. Zion. The second convention of the new synod was held at Mt. Zion July 26, 1861, bringing to fruition a dream of long standing held by Pastor Kleckley. CHAPTER III The Rev. S. W. Bedenbaugh was a pusher and a leader and with the approach of war, he kept things moving at Mt. Zion. Bible Classes were conducted and a Sabbath School met regularly. Old records list the membership of the church in 1854 as having 17 white males, 28 white females, 15 colored males and 19 colored females. The slave members participated in Holy Communion but at a separate table. The list of children attending Sabbath School contains 24 names. There were 34 Baptisms recorded in the ten years 1858-1867. The war disrupted the lives of the people and the church, with a number of the young men off at war, some of whom made the supreme sacrifice. Pastor Bedenbaugh was succeeded by John Bowles in 1863 followed by William Tignor, J. P. Margart and in 1878 Pastor J. S. Elmore who would serve longer than any other pastor in the history of the church. Little is known about church activities during the next fifty or sixty years. Church services were held regularly and all of the Elmore family was active in the work, playing the organ, singing in the choir and teaching. They lived on a farm about three miles west of Oglethorpe on the old Ellaville highway and traveled the four miles to Mt. Zion by horse and buggy. For a time Pastor Elmore taught in the public schools and from 1894 until his death in 1911 he served as the Ordinary (Probate Judge) of Macon County. He resigned his pastorate at Mt. Zion in 1885 and moved to Terrell County as pastor of St. Paul's at Bronwood, Georgia, and St. Mark at Botsford. In 1890 he accepted a call to return to Mt. Zion and served this church as the pastor for the rest of his life. During the time span of 1838-1911, a period of 73 years, there were only seven pastors to serve this church (Elmore twice). This is an indication of the stability, loyalty and devotion of its members. It was a congregation made up of a relatively small number of families whose members intermarried frequently and when a Lutheran married he or she usually brought their spouse into the church and raised their children in that faith. Growth was nominal but fairly consistent. The church records show 123 members (56 male - 67 female) in the year 1898 but then shows a drop to 89 in the membership count for 1911, the year that a group began organizing a church in Oglethorpe. Many of these people had moved to town in order to be near their businesses, the schools and community activities, so with the birth of St. Luke, there were approximately 12 families with 28 adult members to leave Mt. Zion which resulted in some adverse effect on the old church. However, the 1925 rolls show a total of 56 adult members and 11 baptized child members which was a good number for what was now a country church with almost all of the members related by blood or marriage. By 1925 services had been cut back to twice a month and were frequently held in the afternoons or at night since they were sharing the pastor with the other two churches, St. Luke and St. John. From 1912 until 1929, a period of 17 years, there would be only three full-time pastors and their tenure was short—one to two years. The automobile had made its entrance into the world and with convenient and rapid transportation the churches began to lose their place as the center of all community life. People began leaving the farms, and the size of families began to shrink. If all three of the Lutheran churches in Macon County had united into one, the result would have been about equal to what we have today in the Mt. Zion-St. Luke Church. It seems as if Lutheran preachers did not see much future in serving three churches in a rural setting, and it was not until 1929 that a pastor would come to stay and minister long enough to make a real imprint on the lives of these Lutherans. As late as 1950, many of them could not remember the names of any of the pastors who were here between 1912 and 1929 except that of C. A. Phillips. They came and they went. Pastor Charles A. Phillips served the Plains Parish from 1906 until 1918 and during that time he was a frequent visitor to Oglethorpe and the Elmore family home. He preached as a supply pastor when needed, and it was he who took over from the ailing Pastor Elmore in 1911 and organized St. Luke. After the death of Pastor Elmore, he was the full-time supply until the summer of 1913. How he accomplished all he had scheduled is a mystery, because he had three churches at Plains (Bronwood, Botsford and St. Andrew), was the principal of the Thompson Community school and was supplying the three churches up here. Just visiting the sick, burying the dead and marrying the romantics should have kept him busy and with sermons to preach at six churches, he had to be a roan of much energy for those two years. He went off to war as a chaplain in 1918 and returned as the full-time pastor for the Macon County parish in 1920 through 1924; many of the old timers in our present day congregation still have an undying affection for this loving and genteel pastor. CHAPTER IV In 1929 the Rev. D. L. Heglar accepted a call and began a nine year pastorate. Services were held on one Sunday each month at Mt. Zion and at St. John and on two Sundays each month at St. Luke. Membership was declining at the two country churches as people died and their children moved away. It had become a time