History of Coal Springs Church

By Mary Prather Ford, 1914

Among the fast growing pines of the forest in a partially obscure portion of Claiborne Parish there stands a lonely deserted Baptist meeting house. This house was built in 1871. The church was organized in 1862 and was first called Bethel.

Only one of its charter members is living in 1914. That is Sister Ellen Gryder Thomas and she is past her four score years. In 1865 the name of the church was changed to Coal Springs because there was thought to be a vein of coal in the nearby hills from which the little spring branch filled a pool that was used for baptizing.

The first pastor was David Wise. Some of the pages of the records are lost. Can't tell just how much because during the long period there was no date to the minutes. In July 1865 J. A. Davids became pastor, followed by J. Short in 1866. J. W. Melton became pastor in 1871 and served fifteen years; he is always mentioned in the minutes as "our beloved pastor". According to the records, he baptized only 95 during his ministry, including this scribe in 1875.

J. F. Hinton became pastor in 1866. P. B. Monk was pastor in 1890, and J. W. Melton again became pastor in 1891, serving two more years. C. B. Hollis became pastor in November 1893. B. R. Neal followed in 1894.

T. C. Moreland became pastor in 1866. In 1898 M. W. DeLoach, who was born and reared in the vicinity of the church and baptized by J. W. Melton, became the last pastor of the church that was dissolved in 1900.

Among the clerks of the church were Peter Curry, W. J. Smith, William W. DeLoach, W. S. Bonner, Melton W. DeLoach, Frank C. Norman, M. S. Ford, and M. E. Ruple. The deacons included Peter Curry, James Eagram, David Pearson, W. W. Bonner, Milo C. Curry, Pink Aubrey, and Frank C. Norman.

The church built a new house in 1876, the one that now stands. The last sermon that was preached in the old house was on the last day of the meeting of the last month of the year 1875. J. W. Melton preached from the text, “The harvest is passed, summer is ended, and I am not saved." Two weeks later, the heavy snow crushed the old building to the ground.

The new church building was at that time nearly finished, and we occupied it at the January meeting. For a short while there was a semi-monthly Sunday School in the church, but since the membership was so widely scattered, this did not last long.

In the records of the church, there are about 190 baptisms and 75 exclusions. There were also many restorations of the exclusions, but it was often the same person in and out, in and out. In the early part of the ministry of Elder J. W. Melton there came up a case of a brother who had been drunk. He denied it, and some of the members were in favor of retaining him in the church. Then one sister arose and said, "My little boy saw him lying by the roadside dead drunk - too drunk to know anyone," whereupon an old deacon made a motion to exclude the man on the statement of the sister and evidence of her boy, who was known to be truthful. The church excluded the drunken member, and he "went to his own company".

Once during a regular church conference, the subject of paying the pastor was discussed, and one brother said that six bits a day was what he paid his hired hand; he thought six bits a day would do for the preacher. J. W. Melton was pastor at that time, and he rode 20 miles across the country in cold and heat, over rough roads and creeks, to preach the gospel to us.

At one time the church bore patiently seven year with a member for non-attendance from the day he was baptized. He was called for a letter and could give no excuse for this treatment of the church, since he lived in the vicinity of the church throughout this period. Finally, he was excluded. Another excluded member kept his letter of dismissal 12 years, living all that time within two miles of the church, then came back to the church; afterwards he was ordained to the ministry, though he did not practice. Yet another brother was disciplined on a charge of dishonesty, and a member objected to the recording of this dishonesty on the church records. "It will go down to posterity," he said, "and they will be ashamed of it." The church clerk then objected that it was his duty to keep a correct record, and so the episode was properly recorded.

These exclusions were often tempered with mercy. When a young man was once charged with dancing, his mother rose to plead for the purity of the church. "You can't keep him in the church without injury to the cause of Christ," she said. "He is my child, but he does wrong." Still, after consideration, the church decided not to exclude the young man at that time.