Church Records: Siloam Springs Baptist Church, 1965, Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: June 10, 1965 Winn Parish Enterprise-News American The Land And The Siloam Church The following story about the Siloam Springs Baptist Church and the area in which it is located was written by John Cross and published in the Baptist Message of May 20: "As the land goes, so goes the church." This applies to every congregation to some extent, but is applies directly to the rural church. Where the economic welfare is dependent on the products of the land, there is a close tie. Siloam Baptist Church at Gansville in Winn Parish is an example that proves the point. You could find a hundred more just like it in Louisiana. When the Wassons, Milams, Stones, Walkers, and other pioneer families came to Winn Parish from Alabama in the 1850s, the land was fresh and strong. With muscle and determination, they cleared and settled. With an abiding faith they organized the church in 1852. Descendants of these families are active in the church today, but there is a turbulent history between them and their forebearers. The membership hasn't changed much in number since Levin Lewis was ordained to the deaconship in 1907 at age 25. "We had about 120 members then, and we have 127 now," he said. But the difference is not in numbers, but the people themselves. Levin Lewis recalls that during the 1920s they had a quarter-time pastor, once a month. And some of that time the services were on Saturday so they could share the pastor with other churches for Sunday worship. The annual budget for 1926 set up a $ 25 a month for the pastor, and nothing more. Brother Lewis remembers a neighboring church which went a bit stronger and promised their pastor $ 35. "And they paid all but $34 of it, too," he said. Every acre was planted to cotton in those days, except what was needed for corn and garden patches. Pastors didn't get much cash, but they sure brought home a load of vegetables, corn meal, and side meat. Cotton after cotton, with erosion in between, won't keep a church strong in the hill country, however. Folks at Siloam can testify to that. By 1930 Levin Lewis was making 800 pounds of cotton, "not to the acre but to the patch," he said. Seven acres didn't quite make two bales, and that was his last year of cotton. A "Lord's Acre" or "Preacher Patch" as some call it, was planted a year or two during the mid-1930s. One year ten acres made three bales. Next year was a bit better; nine acres made three bales. Proceeds were divided between the pastor, missions, and the orphan's home, with nobody getting much. The church budget for 1936-37 promised $ 150 for pastor's salary, $ 5 for the Cooperative Program, and $ 10 for the orphan's home. By the end of the year, they were only $ 109 behind in meeting money. By 1940 the sagging economy of the Gansville Community and Siloam Church picked up a bit. This was a year after the Dugdemona Soil Conservation District was organized, and technical help to stop the fields from washing away was offered to people on the land. Badly eroded land went to trees. Grass for cattle and cover for the land became commonplace. Where it was necessary to row crop, a good system of terraces was built. Wartime urging to produce crops needed for defense brought out loyalty with a sense of land management from the people of Siloam. By 1947 the annual budget for Siloam was over $ 650, with more than half of it set aside for the pastor's salary. That year they paid $ 66 to the Cooperative Program. By then trees and grass were being planted on almost every farm. In 1950 A. F. Taylor planted 18 acres to trees. He had been a member of Siloam Church for 44 years and he could see that his tithe wasn't going to help his church much unless he did something for his land. Nearly everyone was planting trees and grass then, and some of the land settled by the pioneer families was being bought up by large companies, and it was going to trees. Old-timers and cotton passed along together. The folks who support Siloam today are woodlanders. A. F. Taylor has thinned his 18 acres of trees twice, and "can't miss the trees I cut," he says. The longer they stay on the land the better they get and the better the land gets. "Nearly everybody in the community now works in some phase of the timber business," says Neil Taylor, his son, and present chairman of Deacons. Neil teaches science at Dodson High School, and is a conservationist. He was recently honored by the Dugdemona Soil and Water Conservation District for having done an outstanding job of relating conservation of natural resources to the subjects he teaches in school. The 1959 budget for Siloam was about $ 4300. Going into the year they were $ 1000 in debt, but pledged to pay the pastor $ 2400, which they did, and contributed $ 300 to the Cooperative Program. The minutes of the church, ably kept by Mrs. Mary Temple, stated that by the end of the year they had paid the debt and the budget, and had had $ 200 surplus. Growing trees and cattle seemed to be better for church budgets than picking cotton. Freshness is the feeling you get from visiting Siloam Church today. They have completed a brand new brick building, and have a 21 year old pastor, Cecil Ray Taylor of Winnfield. Their net worth is estimated at $ 23,000, all debt free. Inside the air-conditioned sanctuary where the beauty of natural wood reminds you of the trees that are responsible for its growth, you read from record board that last Sunday's offering was $ 107, nearly two- thirds of the total annual budget back in the cotton days! Progress shows as you ride across the red hills in the community. New homes, like the one built by the Hesley Taylors, dot the openings in the beautiful pine forests. Taylor is in the pulpwood business, like a lot of his neighbors, and a member of