of change all over the country with the population shifting to the cities which had begun with the popularity of the automobile following World War I. Out at Mt. Zion they had church without the liturgy and used hymns familiar to all protestant denominations. The membership rolls included the names Coogle, Ellis, Hammock, DeLoach, Kleckley, Huffman, Kitchens, Jackson, Johnson, Robinson, Smith, Tarrer and Williams, plus others. The depression left people almost destitute; food was raised and preserved at home but money was almost non- existent. The flock was generous with pantry items but had no money to pay the preacher. The Mission Board supplemented his salary but Pastor Heglar had to teach school to afford a reasonable standard of living. He was short of stature with dark hair parted slightly off center and spoke in a precise clipped manner which made it easy to listen to him and understand. Services at Mt. Zion were held in the mornings and at night and with no electricity in those days it was by lamp light. The preacher normally ate Sunday dinner with one of the church families and on most occasions this was at the J. N. Williams home where Miss Annie Mae was the head cook. She was also the organist (push pedal, reed type) most of the time so she had to prepare food early on Sunday morning and get to church on time. Soon after this writer came to Oglethorpe (1938), I attended Sunday night services by lamp light at Mt. Zion several times with my bride to be (Emily Hammock) and we would pick up the organist, Elvie Morgan, on the way out and drop her off as we came back. This was in 1938 and the church had acquired a piano by then but still no electricity. On one Sunday night I casually mentioned to Elvie a hymn that was one of my favorites and you can imagine my surprise and embarrassment when during the service Pastor Heglar announced that he had a special request for the song and would we all sing out. I wanted to crawl under the pew. Pastor Heglar's resignation on August 1, 1938, came as a shock to all of the Lutherans. After nine years, he had become a fixture in the community and it was with much sadness we saw him leave for a new field in Silver Street, South Carolina. It would be over a year before another full-time pastor would come to the Parish. CHAPTER V John Ziegler became the pastor for the three churches in September, 1939, and his pastorate would also last nine years. To begin with he was single and boarded with Mrs. Kate Nelson at the house where the John Trasks now live next door to St. Luke. He also had to teach school to make a living but something real good came of that for he would meet another teacher. Miss Evelyn Bush, who would become his wife and mother of their lovely daughter, Becky. Times were still hard for the shrinking membership at Mt. Zion and the congregation had difficulty raising enough money to contribute a share to the pastor's salary. The building was deteriorating and patch work by the members was at best poor. In a congregational meeting in the late summer of 1941, the decision was made to seek help from St. Luke members, former members and anyone else in the community that was willing to give, to raise funds to repair the church building. The money was raised and the people also gave of their time and effort. Mr. J. M. Riddle, the father of Dennis Riddle and Mrs. Blanche Williams, who was affection-ately known as "Uncle Joe" was a retired railroad construction foreman and J. W. (Wick) Hammock traded with him to take overall charge of the work. He was not a cabinet maker type carpenter, but he could build on the square and build it solid. He hired some help and used volunteer labor to build new front doors, replace rotted out sills and flooring, put on a new roof and a host of other things. Uncle Joe was not a Lutheran and was prone to say what he had on his mind with a lot of emphasis and at times with strong language—yet he had a heart as big as a wash tub. I was not a member of the Lutheran church but had already adopted it as my church to be and spent several afternoons and Saturdays helping him carpenter out at Mt. Zion -- there was no pay for me -- I just wanted to help out. Uncle Joe decided that the church needed some kind of an ornament to break the appearance of the tall flat wall in front, so he decided that a small cupola type fixture attached on the middle above the doors would have the right effect. He wasn't much of a climber so he got me to go with him on a Saturday afternoon to finish building it by putting on the top and sides. I weighed 115 pounds and was little and wiry and up the ladder he sent me. I have never been much of a carpenter and what happened that day was hilarious. He would tell me what and where to measure, then using my figures he would saw the piece of lumber and toss it up to me to be nailed. Everything went wrong — I couldn't understand the design nor what he was talking about, my measurements did not jibe and the whole thing was getting out of kilter. He stood on the ground and gave me a "navy lecture" his face red as a beet. When I remonstrated with him saying it was a church, he replied that it was all my fault for being so dumb and the wrath of the Lord would fall on me if I didn't start using my head. We finally got the cupola floored, and I crawled inside to stretch out over each side to nail the boards on. I couldn't help laughing and the more I laughed the madder he got. I completely wore him out sawing and re-sawing because