By Corinne Hayes
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​When I was a child, I was crazy about my grandpa, Lemoine Williams. I loved him and he loved me, calling me Tiger Woman.

He died suddenly of a heart attack when I was 4. About a year later, my Grandma Williams also died. I remember telling my mother through tears that I was afraid that I would forget what they looked like. What my five-year-old heart was saying was that I was afraid that I would forget them, who they were and their influence on my life.
Everyone at some point in life experiences this kind of loss.

When Jesus died, I imagine that the Believers went through such an experience. The first time they gathered after His death to remember Him, I am sure that they shared stories of who He was, what He had done, and how He had changed them. Communion on Sunday is a time set aside to remember Him. As we take the bread of His body during this communion time, I often imagine what the first believers talked about those many years ago.  Perhaps one of them said, “Do you remember that scripture of old? "He was wounded for my transgressions; He was bruised for my iniquities, the chastisement of my peace was on Him!” Another may have shared about the time that He extended love and forgiveness to the prostitute, or the time that He touched the leper that everyone else was afraid to touch for fear of being struck with the same illness.

As they shared His Blood, I can imagine them marveling at the price He paid and the vast treasure he bought with that blood, that treasure of FREEDOM… because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)  His blood set us free from the very power of sin over our lives!

By Billy Ray Warren

By Billy Ray  Warren

By Corinne Hayes

For more than fifty-six years, I have rarely missed the opportunity to gather with other followers of Jesus. After all of these years, despite many ups and downs and imperfections in myself and others; I still look forward to Sunday morning! I love coming together as brothers and sisters sharing our joys, hurts, and burdens. I love working together with others to dream of ways to touch lives with His love and then make those dreams realities. Most of all, I love joining with others to take a breath and be still before the Lord; to declare Him worthy; and to thank Him for who He is and all He does. But the best moment of all on Sunday morning is what we call Communion.
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Recently, Jimmy shared a message at church about taking communion together as part of the Body of Christ. He showed from scripture that in the early days of Christianity, communion was actually a shared meal, a Love Feast. That Love Feast never gets old. It is refreshing every time I break the bread, pause, and thank the Lover of my soul. I thank Him for breaking His body to bring healing to mine... spirit, soul and body. It is a moment that cannot be rushed. It is a time to close my eyes, forget everything else and reflect on His love and that love helps me find the ability to love the unloved and unloveable. Yes, Jesus' body was broken to bring the health that I need to live life.

But it doesn't stop there! He didn't meet only my physical needs and enable me to have relationship with others here in life. He did so much more! He spilled His blood. That blood that allows me to draw near to God, my Creator and Father. When I drink the cup of remembrance, I am so grateful for that blood. Without it, I would never have encountered true and perfect love. Through it, I have realized what it is like to be loved without reserve, without condemnation. My Father loves me! My Father IS love! What a reason to celebrate. Come taste it for yourself.

During a recent struggle with a hereditary eye disease, Joy Willow wrote the following. We are copying it here in hopes that you will be encouraged by her sensitivity to the Lord.
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By Joy Willow
So I asked God what He wanted me to learn from my current illness, and almost immediately the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart, "Forgiveness is to be immediate."
The example of Christ forgiving the thief on the cross came to my mind.
And the last verse of the love chapter, "and keep no records of wrongs," came too.
As the Lord toured me through His Word, He went on to His Prayer Example, "to forgive as we have been forgiven."
And He reminded me of the Peace that passes all understanding that comes from forgiveness.
Lord, I am honored, blessed and willing to practice your commandment. Friends and foes, I sincerely ask forgiveness if I have ever hurt you even in a post.
Hurting is not our purpose. Healing is. 
"I came to save, and not to condemn," He said.
My sight has been saved today, but before it was, it was like watching a dimmer switch turn to almost complete darkness with a tiny reflection of light.
With vision a little light is better than no light.
Maybe this is why Christ talks so much about being the Light.
I have been fervently seeking Him for days, as many of you have on my behalf, and I thank you with all my heart. 
At this moment, I'm in the hospital, getting five drops instilled in my eye every hour.
As I turned to my side to let the drops soak and pray, I am reminded to, "Be still and know that I am God."
When you seek Him with all your heart, there He is.
May God bless you for helping me. My life is enriched beyond measure.  
Who seeking God is poor?
His Love is infinite.

By Billy Ray Warren

Located just a few blocks west of Magnolia’s property and a couple of blocks off of Veterans Drive on Enterprise Street is the historic Maud Lindsay Free Kindergarten, the first free kindergarten in the State of Alabama.
           
