Congregation members of Canoe First Baptist Church gather for a photo inside the sanctuary of the 1916 church. This photo was taken circa 1950s.
The history of churches in our area cover the family lines of many locals and early settlers.
Among the early churches in the Canoe area was Canoe First Baptist Church which was founded in 1884.
Among the early church members was the Lowery family. The Lowery family moved from the ghost town of Evansville in the mid-1870s. Young Andrew Monroe Lowery was raised in a Christian home and grew up to own sawmill and other business interests in the community. He was ordained a minister at the church on September 12, 1893 and went on to become the first pastor at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola. Olive was part of a missionary outreach from Canoe First Baptist.
The first site of Canoe First Baptist Church was near the older part of Escambia Academy. It has been said Lowery donated the milled timber from his sawmill for the original church. This building served the church for many years.
On Wednesday, November 4, 1908 Lowery's daughter Virgie Lowery, was married to Mr. Robert Lowery at the church. Robert Lowery had moved to the Canoe area from Monroe County and was unrelated to his new bride. Her father, Rev. A.M. Lowery, performed the ceremony.
Yet as time passed, new facilities were required to handle the growing congregation. On August 14, 1913, the Atmore Record reported "Our Baptist Ladies Aid is doing a noble work. They are now trying to raise money to help build a new church. Come downtown every Saturday afternoon and buy ice cream from them. The stand is located near W.H. James Store." This would have been on Lowery Lane where the woodlot starts just past the Frontier building.
The efforts of the Baptist Ladies Aid organization showed success when, according to the Pine Belt News, in an article published June 22, 1916, the new church was preparing for dedication.
"The new Baptist Church at Canoe will be dedicated with impressive services Sunday. Dr. N.O. Patterson of Atmore, the pastor, will be in charge of services, which will commence in the morning and continue through the day. Neighboring ministers, irrespective of denomination, have been invited to assist in the dedication. Dinner will be served on the ground at noon, and the people of Canoe are preparing to extend a royal welcome to the many visitors who are expected," stated the article.
"The Canoe Methodists have joined hands with the Baptists for this occasion, and their pastor will have a part in the program," concluded the article.
The 1916 building saw many events over the years, including two world wars and a flu epidemic which closed the church for a short time. According to the Brewton Standard edition of October 10, 1918, churches, 'picture shows' and schools were all ordered closed. "It is reported that there are 1000 cases (of the flu) reported in Atmore...while our neighboring town of Pensacola is credited with 3000 cases," said the article.
The building was located at the corner of Arthur Hall Road and Baker Street, near the present pastorium. It existed into the 1950s and many who grew up in Canoe remember the old structure.
Mrs. Betty McQueen commented by Facebook; "There was a long tradition of dinner on the ground between the Baptist and Methodist church. It was always an enjoyable and much anticipated event," she notes.
When the church was built in 1916, it was during an era where electricity was just gaining a foothold in the area. In later years, the church heating and air could leave something to be desired.
The church could still be a cold place on winter mornings even decades later. Mrs. Celia Farrar Bass stated, " I can remember cold, cold mornings. The only heat in the sanctuary was some gas heaters to the left of the pulpit and in front of the baptismal pool. Seems that on these cold mornings the smell of moth balls filled the air because the ladies had taken their winter coats out of storage," stated Mrs. Bass via Facebook.
Wiley Farrar remembers the old 1916 era church. "No air conditioning, windows up, dirt dobblers flying around, one heater down front; men's Sunday School on one side, women's on the other; both had curtains instead of doors. The kitchen and other Sunday School rooms were in the add on connected to the back.
The church was eventually torn down as a new sanctuary was built in the 1950s and that sanctuary was incorporated into the present structure which was dedicated in 1974.
David Dixon, commenting via Facebook remembered the last days of the church, "When they tore it down, my sister Melissa, David and I would gather the pieces of the stained-glass windows (which were on the ground) and buried them because we thought it was sacred."
Today we attend air-conditioned churches, set on foamed back pews and some churches even have a full band performing; yet in 1916 the congregants of the Canoe First Baptist Church were proud of their new church and all it had to offer.
Coming soon in 2018: "Shadows and Dust Volume III-Reader Favorites"