of my poor measuring. Finally, about sundown we had it completed, and I felt it was safe to come down. The remodeling job on the church was completed, down to several coats of white paint, by the first week in December. On Sunday afternoon all of us at the Hammock household rode out to inspect the job and make pictures, Mr. and Mrs. Hammock, Everett and Sweetie, George, Emily and me. We got back to town about 4:00 p.m. and stopped at the drugstore for a coke and it was then that we learned that the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor. CHAPTER VI Banners were hung in the church with a blue star for each man in the service. Attendance was at an all time low with about fifteen or twenty at Mt. Zion and with barely enough money being given to pay its share of the parish expenses. After the war there was little change in attendance or giving and the membership rolls continued to drop as more people transferred to St. Luke in town, moved away, or died. Many on the church rolls did not come to church or tithe. During the remainder of John Zeiglers pastorate here things drifted along at Mt. Zion in a status quo with little activity and little change. He resigned in October 1948 and Lloyd Seller came to serve the parish in March 1949. Pastor Seller was another mover and shaker and refused to let things rest. He began a number of activities that would involve Mt. Zion along with St. John and St. Luke, but the two rural congregations had no place to go for new members and thus began a period of just holding on. In early 1953 Pastor Seller concluded that the time had come to make a bold move to revitalize Lutheranism in Macon County and presented the idea of consolidating all three churches into one congregation in town. Both St. John and Mt. Zion refused to consider the idea, however, some of the members out at Mt. Zion spoke differently in private. The financial burden had fallen on three or four members and they could see the impractical side of trying to continue having a church with only eight or ten people attending. The question arose as to what could be done to convince the holdouts at Mt. Zion that we needed them in town and they needed to be there. Pastor Seller held discussions on and off the record with the leaders at St. Luke and came up with a plan that was almost acceptable. First there would be a new congregation for all of us bearing the name Mt. Zion-St. Luke; second, a new constitution would be adopted; third, the church council would be increased to nine with three council members to come from the Mt. Zion area at the time of the merger and from then on. The Mt. Zion people would be just as much a part of the new congregation as those at St. Luke. This didn't quite satisfy one or two families so the idea stood still for the time being. During the early part of the summer Pastor Seller came up with another idea, suggesting that we have a Homecoming Day at Mt. Zion to honor all the pioneers who had brought the Lutheran faith to Macon County. Plans were made and everyone in all three churches was asked to help. A monument was designed and ordered for Pastor Jacob Kleckley's grave site and the whole burial lot was completely reworked. The building was cleaned and repaired and when termites were found under the church Joe Coogle brought his tractor with a cotton duster mounted on it and blew so much dust underneath it that you couldn't see the church. The women washed pews and cleaned windows, the men cleaned and groomed the grounds and cemetery and committees were set up for the big day. Jake Smith was chairman of the barbecue committee, Fred Edwards was in charge of the parking and when the matter of restrooms was brought up Pastor Seller borrowed a latrine fly from the National Guard and assigned me, Murray Holloway, and Carl Stafford the job of erecting a restroom, army style, for the" ladies only. Tables were set up out under the old big oak tree for the food, chairs were brought from St. Luke and a speaker system was installed outside for the overflow crowd to follow the services. Relatives, former members, descendants of Pastor Kleckley and everyone in the community were invited. The date was September 20, 1953 and the sun came up bright and clear with perfect weather for the celebration. Jake Smith's meat committee had barbecued three hogs during the night and brought the meat down to Wick Hammock's meat market early Sunday morning to cut up and season with the sauca made by Dr. H. C. Derrick. Services were to start promptly at 11:00 a.m. and at 10:00 the church yard began to fill with cars. Miss Annie Mae Williams had a register for everyone to sign but there was such a large crowd many people failed to sign it. We have been unable to find this book but I can recall that Clayton Kleckley from Lexington, South Carolina, brought a group of twelve or fifteen and Felton Kleckley who was in his seventies rode a bus all the way from Texas. All of these were descendants of Jacob Kleckley's family. There was a host of former members that came bringing their families and from the local scene. We had Methodists, Baptists, and Seventh Day Adventists who came to celebrate the day with us. There were four preachers on hand; Pastor Seller, Pastor C. A. Phillips who had the morning sermon. Rev. Parks Smith had the afternoon sermon, and Dr. C. E. Fritz, President of Synod, brought greetings from that body. Following afternoon services in the church a special dedication service was held at the