CHURCHES IN GOODWILL, WEST
VIRGINIA
There were three churches in Goodwill, and a log
church on Sinai Mountain.The Goodwill Baptist was the
oldest. It was located beside Press and Sarah
Sadler's house. Reverend Sturgill preached there
for several years, and Harvey Aust preached there several
times. Walter S. Carner was Sunday school
superintendent. Evangelist Tex Cochran from Texas
held a revival there in the summer of 1930 that lasted a
month, and several of Goodwill's youth stepped forward
for the Lord. The church was destroyed by fire
between 1931 and 1933.
The Goodwill Methodist Church was straight across the
railroad tracks from the Baptist Church. A Mr.
Allen and Mr. Nelson preached there. After the fire
destroyed the Baptist Church, both churches united and
the Methodist Church became known as the Goodwill
Community Church. Walter S. Carner, Perry
Hazelwood, and Claude Bonham were Sunday school
superintendents. Bainey Thompson, Morris Carner, Lora
Bailey, and Frances Phillips taught Sunday school for
many years. Viola Carner played the piano.
The black church, Goodwill Zion, was up the hollow above
the Union Hall. Bill Clark, P. H. Owens, and Preacher
Webb held services there. Every Sunday, the church
would really rock with Lottie Dennis at the piano, and
Rosebud and Janie Webb, Ella Claytor, Ole Maynard, and
Sis Williams led the singing. Buck Irvin was the
deacon.
On Sinai Mountain, Press Robinson, Whitlow and Haskin
Jones and John Dillon dismantled the old Jones cabin in
Bell Branch Hollow and put it back together beside the
road above the Jones Farm. They remodeled the cabin
into a church where Preachers Mr. Shaw, Mr. Sutphin, John
Dudley, and Joe
Tilley held services. Haskin Jones married Kate
Foster there, and Whitlow Jones married Annie Sue Foster
there in 1912. Preacher John Dudley had to walk from
Montcalm to have services in the church, and walked back
off the mountain late at night carrying a lantern that
cast an erie yellow glow through the forest.
Text
furnished by: Ken Bowen, Bluewell , WV.
Methodist and Baptist Church after Flood at Goodwill, WV
Date: June 22, 1901
Description:Water surrounds the Methodist and Baptist churches after a flood at Louisville Coal and Coke Company, area in Goodwill, West Virginia.
|
