Carlton Baptist to celebrate 215th anniversary in August

Rev. Lee Adams, who took over as pastor at the historic church last fall, says he feels those same things every time he climbs the steps to the podium to lead a service.

“I am just in awe and so humbled to be able to worship here,” Adams said. “To walk in these doors and see an image of (for example) Jacob Eberhardt (on a stained glass window) just brings history to life.”

And though Adams has been pastor for less than a year, his knowledge of the history of the church, and the Carlton community in general, is impressive.

Adams grew up on the other side of Madison County in the Neese Community but he has family ties to the church and is a history and genealogy buff to boot, so he finds the church’s long and varied history intriguing, as well as the history of the families who started the church, many of whose descendants still continue to worship there.

“This church is about faith and family,” lifelong church member Ronnie Faulkner, himself a father of nine, said. “When I was little, my grandma would just put me in the car and bring me here to this church. This is where I grew up.”

Other members say that nowadays when Faulkner’s entire family, including his ten grandchildren, come to church they fill a large section of pews just by themselves.

Faulkner’s oldest son Alex, another regular attendee, is also a history buff, having graduated with a degree in history from UGA in 2013. He’ll teach Georgia history at the middle school this fall. He says growing up in such a historical setting piqued his interest in history at an early age.

“I used to study the stained glass windows every Sunday and then learn about the people they were dedicated to,” he said. Perhaps the most famous of those is Civil War veteran and 45-year church deacon Isaac V. Moore.

Faulkner said Moore, along with Jacob Eberhardt and other men in the church all joined Company E 37th Georgia Infantry in Danielsville in 1862 under the command of Captain Dabney Gholston, of the Paoli Community. Moore wrote of his experiences in the war in a diary, which can be found online at the Georgia genealogy RootsWeb site.

The church was chartered August 1800 as “Fork of the Broad River Baptist Church” and was the first Baptist Church in what was to become Madison County in 1811, according to R. Faulkner. The original church building, which later burned, was located adjacent to the Fork Cemetery just outside Carlton near the entrance to Watson Mill State Park.

In fact, the church still maintains Fork Cemetery as its official church cemetery.

In 1894 church members built a wooden church with a high ceiling and a steeple at the current site inside Carlton city limits. This structure also had two entrance doors – one for men and one for ladies.

According to church records, sometime around 1914 “a strong wind” (or a possible tornado) destroyed this building along with the Methodist Church that stood on the hill to the east of town.

The current building was constructed in 1917, and with its elaborate stained glass, thick brick walls and heavy wooden beams, it looks as though it was meant to withstand not only the elements, but the test of time. Besides the likenesses some of the windows contain, another unusual feature is that some also contain Masonic symbols, as most of the men were Masons. An annex was added to the original building in 1966 (along with air conditioning for the annex and sanctuary), and later a detached family life center was also constructed, but the original bell from the first church still hangs in the bell tower and is still rung every Sunday as well as at all church weddings.

And there were also two entrance doors.

“The entrance on the right front was for females and the one on the left side was for males,” R. Faulkner said. The former “female” entrance is now a handicap entryway with a ramp.

When the church was constructed in 1917, Carlton, then known as “Berkeley,” was a boomtown, with three cotton gins, five banks and three car dealerships (including a Hudson dealership). Most of the congregation either farmed or worked at a power plant located at Watson Mill.

“My grandfather said you could walk from one end of the city to the other on bales of cotton during harvest time,” R. Faulkner remembered.

Before the annex was added in the 1960s the old two-story brick Carlton schoolhouse, which stood in the church yard behind the church, was used for Sunday School classes. R. Faulkner said he remembered the old school well.

“During its day it housed grades one through 11 and even had an auditorium and a cafeteria,” he said.

Carlton like most of the small towns built along the railroad, is no longer a boomtown, but the railroad and the regular sound of the train whistle can still be heard passing through town each day.

The church had over 200 members in the late 1970s, but like many congregations, those numbers have dwindled over the years, though Adams says there has been a substantial uptick recently. “We had 180 in the congregation for Easter Sunday this year,” Adams said. They average about 60 to 70 people each Sunday, but Adams and other longtime members see opportunities for growth as a number of young families with children are attending these days.

“Our goal at Carlton Baptist Church has never been to be a big church, instead we want to be a healthy church – and we are,” Adams said. “No debt, no major squabbling and folks of all ages are always willing to serve. We are also planning an AWANA program this fall for our kids and we are really excited about that.”

Adams said he wasn’t a pastor to come there and “put up a big screen” in the sanctuary and modernize things, in fact he thinks folks come to Carlton Baptist looking for some of the old ways – like singing together from a hymnal and enjoying a family-like atmosphere.

“I want to build on the history, the faith and the family that are already here,” he said. “That’s something to cherish.”

Any renovation/repair projects at the church are treated like an historical preservation project, church members said. And they believe in giving back to the community. The church has an established separate benevolence fund that monthly love offering proceeds go into to help families in need and they also help support the Madison/Oglethorpe/Elbert Foster Parent Association.

ANNIVERSARY EVENTS

The church has several events planned for their upcoming anniversary.

On Sunday, August 16, there will be a special service entitled “Hymns and Sacred Songs,” featuring Michael Mann, of the band “Radiolucent” (the only band to ever open for both Merle Haggard and the band KISS), Dodd Ferrelle, the 2015 Flagpole nominee for Athens Songwriter of the Year and Carlton Baptist’s own India McElroy and Alex Faulkner, who’ll be performing old standards and original “church music,” with a special offering to benefit the Madison/Oglethorpe/Elbert Foster Parent Association. Refreshments will be served in the fellowship hall at 10 a.m. and the concert starts at 10:30 a.m.

On Sunday, August 30, the annual homecoming service will be held and this is when the church will have its official 215th anniversary celebration, with a potluck lunch to follow. The featured speaker will be Father Marc Robertson of Christ Church in Savannah, the Mother Church of Georgia.

Earlier this year, the church held a “1917 Day” with period dress and lunch on the lawn at the Whitehead House next door, the former home of the late Betty Whitehead Sweeney, another prominent lifelong church member.