burial plot of Pastor Kleckley where Clayton Kleckley brought greetings from all the South Carolina kin. The "dinner on the grounds" was something to behold. The tables groaned from the loads of food on them and after the several hundred people there had eaten, there was still food. When Parks Smith, a Methodist preacher who was raised as a Lutheran at Mt. Zion, began his service that afternoon by saying that the day deserved the singing of "Amazing Grace" and would somebody "heist" the tune and everyone sing it. This hymn was not in our book but the congregation sung it with fervor without the benefit of the piano. The festivities wound down about 5:00 p.m. and there ended one of the greatest days in the history of the Lutheran Church in Macon County. Everyone present had experienced the presence of Our Lord, shared the love of kinship and friendship with each other, and gone home with a renewal of faith. Following the Homecoming Pastor Seller again brought up the matter of a merger of Mt. Zion with St. Luke and it was suggested that we include in our proposal to that group that we agree to hold a Homecoming celebration the first Sunday in August every year out at Mt. Zion and that we agree to maintain the building in proper condition so that special services (funerals and weddings) and the homecoming meeting could be held inside out there. This satisfied those who had been holding out and an agreement was made to officially merge the two congregations into a new church on Reformation Sunday, November 1, 1953. So ends the story of Mt. Zion, except for special events that would take place in years to come. There is one sad aspect of this great event; we did not keep our promise to maintain the building and we ceased having Homecoming services out there. CHAPTER VII From the time of the merger on there was never a major repair or rebuilding of the Mt.Zion building. We continued to have Homecoming out there on the first Sunday in August each year with big crowds. As the date for the event approached we would get a work party together and patch the floors, windows and pews and, try to make the building safe. A day to clean up the cemetery would be scheduled and for a year or so dinner was carried and eaten on that day but with machines and chemicals to help out, this job would be completed before noon and the men wanted to go on home and get back to their work so this custom passed away quietly. The building deteriorated to the point that it became unsafe to have a crowd in it and for that reason the Homecoming event was moved to town in August 1974, twenty-one years after it began. From time to time the question would arise in regard to restoration and our promise to maintain the building. Most of the members of old Mt. Zion had passed on or moved away and the few of us that wanted to keep the building as an historical heritage could not persuade the present day membership that it was a worthwhile project. So it was in 1984, after another futile attempt to get support for restoration failed, that the Mt. Zion - St. Luke congregation decided to tear the old building down before it fell of its own accord. A granite commemorative marker with dates engraved thereupon was erected and dedicated in June 1984. The pioneers who came and persevered and the ancestors of most of our present day church families sleep in peace in one of the oldest and largest church cemeteries in the county. Clean up day is still held once a year but the vicissitudes of time are taking its toll and many of the graves are disappearing. As you stand and look across the stones you cannot help but realize that what is taking place at Mt. Zion is the same as has happened to most old cemeteries where there is no building or any regular scheduled activities held to keep it alive in our conscience. Pastor John Lingle charted and identified most all of the grave sites in 1987 with names on the list where they were obtainable. Some graves are not marked and others have completely disappeared, however, as of now it is possible to find most family burial plots. Some families still bury their dead at Mt. Zion and as long as this continues there will be some interest in its welfare. There are many things to remember about Mt. Zion not told in the preceding pages -- some good, some humorous and some we would just as soon forget. The piano was removed from the building shortly after the merger and for twenty years it had to be hauled out for the Homecoming and brought back the next day. Lucius Williams was in charge of this project and come that Sunday the piano would be setting in place. Mr. Fred Edwards would gather his scout troop (in uniform) and they would supervise the parking so that it took place in an orderly manner and without incident. Mary Hammock and Virginia Martin invited singers from other churches to come and be in the choir which always assured us of a good musical program. Hymn books, fans, and chairs were carried out on the Saturday before and some of us who were growing older found all this to be getting heavier. I could name scores of others who made a special effort to make this annual affair a success. George Smith and I would see that the electricity was on but we never got around to telling anyone how we did it. The first Sunday in August was always extremely hot and the afternoon service was discarded early on with people being encouraged to sit in the shade and visit. Sometime around 1960 the big old oak tree (30" diameter) was