Oscar D. Bowen, born at Nannafalia, Marengo County, Alabama, on 22 September 1843, was a son of a preacher, Reverend Phillip D. Bowen. Baptized at Tide Water Baptist church on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, he served in the Confederate Army for four years and was so seriously wounded that it was considered miraculous when he recovered. He married Miss Lillie Minor of Demopolis, AL, in 1869 and ultimately surrendered to preach after resisting the call for several years. He was ordained to the ministry in 1872 and became pastor of nine churches across east Mississippi and west Alabama, including Eastabuchie, Ellisville, and Sandersville.
Bowen was instrumental in beginning the Chickasahay Association and served as moderator of the Gulf Coast Association ten years in succession. [1] More than an accomplished speaker and moderator, he was a prolific writer, publishing, among other works, The Baptists: What They Believe and Why They Believe It; The Gospel Ministry of Forty Years; and Historical Sketches of the Works of Baptists on the Mississippi Sea Coast and in New Orleans, LA. [2] In 1896, he resigned at Eastabuchie and accepted a call to pastor at Providence Church, about four miles west of Eastabuchie. [3]
Around 1920 a new pastor was named, a Reverend R.G. Joiner (appears to be Richard Gladen Joiner) , who also pastored Petal Harvey Baptist Church. [4] He and his family, wife and children Jessie and Ruby, had their church letters, seen below, sent to Eastabuchie Baptist on October 3, 1920, from Pine Bluff Baptist. [5] Church letters are exchanged among Baptist churches as a way to recommend a member to another congregation and to give an idea of the member's activity and positive standing in the church community. As a new pastor, Joiner needed a letter to come as a member to Eastabuchie along with being called as their minister.
Church letters can be important in working on family and church histories, and I will be posting many church letters to this blog to assist others in their genealogy work. These letters can provide dates for family members' moves or significant life events, and they can provide hints when a trail seems to have ended. They can also provide history on the church and community, especially a community of the size of Eastabuchie.
Upon receipt of the church letters, members' names are recorded in the membership log. A variety of details can be found in these records, including births, deaths, and baptisms along with membership information. Below is an example of the membership page for the letter J, specifically showing the documentation of the Joiner family. In fact, looking at the record shows that the Joiners had actually been members at Eastabuchie earlier 1916-1919 and had left the congregation August 1919. The family returned in 1921 and seem to have left the congregation in 1923.
Additional pages will be posted here, and specific inquiries can also be posted. It may take me a year or more to go through all of the documentation, but I will share as many documents as I can.
[1] Foster, L.S. (1895). Mississippi Baptist Preachers. St. Louis, MO: National Baptist Publishing Co.
[2] Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967, found at https://goo.gl/ew81J1
[3] Mississippi Senate Resolution, found at http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2008/html/SC/SC0607PS.htm
[4] Church letters.