The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-04-09
An Interesting Bit of
Southeast Missouri History

off from all church privileges. In
1919 Rev. William McMurtry came
out from Virginia and settled in what
is now Madison county, which was two
years previous to the admission of
Missouri as a State. st. Louis was
then a village not exceeding four
thousand in population. Her citizens
were mostly hunters, trappers and
voyagers, and her currency was con-
fined almost exclusively to whiskey,
peltries, trinkets, homemade sugar,
bees-wax and blankets. Soon after
his arrival Rev. McMurtry started out
to visit the adjoining settlements, and
coming to Cooks Settlement found
three women waiting his presence;
one of these was my adopted grand
mother, Mrs. Meekie Caldwell, and
from her have often heard the his
tory of the beginnings of the first
Christian church organized in what is
now the State of Missouri. These peo-
pie had brought over from their home
church very unsettled ideas and some
dissatisfaction caused by the religious
upheaval in Kentucky and Virginia,
and not till after several months was
Rev. McMurtrv able to organize a
harmonious congregation.
One authority consulted says McMur-
Faith in Missouri and presumably
west of the Mississippi river. The
| first Christian church was organized
in 1922 as Liberty, in the old log
school house where is now located the
village of Libertyville, st. Francois
county, Mo. Soon after the organi-
cation the membership grew from
three to nine, with one male member.
Not till 1914 did they desert the old
log school house, when a substantial
commodious building was erected and
Elder Jacob Creath held a four-weeks
meeting. This greatly enlarged and
strengthened the congregation and
corrected some false ideas that until
that time prevailed, "footwashing,
for instance. The church was then
placed on a firm footing and seldom
has been without regular pastor
from that day to this. Though not
numerically and financially as strong
as in the past, yet they maintain a
Bible school and observe regularly
the ordinances of the church. 1t has
received teaching from some of our
ablest men, notably Jacob Creath who
from time to time visited it till his
death. w. H. Hopson repeatedly held
meetings, also S. S. Church, Alex
Proctor, j. C. Reynolds, F. M. STRAIT
ton, j. H. Hardin, F. E. Meigs, E. R.
Childers, H. F. Davis, besides their
regular pastors, John Samuels, J. c.
Farmer, A. G. Lucas, J. B. McGinn,
R. Watson, w. H. Blanks, B. t. and
Homer T. Wilson, T. E. Shepherd, j.
D. billiard, Geo. McGee, F. L. Moore,
J. Wilkins, R. M. Talbert, e. M.
Crackel, w. H. Hale, G. o. Nations and
others of recent date.
This congregation has never sent
out an ordained minister from its
ranks but has furnished some excel
lent preachers wives The first I re-
call is Mrs. Alex Proctor of Indepen-
dence, Mo-, Mrs. j. d. billiard of st.
Louis, Mo-, Mrs. T. P. Reed of Cali
fornia and Mrs. R. M. Talbert of
Jefferson City, Mo. Many representa-
tive men and women of this congrega-
tion are found in our city churches,
A prominent member of the official
board was reared in the congregation
and I might mention others in our
sister churches. A missionary spirit
has always pervaded this people, but
/ regret that we have never been able
to organize an annex to our G. W. B.
M,