Church: Coldwater Baptist Church, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana Contributed to this Natchitoches Parish LAGENWEB Project web site by Nelda Gass Liles. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** TIPS FOR SEARCHING RECORDS ON THE INTERNET Netscape & Ms Explorer users: If you are searching for a particular surname, locality or date while going through the records in the archives or anywhere....try these few steps: 1. Go to the top of the report you are searching. 2. Click on EDIT at the top of your screen 3. Next click on FIND in the edit menu. 4. When the square pops up, enter what you are looking for in the FIND WHAT ___________blank. 5. Click on DIRECTION __DOWN. 6. And last click on FIND NEXT and continue to click on FIND NEXT until you reach the end of the report. This should highlight the item that you indicated in "find what" every place it appears in the report. You must continue to click on FIND NEXT till you reach the end of the report to see all of the locations of the item indicated. COLDWATER BAPTIST CHURCH HAGEWOOD, LA The Coldwater Baptist Church and Cemetery is located at Hagewood, Natchitoches Parish, LA on LA Hwy 6, about eight (8) miles west of Natchitoches, LA. In 1891, Isaac Angelo Ellzey, son of John Hill Ellzey and Mary Jane Sibley Ellzey, donated two and one-half acres of land on the north side of the LA Hwy 6 and Hwy 117 junction, to be used for school and church purposes as noted in the Coldwater Baptist Church records. In the next few years following this donation, a building was constructed on this property, and was used as a meeting place, a school, and a post office. The Coldwater Baptist Church was organized in 1912, with Rev. C. Williamson as its first pastor. The following persons were listed as charter members: Mr. and Mrs. J. Cullen Brown (Mary Emmagaard Ellzey, sister of Isaac Angelo Ellzey) Mr. and Mrs. George Berry Mr. and Mrs. Jack Wyatt Mrs. James Wesley Sanders (Ada Wiggins) Mrs. Ambrose John Martin (Lurline Elizabeth Ellzey, daughter of Isaac Angelo Ellzey) Mrs. Wallace Marion Stephens (Janie Wiggins) Mr. Walter Wyatt Mrs. Martha A. Brown Ellzey (wife of Isaac Angelo Ellzey) Miss Mamie Hubbard. Both Janie Wiggins Stephens and Ada Wiggins Sanders were nieces of Isaac Angelo Ellzey, daughters of DeWittie Jane Ellzey Wiggins. In 1914, property was purchased from Mrs. Lurline Elizabeth Ellzey Martin ($5.00), and a church building was constructed at the present site of the Coldwater Baptist Church. It was not until 1949 that a cemetery was established on property adjacent to the church, although Laura Anderson Sibley (1873-1936, w/o Edward C. Sibley, m/o Mary 'Evie' Sibley McQueen), who had specifically requested burial near the Coldwater Church, was buried at the front left of the church in 1936. The first burial in the Coldwater Baptist Church Cemetery was that of Andrew B. Miller, 02 Sep 1951. Prior to 1949, the people of the community had buried their loved ones in the Pine Grove Cemetery, which is located approximately one mile south of the present location and one mile east of LA 117, on the John Whatley Road (Natchitoches Parish Road 632). The Pine Grove Methodist Church and the adjacent Pine Grove Cemetery had served as a focal point for this settlement area, some eight miles west of Natchitoches, since about 1850. Coldwater Baptist Church has been served by many fine and distinguished pastors, among whom was Rev. Oliver S. Roberts, serving from 1925-1933 and 1941-1951, the longest term overall as well as the longest continuous service. Rev. J. P. King served from 1960 to 1970, and Rev. Troy V. Wheeler served from 1975 to 1984, when he retired from active service. Rev. Wheeler continued to fill the pulpit in times of need, and remained a loyal and faithful friend of the church to the year of his death, 1992. The Coldwater Baptist Church continues to serve the people of the Hagewood, LA area as it has done for the past eighty-five years. References: 1. Minutes and records of Coldwater Baptist Church, Hagewood, LA. 2. Conversations with community residents.