Siloam Church. Cecil Ray Taylor wouldn't know anything about "preacher patches" or the little yield they made, that was before his time. But he is grounded in conservation. His father, Cecil, is a conservationist technician with the Soil Conservation Service assisting int he Dugdemona SWCD. He and Marshall Hough, SCS work unit conservationist, have left tracks in the woods all through the Gansville Community. Taylor is a student at Louisiana College, but he grew up in a home that taught him soil stewardship as a part of Christian responsibility. R. B. Kitchenham was ordained to the ministry by Siloam Church, and came back to pastor there during the time the transition was taking place on the land. He is credited with leading his people to tithe the fruits of the land, whatever they may be; cotton, trees, cattle or any other. The results of his stewardship teaching still shows. The relationship between the land, the people, and the church must have been crystal clear to him, as it is to the Cecil Taylors, both of them. (Note: Mr. Cross, author of this article is Assistant to the State Conservationist, Soil Conservation Service, Alexandria, La.) The following documents were copied from records at the Office of the Clerk of Court,Winn Parish Courthouse, Winnfield, La. State of Louisiana Parish of DeSoto Know all men by these presents, that; I, E. Davies, a resident of the Parish of DeSoto, State of Louisiana, a married man, wife living and whose maiden name is Rena (actually her maiden name was Cowsert), has this day, for and in consideration of the sum and price of ten dollars ($10.00) cash, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, granted, bargained, sold, conveyed, and delivered unto Siloam Baptist Church, located and domiciled at Gansville, Parish of Winn, Louisiana, being and belonging to the Bethlehem Association, and purchasing and accepting this said purchase by authority of the conference of said Church duly held and convened and an ordinance passed, so authorizing a certain lot or parcel of land situated and lying in the said Parish of Winn and particularly described as: One acre immediately East of the lot now owned by said Church, and on which the Church house is now standing and of the same size proportion and dimension of said lot now owned by said Church and giving more definite lines by yards as follows,-commencing at the SE corner of the lot now owned by said Church and running East along the Section line between Section 1 and 12, thirty five (35) Yard thence running North onehundred and forty yards, thence running West thirty five (35) yards to a NE Corner of the lot now owned by said Church, containing one (1) acre and situated in the SE 1/4 of the SW 1/4 Section 1, Township thirteen (13), N-Range 4 West. The said Church, Officers and Members and their Successor, to have and to hold said described lot of land with all improvements thereon and with full and complete warranty against all debts, incumberances, previous owners, my heirs and assigns, unto itself and successors forever. October 9, 1915 E. Davies Rena Davies Thus done and signed before me a duly qualified Notary in and for the Parish of DeSoto State of La., this the 9th day of October 1915. W. A. Nabors, Notary Attest: Jas. C. Doyle S. C. Cummings The following from: Book E, page 13, Office of the Clerk of Court, Winn Parish, LA. >From E. Davies To Methodist Episcopal Church South, Sale & Donation, Handed to Dennis Pyburn October 6, 1897. State of Louisiana Parish of Winn Know all men by these presents that I, E. Davies of the parish and state above named (mentioned) have this day donated, bargained, sold, granted, and conveyed unto the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and their successors in office one certain tract or parcel of land situated in the Parish of Winn, State of Louisiana, being near the town of Gansville in Ward 4 of said parish as follows: beginning at the NE corner of Gansville Baptist Church (one acre) at a stake running east nine and 39/100 chains to a stake Dennis Pyburn's SE corner, thense south Ten and 60/100 chains to a post oak, thence west fourteen and 72/100 chains to a stake SW corner thence north four and 27/? chains to a stake thense east four and 78/100 chains to a stake the SE corner of said church land thence north with the last boundary of said church land to the beginning containing twelve acres for the consideration of $ 30.00 (Thirty Dollars) reserving one acre out of said tract, 35 yards wide lying east & adjoining to the said Baptist Church property in trust that said premises shall be used, kept maintained and disposed of as a place of residence for the use of the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, subject to the discipline usage and ministerial appointments of said church as from time to time authorized declared by the General Conference of said Church & the Annual Conference within whose bounds the said premises as situated and the said trustees are to have and to hold the property aforesaid for the use aforesaid free from the claim or claims of myself, my heirs, my executors, or administrators and from claims of all others whatsoever. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this the 8th day of January, 1896. E. Davies In presence of J. H. Brown E. E. Davies Personally came and appeared before me the undersigned authority J. H Brown and E. E. Davies who being by me duly sworn says that they signed the within deed as witnesses and that they saw E. Davies sign the same for the purpose therein expressed and they now recognize all their signatures to be genuine so help them God. J. H. Brown E. E. Davies Sworn to and subscribed before me on this the 8th day of January, 1896 C. H. Butler Justice of the Peace Recorded this 5th day of Feb., A. D. 1896 L. ? Jones, Clerk, 4th Judicial D. C. & Recorder