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(The following was
compiled by Hazel Dowdey and used by Willie L. Barton in
'Tracks of a Bold Doe' with Mrs. Dowdey's permission).
The Church of Christ and
the Missionary Baptist Church established a 'union'
church in 1887 near the present site of the Liberty
Church of Christ in Boldo. Montgomery Calloway was the
minister for the Church of Christ and Leroy Williams was
the pastor of the Union Baptist Church. J. H. Hardin,
better known as Jim Hardin, was the church clerk. Mr.
Hardin split boards with a froe to cover the building.
It was a small crude structure. It was said that the
Church of Christ members sat on the front benches on
their preaching days and the Baptist sat on the front on
their preaching day.
It isn't known how many
years they worshipped in one building but the church was
not kept in good repair. There arose some controversy.
Some time after 1901 the Church of Christ began having
services in the Calloway home.
The Union Baptist Church
erected a brush arbor in the field across from the
Calloway house and Leroy Williams ran a revival. Berta
Barton (who later became Mrs. Dan Hardin) said she
attended the revival when just a child and the pastor,
Leroy Williams, hauled a small organ in his wagon and
Mrs. Dowdey, his daughter, played the organ for the
revival.
The Baptist began to
worship in a two-room house on Mr. Sam Robertson's
property and in the two-room school house across from
the old Robertson home which is cemetery property now.
It was voted by the church to build a child building but
the pastor, Leroy Williams, died September 11, 1908 and
Jimmy Drummond became pastor. While the church was being
built Jimmy Drummond and A. J. Huggins put up a tent and
ran a revival. Mollie Haridn (later Mrs. J. W. Barton)
joined the church at this time.
The building was finished
in 1910. It was just a hull with no ceiling, a small
flat top stove for heat, kerosene wall lamps for light,
crude benches and no musical instruments.
At the first meeting in the
new house, the members wanted a name for the church.
Mrs. Katherine Robertson stood with one of her babies in
her arms and said, 'We are going to name it Leroy
Baptist Church'. All agreed. Jimmy Drummond was the
first pastor of the new chruch.
The church had services
once a month, every third Saturday, Saturday night and
Sunday. Sometime later a new school was build alongside
the church and they had church in the school while the
church was finished on the inside. A pump organ was
bought.
At the end of each year it
was voted on to call a pastor for the coming year.
Brother Sammy Gardner served the longest, which was 14
years.
They then began having
preaching the first and third Sundays. The Methodists
met with them on these Sundays and the Baptists met with
the Methodists on the second and fourth Sundays with a
joint Sunday School. When the Methodist started having
their own church the Baptists started Sunday School
every Sunday.
About 1945 the church
called Clayton Shaw as pastor to have full-time services
but to let him work at secular jobs to supplement his
income. He did farm work. Wednesday night prayer
meeting, Sunday night Training Union and WMU was
organized. In the 1990s the church's name was changed
from Leroy Baptist to First Baptist Church of Boldo.
PREACHERS
ORDAINED BY LEROY BAPTIST CHURCH
John
Murray
Walter
Robinson
Covie Williams
J. W. Sticher
Alfred
Hartley
Ray
Davis
Truman
Davis
Joe
Webb
LEROY BAPTIST
MEMBERS WHO ALSO BECAME MINISTERS
Morris Murray
Jimmy
Clayton
J. W. Drummond
Paul Hocutt
PASTORS AT LEROY BAPTIST CHURCH
Leroy
Williams
Jimmy
Drummond
Paul Abels
Sammy
Gardner
Carl
Stewart
Jim Manasco
J. A.
Hogan
Everett
Aaron
Clayton
Shaw
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