The white Baptists had for many years prior to the late war a
prosperous church at this place, with a large membership of white
people and colored people--the slaves of their masters. Just about the
time of the war the larger portion of the white membership moved away,
and from one cause and another, the close of the war found but a few
white members remaining, but a large colored membership.
The white members, to whom the property belonged, sold the building and
donated $2,000 of the proceeds to the colored members for them to build
a church with. This church is the same church that the white people had
organized more than fifty years ago.
Rev. H. Stephens was the first pastor of the colored congregation,
after they moved their church site, and was pastor for twenty years.
Rev. L. J. Green was pastor for about four years, and Rev W. M.
Madison, the present pastor, has been there five years, has built a
nice parsonage and greatly increased the membership.
There were 300 members (colored) when the church moved to its present
site. They have now a membership of 800.
This is the mother church of nearly every church in Hale county and
they have a great many large and prosperous churches in the county. The
church property is worth $2,500.
This is saying good things for the white Baptists of Greensboro.
Deacon Dock Lane, one of the most honorable and consecrated among men,
deserves mention as a pillar in this church. Among the leaders of this
church appears the name of Mr. A. Wimbs.
Desiring to make honorable mention of this worthy young man, I
requested of him something of his history, and he sends me the
following:
“I was born in Greensboro, Ala., September 23, 1860. My mother was
named Josephine; she was brought from Washington and sold to Mr. A.
L. Stollenwerck, of this town. My father was named Addison Wimbs
and resided in Washington; he was a slave on account of his mother
being a slave, but his father was a free man, and had bought nearly
all of his children and sent them to Canada. What education I have,
I received at the town school here--Tullibody Academy--under the
management of Prof. W. B. Patterson. I have served my church in the
capacity of superintendent of the Sabbath School and clerk of the
church; was secretary of the Sabbath School Convention of the Uniontown
Association; am a member of the Executive Board of the Convention. I
was at one time editor of a small paper here called the _Voice_.
“I have been for many years the bookkeeper and general clerk in the law
office of Governor Seay. I was, I am quite confident, the first Negro
in Alabama, if not in the entire South, to operate on the typewriter,
and now I think, I am the first Negro to manage the Edison phonograph
for busi-purposes.”
I know of no ex-slave and ex-slaveholder, between whom there is more
confidence on one side and high regard on the other, than exist between
Governor Seay and Addison Wimbs. This means for Brother Wimbs quietness
of spirit and solid worth, as well as a conservative, genial soul in
Governor Seay.