struck by lightning and died in a year or so. This did away with most of our heavy shade and Merlan Williams erected permanent wooden tables with a shelter over them along the line of small oaks at the edge of the church yard. Without adequate shade the visiting period grew shorter each year and people would begin to repack their baskets and leave soon after everyone had finished eating. Those of us who had chairs and books to load and haul back to town would be completely exhausted at the end of the day. One of the homecoming celebrations almost ended in tragedy and as a result bears a lasting reputation. Pastor W. H. (Billy) Martin had started his pastorate here the latter part of June and Homecoming for 1960 was to be the day of his installation. Dr. Raymond Wood, President of Synod agreed to kill two birds with one stone by acting as our speaker for that morning and conducting the installation service for Pastor Martin on the same day. The event was well staged and organized and as a result we had one of the largest crowds ever to attend. It would have been quite normal except for one unfortunate occurrence that was unforeseen. As usual, plans called for serving barbecue and the meat committee was composed of Merlan Williams, Maynard Melton, Everett "Gooch" Hammock, W. E. "Buddy" Webb III, and me (Dan Harvill). We gathered at Merlan's house on early Saturday morning and spent the day cooking three whole hogs. For lunch Merlan barbecued chickens (a first for me) and we all enjoyed the fellowship of being together for the day, doing something for our church. In the late afternoon the cooked meat was taken up, pulled from the bones, cut up and put in large aluminum vessels. Gooch and I brought it on to town and put it in the big cooler at his father's store. This liked to have been our undoing - putting hot meat in a cold refrigerator. As stated this was one of the largest crowds ever to attend our Lutheran Homecoming and there were some real eaters among them, not the least of whom was Dr. Wood. Everything went off beautifully and by mid-afternoon the celebration was over and everyone was either at home or on their way. About 6:30 p.m. Maynard Melton came by my house and asked to speak to me privately in my front yard. He dropped a bomb. There were scores of people getting deathly sick from our barbecue; both local hospitals were full and the ambulance was now hauling some people to the Americus hospital. I wanted to crawl under a rock. All through the night I worried and walked the floor - Emily's father. Wick Hammock, was so sick he thought he was going to die. By morning things has settled down -- there were no fatalities, thank the Lord, but we still had a lot of sick people. This occurrence upset us so that we did not serve barbecue at Homecoming for a number of years and the event has never been the same. Many of our regular attenders never came back. It wasn't funny then but in later years as people recalled the "big Lutheran barbecue" it took on a humorous and almost hilarious note. Dennis Riddle was down on the floor in the bathroom at his house and Christine couldn't get him up. So she called his sister, Mrs. Blanche Williams, to come and help; Blanche told her that there was no way she could come that John was so sick he was about to die, that she had changed the sheets three times in the last thirty minutes - Johnny, overhearing the conversation called out to Blanche "no-o-o-o don' t leave me!" Christine called the ambulance, got Dennis to the Americus Hospital, then collapsed herself. Dr. Wood got so sick on his way home to Atlanta that he had to stop at a "Juke Joint" on the outskirts and call Mrs. Wood to come for him. When he gave her the name of the beer joint, she asked incredulously "What are you doing there?" "Hybie" Derrick (Dr. Howard C. Jr.) and his two boys came down in his private plane and he got so sick going back that he messed up the whole interior of the plane and was barely able to land it when they got to Lafayette. Jesse Derrick visited friends in Columbus that night to see their new home and almost ruined it. "Hybie" hasn't been back to Homecoming and "Jett" hasn't been invited back to Columbus. Many tall tales were told at John Bryan' s Station about the barbecue and with the embellishments added it became funny. Among the best stories told was the one on Johnny Williams, Tom Coogle, and Wick Hammock, who were all in adjoining rooms at the Macon County Clinic. After being so sick and just beginning to feel they would live, on Monday night the hospital brought them barbecue for supper!! -- Johnny said what he told them couldn't be repeated. Mrs. Willie Mae Edwards also had a good one, she said "I'm sorry Fred got sick and I'm sorry Bess got sick and I'm sorry John (her brother, John Bryan) got sick but I still say it was the best barbecue I ever ate in my life". As we close our story we think of the many good tiroes the Lutherans have had at old Mt. Zion. We also think of the sad walks we have made out to the graves, but most of all we think of the closeness of God and our Savior. As we stand and gaze out across this hallowed ground we think about the many souls who have found peace and joy here at Mt. Zion and it is to those early pioneers whose work and devotion was unceasing and to those sturdy souls who followed that would not give up their church, that we honor and give our thanks for they made it possible for us to worship here as Lutherans this day. MAY PEACE BE WITH YOU!