Precious Memories

My daddy wrote this story in 2008.

Precious Memories
By Charles W. Hunt, Sr.

I was born in the days of oil lamps and feather beds. As a child, when we went to church, we went as a family, Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma , and all the kids.
I remember one Sunday everybody got up and Grandpa Hardie got dressed in his Sunday suit and good white shirt. He went out to hook up Old Jack, his mule, to the wagon. He called a couple of the older boys, to go to the kitchen and get the lunch box and put it in the wagon. They stayed gone a long time, so Granpa went to the kitchen to see what the hold up was. Grandma Mary told him she wasn’t ready yet. Granpa went to his room and pulled off his Sunday suit and good white shirt and laid down on the bed saying, ”You know it’s a 20 mile ride to church, Let me know when you get ready.”
Well, that didn’t set to well with Granma Mary and because of the fight they had, we almost didn’t make it to church that Sunday!
The church we attended sat on a white sand hill called Smyrna, at High Bluff on the Satilla River in South Georgia. It was a Hard Shell Primitive Baptist Church. They were called hard shell because of the way they believed. They didn’t bend to suit others and they believed they were right. They were a stubborn and stiff-necked people. They stuck to the way they read it in the Bible, and they read the Bible every day. The day started with a Bible reading before breakfast and ended with prayer on you knees. They were humble before God.
We most always had a circuit preacher come to talk or an Elder of the church preached on Sunday. As a child, it seemed all of the preachers were long winded. Sunday was God’s Day. The people didn’t work in the field and only did the necessary things like feed the livestock or feed the family.
We would get up about 5 am and get ready for church; we’d get in the wagon and ride 20miles to church. You know they had to want to go to church, to make a trip like that. It was important that they worship God; of course, it was also the social event of the week. They met because they needed each other for encouragement.
The lunch was packed in a big wooden box and pushed up under the wagon seat. The kids sat on the back of the wagon. The older ones would sit so they could hang their feet off the back. They would dip them in every branch the wagon crossed. We kids already had our foot washing when we arrived at church, especially in the summertime.
We met under a brush arbor. Have you ever saw one? Saplings were cut and put up about 7 feet tall and about 10 feet apart. Another tall young sapling was tied or nailed to the top to make a ridgepole. Brush and limbs were laid on top for a roof. It was a lot cooler under there with the roof on.
The benches in the church were not screwed to the floor, so they were moved out of the building by the young men and placed under the arbor. As a child, it sometimes seemed that there were 100 people or more there.
The seats were arranged so that from the altar, the men sat on the right side and the women sat on the left. The children sat out right in front of the altar where God, Mama and Papa could all watch them. There was no whispering or note passing. No cutting up!
All the men and boys would tote buckets of water from the branch to fill a few barrels with water, while the women gossiped and the kids played. These barrels were for the foot washing that would take place later. After the barrels were full, the service would start. The preacher would walk up to the altar. He would stand there until the Spirit would come on him, then he would preach for what would seem like hours. Most of the Hell and Brimstone preachers were the longest winded preachers I ever heard !You just don’t hear preachers like that nowadays !
Under the brush arbor, I didn’t have a way to keep time but I just knew I’d starve to death waiting for the preaching to end!
At about 2 pm, we’d finally have dinner. After dinner, my Uncle John Lynn, who was the Deacon in charge of the foot washing, would take a towel and wrap it around his waist, then he would take a second towel and a basin of water from the barrel, and start to wash the men’s feet.
My Aunt Arsinie would wash the women’s. She was Uncle John’s wife and therefore she was to help him at his Deacon duties. She then had to take all the towels home and wash them up for the next service. She would get those towels snowy white. There would be no talk of her not doing right!
Baptisms were done right in the Satilla River, even in the cold winter.
When they sang, they had no instruments , there being no example in the New Testament.
They didn’t need them, they could sing! Boy, could they sing! Everyone sang, even the babies .
All these people are now gone, but they are not forgotten. They loved the Lord. These are precious memories.
Can you imagine Adam sitting around telling Seth and his grandson Enoch all that had happened in the Garden of Eden? Adam’s stories were passed on to his grandchildren and on down to his great great grandchildren. This is how we got the Bible from Adam to Noah. By mouth. After that, men began writing on clay tablets. When our children relate the story of our lives to future generations, will they remember our faith as a precious memory? Will they say “the faith I proclaimed on Sunday is the faith I lived on Monday?”Will they say that they knew I was a Christian by the way I loved my fellow man, or will they say I was a quitter?
What practices and customs will they remember that will give them strength to overcome the evils in their life? Do you discuss the things of faith that you do with your children and grandchildren. Help them to see how they relate to our everyday life. This is how we teach our children to carry on, so that the church will exist in years to come. You see, the things you do today will matter to someone, so do we believe the things we read and do, and do the things we believe?
And all these things will become a precious memory to your descendants.
Precious Memories by Charles W. Hunt, Sr.




