HISTORY OF THE CLIO BAPTIST CHURCH
Barbour County, Alabama
(Excerpts from "The Clio Baptizer",
March 1st - Vol 1, pg. 5& 8, 1963, Clio, AL.)
Submitted by: Verna Smith Bice
The Clio Baptist Church was organized at a "bush arbor" evangelistic meeting conducted by Rev. Harry
Martin of Ozark, Alabama, in 1897. The charter members of the church were Mrs.
Sara Elizabeth Reynolds, Miss Ella Cooper, Mrs. and Mrs. Ed Murdock, and Mr. W. L.
Kennedy and Augusta Phillips Kennedy Smith.
The first church building was constructed in 1899 througha workable arrangement of determination and cooperation. Mrs.
Sara Elizabeth Reynolds offered to make a contribution of the lot for the erection of a church building, to give the pulpit
furniture, and to give $25.00, which said $25.00 was to be duplicated by Mr. and Mrs. Ed Murdoch, Miss Ella Cooper, Mrs.
and Mrs. W. L. Kennedy, Mr. and Mrs. John Gulledge and Mr. And Mrs. William Hunt. Mr. W. L. Kennedy, who operated a sawmill
was to furnish and saw the lumber for the building and donate it, and Mr. William Hunt was to contribute his labor as a
carpenter in the erection of it. The original church building was not built without disappointment for, about the time the
outside was complete and all that remained was to finish the interior, the entire church was leveled to the ground by a
windstorm. Undaunted by this happening, the small band of members completed the edifice, which was of frame
construction, and it was considered a great addition to the young, growing town.
Two bells, one weighing several hundred pounds, and the other a small one used only to bespeak sad or calamitous
happenings, were mounted in its imposing belfry. The large bell is in use today in our present church. Inside the church,
the homemade pews were arranged so that two rows of short pews were placed on the sides of the church, one side for women
and the other for men, and the long pews in
the middle of the church for the children and families who did not care to sit divided
in the orthodox rural fashion. One long pew was set perpendicular to the other
pews in the front of the church for the "deacons bench."
The pastors of the church have been as follows:
Rev. Harry Martin, Rev. A.J. Cumbie, Rev. Thompson, Rev. Crawford, Rev. R.T. McLeod, Rev. C.W. Stitt, Rev. W. C.
Henson, Rev. A.B. Canant, Rev. T.A. Martz, Rev. K. Thomas, Rev. Fred J. Martin, Rev.
Hayne D. Sandifer, Rev. Robert H. DeWitt and Rev. Robert H. Jackson,
the incumbent (1963). Mr. Amos Dillar became the first Sunday School Superintendent and served until 1909 when William Alto Jackson
became superintendent for a thirty year period of time. After his resignation Mr. John T. Mizell served as superintendent,
until Mr. B. C. Botts assumed the duties for a couple of years. Following in the footsteps of his father, W. A.
Jackson, his son, Alto Loftin Jackson, became superintendent and served until 1957.
James Easterling, T.C. Bonds and Virgil Pelfrey served faithfully through 1962. J.S. Jackson is the present superintendent (1963).
The first deacons are not known but Mr. William Hunt is reported to be the first deacon ordained by the church. In
1907 the board of deacons was composed of W.A. Arnold, Neil Mooneyham and James Thomas Jackson, and, except William Alto
Jackson, no new deacons were added for a perod of many years. In 1941 six deacons were ordained, viz: John T. Mizell,
Wallace F. Mizell, Bunyan I. Jackson,
James Shelly Jackson, Sr., Alto L. Jackson, Rufus Hall and John S. Tillman.
(with this same publication 1963)
CHARTER MEMBER HAS REMAINED LOYAL AND ACTIVE
Mrs. Augusta Phillips Kennedy Smith is the only charter member of the Clio Baptist Church now living.
Ms Gussie, as she is called by those who know her well and love her, remembers that
bush arbor Baptist meeting in town almost seventy years ago. The pastor has expressed his appreciation to Ms Gussie for
her faithfulness through the years. Even now, when she is at home and not away visiting relatives, she is prompt and
punctually in attendance at her own church worship and always the first to volunteer to go as a representative to
Associations affairs.