Established in 1898, its official name is the Florence Free Kindergarten, but it has always been known locally as the Maud Lindsay Free Kindergarten in honor of its world-famous teacher who was there from 1898 until her death in 1941.
           
Born in Tuscumbia in 1874 but living most of her life in Sheffield, Maud Lindsay was the daughter of Robert Burns Lindsay, the only foreign-born Governor of Alabama. (He emigrated with his family from Scotland.)
           
In 1898, a group of leaders in Florence (Miss Loulie Jones, Mrs. John R. Price, Mr. Frank Jackson and Mr. Thomas J. Phillips) recognized the need for a kindergarten to allow children of mill workers in east Florence to enjoy a pre-school experience.  They formed a Board and raised funds to purchase a building and to pay a small salary to a teacher.  Thus was born the kindergarten that still operates today (though it now serves younger children because the City of Florence, since 1972, has free kindergarten for all five-year-olds).
           
Little did the organizers know that they had found, right here in the Shoals, a teacher who was totally enchanted with pre-school education and who would become known throughout the world for her books written specifically for children.
           
Nominated by Dr. Pat Chandler, a Professor of English at the University of North Alabama, Maud Lindsay, a contemporary and personal friend of Helen Keller, has the distinction of being listed in the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame.
           
Though the Maud Lindsay Free Kindergarten still operates in its original building, it is not in its original location; in fact, it has been moved three times over the years.  Each move was within a few blocks of the original site.  The most recent move - to accommodate the construction of the new Regional Care Health Center - finds the building on the corner of Enterprise Street and Central Avenue.  The grounds have been beautifully landscaped and the exterior has received a fresh coat of paint.  It really looks grand - Miss Maud Lindsay would be proud.
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​Among the numerous stories and poems (and one play for children) published by Maud Lindsay, many people cite the following poem (just two of its stanzas are recorded here) as their favorite because it reflects her love for the Shoals area - from its red clay soil to its strong, sturdy residents (the latter referred to as the “rose” in the poem).

MY LAND IS A RED LAND
My land is a red land, with clay hills all aglow,
And roads like streaks of giants’ blood where my folk come and go.
Every man for his land where his own harvest grows;
But my land is a red land, and the red land breeds the rose.
My land is a scarred land, flood and storm cut deep,
But who would choose a smooth land that’s never learned to weep?
Every man for his land with his own weal and woes;
But my land is a red land, and the red land breeds the rose.

By Billy Ray Warren

​The Magnolia Church’s property sits in a community known, variously, as Pine Ridge or East Hill.  It’s bordered on the east by Weeden Heights and on the west by Sweetwater.  Longtime residents of these three communities know almost exactly where each begins and ends, though there have never been any signs erected to delineate the borders.
            Weeden Heights begins on its eastern boundary on Fulton Street; as it moves west, it includes Crown Street, Eclipse Street and so on ‘til it culminates on Broadway Street.  Huntsville Road is the dividing line that determines whether a family lives on North Weakly Street or South Weakley or on any other street between Fulton and Broadway.
            East Hill/Pine Ridge begins at Hudson Street on the eastern edge and ends at Ironside Street on the west.  From that point, Sweetwater begins and continues roughly to Royal Avenue Recreation Center.
            Now why, exactly, were these boundaries important?  Well, each had its own churches, its own traditions, and, to an extent, its own elementary school.
            Take Weeden Heights, for example.  Until it was annexed into the City of Florence in 1950, it was just another community in rural Lauderdale County.  Citizens in this tight-unit enclave were beholden to Mr. John D. Weeden, for whom the community was named since it had been part of the vast landholdings connected to Mr. Weeden’s ancestral mansion, Sweetwater.  From the huge spring near the mansion, Mr. Weeden developed an elaborate system by which water was pumped to each home.  Residents paid him $1.00 per month for what was termed “water rent.”  Children attended Weeden Elementary School which was located between Franklin and Broadway Streets, exactly where Broadway Recreation Center is today.
            In the East Hill/Pine Ridge community, white children in the elementary grades attended Brandon Elementary School on the site where the new hospital is currently under construction.  African-American children (there were none in Weeden Heights and few in East Hill/Pine Ridge) attended Pine Ridge School, a two-room building that sat near what today is the southeast corner of Kirkman Street and Veterans Drive – just a few blocks from Magnolia’s building.  There were two African-American teachers in this small building which had been owned by TVA and was moved from the Reservation to its site.
            Sweetwater, too, boasted churches and traditions of its own.  Residents were/are very proud of their heritage; in fact, the annual Sweetwater Reunion was held for many years (though it has ceased), with current residents serving as hosts for those who had moved away.  People came from practically every state in the United States to reminisce about their early schooling at Brandon or Patton Elementary School; the excitement of the railroad that bisected their community; their employment at one of the many industries located very near their homes; and their own shopping district on Royal Avenue.
            Someone has said, correctly, that the only constant in life is change.  Today, there are dramatic changes in progress in the communities surrounding Magnolia’s property.  It is fascinating to witness and just as fascinating to consider what the future holds for the fast-developing corridor in which the property is located.

by Lee Freeman
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Florence has always been a city of faith. Upon founding the town in 1818 one of the first things done by the settlers was to found schools and churches.
 
On July 22, 1818 the first sale of lots was held and in that sale lot no. 84 on Tuscaloosa Street was purchased by “Hugh Campbell of the Presbyterians” for $1600 on which a, probably log structure, was soon constructed. This original log structure was replaced by a permanent brick building which was completed in 1824.
The Methodist and Episcopalian traditions followed the Presbyterians: In 1822 circuit riders John Cox and John Kerr founded a Methodist congregation in the front room of Cox’s newly-built log house in what is now the 200 block of west Tuscaloosa Street. This congregation, now known as First Methodist, has continuously existed, although at several different locations and in several buildings. The Methodists were soon followed in 1824 by Episcopalian Rev. William Spencer Wall, who also taught an early school in Florence. A congregation was finally organized in 1836 by the Rev. Thomas Armstrong Cook and the first building was built on the northwest corner of College and Cedar streets. This original building burned in 1893 and the current church was constructed in the corner of Pine and Tuscaloosa in 1894 incorporating the original bell tower.
 
The Baptists came to the city in 1859 (St. Mark) and then in 1888, with First Missionary Baptist Church, now just First Baptist Church. First Baptist was founded and originally met in the Court House (in his autobiography WC Handy recalls as a boy being hired by the “white Baptists” at the courthouse to work as their janitor).  The East Florence Baptist Church was established by First Baptist Church in January of 1890; Florence Wagon Works (on part of whose property Magnolia’s building is located) founder Dr. Alfred David Bellamy (1847-1913) was a trustee and Sunday school teacher. In September of 1894 Mrs. Hamaker, wife of Wagon Works Superintendent WA Hamaker, organized the Clubhouse Sunday School for the benefit of the employees.
 
The Christian faith has always been integral to the black community. Florence’s oldest black congregation is Greater St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. WC Handy’s (1873-1958) family were members (his father and grandfather were AME pastors) of this venerable church, which was originally founded ca. 1839 on lot no. 111 on the corner of Court and Bluff streets by 13 slaves and freedmen, with assistance from white trustees of the Methodist Church, as Church Springs Methodist Episcopal (ME) Church.
 
In 1865 a local freedman named George Poole (ca. 1830-aft. 1900) who had picked up enough of a basic education as a bootblack at Florence Wesleyan University started a school to teach the children of freed slaves. The Freedmen’s Public School, founded to educate children of the newly-freed slaves by the Pittsburgh Freedmen’s Aid Commission, succeeded Poole’s school and opened on October 29, 1866 and was taught by noted black educator Prof. Oscar M. Waring (1837-1911); the school was conducted under the auspices of Church Springs. With its own normal (teacher training) dept., the Freedmen’s Public School sent teachers out to various locations in Lauderdale County to start schools.
 
Florence’s second-oldest black congregation is St. Mark Missionary Baptist (MB) Church, founded ca. 1859 in a brush arbor on the corner of Alabama and Market Streets. In 1897 Bethel Cumberland Presbyterian Church was founded on Alabama Street, just up the street from St. Mark.
 
The First Congregational Church, known to locals as “the Colored Congregational Church,” was established on Pine Street sometime in the mid-late 1870s; its first building was completed in 1879. The Congregational Church conducted the Carpenter High School, founded in 1876 by the American Missionary Association (and the congregation’s pastors were the principals). First Congregational dissolved sometime around 1939 and today the Tennessee Valley Community Church is located on the spot where it was located for sixty years.
 
Magnolia’s own heritage, the Stone-Campbell Movement came to Lauderdale County ca. 1824 with “Stoneite” evangelist Elder Ephraim D. Moore and the founding of the Republican Christian Church, now Stony Point Church of Christ however there was no congregation of the Christian Church in Florence until a group of Christians began meeting in the home of Mrs. Susan Y. Thrasher. This congregation met at various downtown locations (such as Ludike’s and Morrison’s Halls) with Elder TB Larimore (1843-1929) of Mars Hill preaching on Sundays, before constructing its first building on the corner of Poplar and Tuscaloosa in 1890 (the original building still exists and is now home to the Calvary Fellowship Church). This congregation named itself the Poplar Street Christian Church and today exists as the Wood Avenue Church of Christ. First Christian Church was organized in 1917, eleven years after the Christian Church split into mostly Southern Churches of Christ and mostly Northern Christian Churches (aka Disciples of Christ). And in 1928 the African-American East Alabama Street Church of Christ was established by several charter members, converts who in the wake of a 1928 gospel meeting conducted by the late Bro. Marshal Keeble (1878-1968) were worshipping in a segregated room at the Poplar Street Church of Christ. That congregation exists today as the East Side Church of Christ.
 
In 1908 the first Holiness evangelists began hosting revivals in East Florence. Today the Holiness/Pentecostal/Assembly of God tradition is heavily represented in Florence.
 
There were Catholic settlers in Florence as early as 1825 though no Catholic mission or parish to serve them. That changed in 1878 when the Rev. Fr. Benedict Menges, OSB (Order of St. Benedict) founded St. Joseph Catholic Church and school above the City Cemetery on Lawton Heights (named after local real estate developer BA Lawton), which soon after came to be known as “Catholic Hill.” Fr. Menges, who in 1891 became the first abbot of St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman had served briefly as parish priest at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in St. Florian. Sometime in the mid-late 1940s the Catholic Church founded Blessed Martin De Porres Catholic Mission on West College Street; according to local tradition, this African-American Catholic mission was founded with the assistance of noted Florence businesswoman Bessie Rapier Foster (1882-1963), a niece of noted Alabama Republican Congressman James T. Rapier (1838-1883), who converted to Catholicism from the Methodist Church in the 1940s. Its priest was Rev. Isidore Fussnecker, OSB, the parish priest of St. Joseph.
 
The Lutheran faith sent ministerial candidate Richard Hasz to Florence in 1936 to explore the possibility of founding a Lutheran congregation which was officially established in Florence in 1939 with Our Redeemer Lutheran Church’s sanctuary being erected on Poplar Street in that year. Now nearly every major Christian denomination is represented in Florence.
 
In July of 1895 a Ministers’ Association was organized in Florence, whose stated goal was to “bring the clergy of the city into more active cooperation in all good work, to strengthen social relations in religious work, to advance the benevolent work of the city, and generally to act in concert to advance the religious and moral interests of the city.”
By 1896, First Presbyterian, First Methodist and First Baptist were holding “union services” at various times, including on Thanksgiving. In addition, pastors of the various churches would take turns speaking at the Florence and East Florence YMCAs in the late 1880s and 1890s.
 
By the 1950s several of Florence’s African-American churches were part of a Tri-Cities Interdenominational Alliance. One of the most noteworthy achievements of this group was in getting the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. (1899-1984), father of slain Civil Rights activist Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), to speak in February of 1970, at First Baptist Church in Sheffield.
 
In more recent years, many of Florence’s ministers, pastors and priests, including our own Jimmy Hayes and Joe Van Dyke, have been members of the Shoals Ministerial Alliance. Among other achievements the Ministerial Alliance sponsored several of the Marches for Jesus in the 1990s.
 
Friday night, October 25, 1957 Dr. JS Gallinger was formally installed as Rabbi of Temple B’Nai Israel (which moved to Florence from Sheffield and constructed its temple in 1953), with Rev. JVC Summerall of First Presbyterian Church offering the invocation as a representative of the Florence Christian ministers, and Rev. John C Calhoun of Sheffield’s First Methodist Church representing Colbert County Christian ministers.
 
As Florence gears up for its bicentennial celebration in 2018 the city can be proud of its long and venerable faith tradition.

by Billy Ray Warren
 
            It’s fairly easy to direct someone to the location of the Magnolia Church building and its adjacent property.  Simply say, “On the eastern edge of Veterans Drive, turn south (toward the Tennessee River) on Kirkman Street.  The building sits at the end of that street.”  However, not many years ago, the directions would not have been so easy because, first of all, Veterans Drive as we know it today did not exist.  There was a section of it, then known as Union Avenue, from Blair Street on the east and almost to O’Neal Street on the west.  Eastward from Blair Street to Wilson Dam Road (there was no Cox Creek Parkway, either), there were valleys and hills covered in trees, underbrush and footpaths.  Westward from O’Neal Street was a really deep, precipitous ravine.  Beyond that, Union Avenue started again until it reached a certain point, at which it became East Spring Street all the way to South Pine Street in downtown Florence.
            As time progressed, city leaders made the wise decision to create a new corridor from downtown Florence to the southern end of the new Cox Creek Parkway.  Since the city-owned Veterans Park was almost immediately adjacent to the Cox Creek Parkway intersection, the logical choice for the name of the new road was Veterans Drive.
            With the opening of this corridor, new, exciting developments began quickly on the eastern end.  The creation of an intersecting road known as Hightower Place, named for a longtime medical doctor in Florence and his family, opened the way for the construction of a new restaurant atop a tall tower and, with it, a municipal conference center whose entrance arches simulate the spillways of nearby Wilson Dam.  (This national award-winning building was designed by Lambert Ezell Durham Architects, of which Magnolia’s Lindon Ezell was a partner.)  Adjacent to the tower and the conference center came the handsome Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa.
            Not many blocks west of these developments came the Patton Island Bridge – later named the Singing River Bridge – which added a third river crossing between Lauderdale and Colbert counties.  Magnolia’s Ronnie Flippo, who served 14 years in Congress, was successful in securing the initial funding of this new bridge which, today, accommodates thousands and thousands of motorists daily.
            In recent months, work has begun on the nearly $300,000,000 Regional Health Care Center which is very near the Singing River Bridge.
            So, what began with the hauling of tons and tons of dirt to fill ravines and valleys has resulted in a corridor which has quickly developed into a major artery – and the Magnolia property is in the heart of it.

​The 27 acres of land owned by Magnolia Church of Christ are an integral part of the very interesting history of our great city.  Situated close to the banks of the beautiful Tennessee River – making the property susceptible to springtime floodwaters prior to the completion of Wilson Dam in 1925 – there is little doubt that Native Americans lived on or near the property hundreds of years ahead of the establishment of Florence as a city in 1818.
            The original map of Florence primarily reflects the grid that we know today as the central core – downtown Florence. Beyond that area, the map is fairly wide open.  But not many years passed before the eastern side of town began to boom as, one after the other, a series of industries came into being.  Though there was a wide variety of industries, the Florence Wagon Works and several textile mills provided the longest-lasting impact because of their size and the large numbers of people they employed.  A great many of the workers chose to live in the neighborhood of our church building because of its proximity to their work.
            As the property now owned by Magnolia and the areas adjacent to it were divided into streets and individual lots, the developers named some of the streets in honor of early leaders in Florence.  For example, our building is located on the southern tip of Kirkman Street.  (The northern tip is several blocks beyond Huntsville Road.)  The Kirkmans were among Florence’s earliest families.  They lived in Thimbleton on West Tuscaloosa Street; it is the only Italianate-style house in Florence.  Elizabeth Kirkman married Emmet O’Neal who practiced law in Florence.  He and Elizabeth and their children lived in what we know today as Rogers Hall on North Court Street when word reached Florence that he had been elected Governor of Alabama.
            One block west of and parallel to Kirkman Street is O’Neal Street, named for another early Florence family.  Edward O’Neal and his wife Olivia lived, along with their children, in the house on upper North Court Street directly across from Coby Hall.  Edward was a lawyer, a Confederate officer in the Civil War and, later, Governor of Alabama.  (He and his son, Emmet, were the first father and son Governors in Alabama.)  O’Neal Bridge connecting Lauderdale and Colbert Counties, is named for Mr. Edward O’Neal.
            Moving just one block west of and parallel to O’Neal Street is Patton Street which is named for yet another Governor of Alabama.  Robert M. Patton, owner of the locally-famous Sweetwater Plantation, was known for both his business acumen and his philanthropy.  Patton Island in the Tennessee River is named for him, as was Patton School (which no longer exists), the very first public school built in Florence after the City School District was officially formed in 1890.
            Just a few streets west of Magnolia’s property is a historic marker on Veterans Drive which notes the site of the Florence Wagon Works.  From 1891 to 1941, this company manufactured wagons of various sizes and styles.  Small wagons with a clever covering were used as delivery wagons – even for delivering mail!  Others were sturdy farm wagons, while still others were used in war zones.  The U. S. Army used what were dubbed “the fast-running Florence wagons” to transport munitions across Europe during World War I.  Some wagons produced by this highly-successful company are still in existence.  One that has been meticulously restored rests under an open structure in the rear yard of Pope’s Tavern, a city-owned museum in downtown Florence.
MORE TO COME…