Founded in 1824, the original Smyrna Baptist Church is believed to have been first located near where the first Strickland School was built. At this time, there is no evidence of a cemetery. Then the church was moved approximately one mile east to the Jesse Lewis property, in the area across the creek from where the Smyrna Church is now located. In the mid to late 1950s, there was evidence of several graves in the cemetery in this location. One grave had a fence around it. It is believed that Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Lewis, their child, and Joseph Heirs Strickland are buried in this cemetery. The grave markers could be seen from the road..
Today the church and cemetery are located north of Satilla Station, or what is now known as Lulaton. This property is made up of four land lots, numbered 228, 229, 261, and 262. The deed of record was dated December 2, 1889, and donated by the James Highsmith estate. This is the third and final resting place of the Smyrna Church and cemetery, founded in 1824. Smyrna is recorded as being the centerpiece of the community in Martha M. Puckett's book about Brantley County entitled, "Snow White Sands."
The church was a member of the Crawfordite division, but left the Alabaha Association for the Satilla River Association in 1969.
The church split circa 1927 when two Primitive Baptist preachers, who were brothers, Joseph (Joe) and Ephrim Thomas had a dispute over church doctrine. Elder Joe Thomas continued to preach at Smyrna and Elder Ephrim Thomas went to preach at Macedonia.
Smyrna had the distinction of producing no less than nine ministers. Ministers ordained by Smyrna Church include, Elders John Strickland, Levi Strickland, Jr., James Henry Strickland, Henry Clay Highsmith, Jasper Willis, Jasper Mizell, B. Frank Jones, Matthew Strickland and Jasper Highsmith. Two of Smyrna's better known ministers were the Elders Henry Clay Highsmith and John Strickland. Elder Highsmith was very staunch in adherence to obeying rules of the church and school. He always went to school on the first day. The Principal opened the ceremony by reading from the Bible and commented about the scriptures. Elder Highsmith told the Principal to read the Bible and make no comment. Elder John Strickland's reception was with the old Smyrna Church in 1875. The church was a branch of the Alabaha River Primitive Association. He was looked on as a leader, was elected moderator in 1886 and served until his death on August 13, 1896.
The church disbanded circa 1990. Elder Ben Johnson was the last pastor of the church. The church building remains intact. Some families associated with the church include the Highsmiths, Mizells, Purdoms, Stricklands, Willis, and Jones. Gabriel L. Strickland built the benches and tables for the church.
A large cemetery by the church is the burial place of many of Brantley County's prominent citizens and pioneer families. The oldest grave recorded is that of John T. Highsmith, born 1807, and died Nov. 12, 1877, the son of Jacob and Roxie Wainwright Highsmith. Submitted by, Kenneth "Bozo" Willis, P. O. Box 211, Nahunta, Ga. 31553. Sources: Minutes of the Alabaha Association, Minutes of the Satilla River Association, "Snow White Sands," Bozo Willis, and Ann Lawson.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gabrantl/smyrnachurch.html