Organized in 1873, and operating in “Will’s Valley” and St. Clair
county, reports the following churches and ministers:
At Collinsville Post Office--Pleasant Grove Church; Lebanon--Lebanon;
Fort Payne--Fort Payne; Valley Head--Bethlehem; Attalla--Mt. Zion,
Pilgrim, Bethlehem; Keener--New Hope; Beaver Valley--Pleasant Hill;
Ashville--Mt. Zion; Springville--Springville; Whitney--Evergreen;
Guntersville--Bethlehem and Hooper Chapel; Trenton--Trenton; North
Alabama--Clogville. Rev. G. Neeley, Ashville, is moderator; Mr. J.
R. Dean, Ashville, is treasurer; and Prof. P. R. Sibert, Keener, is
secretary. Their pastors are: Revs. N. Kerley, R. Berry, M. Edwards,
of Fort Payne; G. W. Brewton, of Alexandria; H. Massey, J. Griffin, A.
Jackson, and James M. Stevens. They have about 1,500 members.
Elder A. Kerley and his brother are the chief founders of this body.
They greatly need an infusion of light from without. Rev. James Kerley,
the pastor at Springville, is an ex-student of Talladega College. While
they were in session in Ashville in 1892 the white people gave them the
use of their church, and pastors, mayor of the city, and other leading
people, turned out to encourage them and to financially strengthen
their enterprises. While there, a white minister related to the writer
the following story: “When the late Dr. Renfroe was a young man he was
very poor, though, as later in his life, he was a powerful preacher.
In the height of a glorious revival, the grass in his crop called him
to his field. A colored brother who wanted the meeting to continue,
requested his master to allow him to prolong the meeting. His master
replied: ‘Jim, you can’t read, you can’t preach.’ The slave replied: ‘I
can _plow_ and _kill grass_--can do these _for Brother Renfroe_.’”
* * * * *
Gleaning from the associational chapter, we obtain: