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Parsons Church Of Christ
136 Tennessee Ave South
Parsons, TN 38363
Tel: (731) 847-2462
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Parsons Church Of Christ History
The church had
its beginning in Parsons in the year of 1924. Arthur Baugus and Will Neely
rented the Masonic Lodge upstairs over the Jenning's grocery about where
Jerry Bell's storage building is today. We worshipped there for about
three months. We only had sis to eight people at this time. We finally
grew to twelve or fifteen. The people at the Masonic Lodge decided they
wanted us out. We broke up at this time. Some went to Beacon and some went
to Lexington.
Before we bought the building on Florida Avenue we decided to go out to
Center Hill. There was a frame building on the Baugus place that my
grandfather, George Baugus, built. This building was just below Jeannette.
Mr. Hendrix asked my mother if he and some men could move the building
from Jeanette to Center Hill. They moved it with mules and wagons. The
Beacon congregation had already moved their building to Center Hill so by
combining these two structures and renovating them it would make a nice
sized meeting place. We worshipped wit the Center Hill congregation for
three to four years. This congregation split and we bought the building on
Florida Avenue form Glennie Colwick. Irba Jane Jordan and Fannie D. Rains
went to some of the members and asked for donations to get the
congregation started.
We hired Willie Bradfield to preach two Sundays a month. This was all we
could afford to hire him. The other two Sundays he preached at the Scotts
Hill congregation. Mr. Bradfield made his living as a Standard Coffee
salesman at the time. We started running a school bus through Decaturville
and Beacon and it wasn't long until we were filling the small building.
We had a meeting and Joe Gregory and George Jordan went to see Mrs. Cora
Houston about buying the lot where the building is now. Mrs. Houston was
the mother of our Dannie Houston and Marie Barrett. Mrs. Houston agreed to
sell the lot for $1,500.00 and said she would give $500.00 back to start
the building. This was in 1941.
The high school had a small bulldozer and Mr. McIllwain was asked if he
would let George Jordan drive it and did a basement. Herman Rains,
Margaret Lindsey's father, and George Jordan went to Jackson to draw a
blueprint for the building. Mr. Rains took charge of overseeing the
building of the auditorium. We only finished the auditorium so we could
begin worshipping. The basement wasn't finished for three years due to the
lack of funds. About twenty years later, we sold bonds and built the back
addition onto the building. While we were in the process of building the
church building Brother Bradfield was hired by the White Bluff
congregation. Our first preacher in the new building was Willie Johnson
and the first song was led by John Alexander.
We sold the little building on Florida Avenue to Paul Alexander. He turned
the building into two apartments. One side was rented to Brother Johnson
and his wife. They worked with the congregation for about four years.
The church building has had two internal fires. The first one was in 1951
and the second in the winter of 1987.
Others who served as ministers were Jessie B. Austin, John Graham, Harold
Trimble, Joe Williams, W.A. Luckett, Curtis Sampley, Lester Coats, Bill
Johnson, James Hinkle, Guy Hester, Bobby Pinckley, Joe Cook VanDyke Sr.,
Earl Cook, Charles Rickman, Don Reel, Fred House, Sid Dye and Mike Benson.
The minister currently serving the Parsons congregation is David Wright.
The men serving as Elders at this time are John Frank Alexander, Jerry
Bell, David Wright and Brian Jones.
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