BLACK HAWK – It has been more than six decades since Ben Shute walked through the doors of the Black Hawk United Methodist Church as a three-year-old child, but the memory is still vivid in his mind.
“Miss Emmaline Crow was the teacher, and we sat on little benches around a little table, and we colored a lithograph picture of Moses in his basket,” Shute said. “Every crayon was broken and kept in a cigar box.”
Fellow Black Hawk United Methodist member and church secretary Betty Funderburk added laughing, “Those are probably the same crayons we have in there now.”
That tiny table and benches sit in the same place, on the south wall of the church in what was one of three classrooms sectioned off by dividers. A kitchen has been added at the back of the church, but the structure is still very much the same as it was when it was built in 1905.
The white wooden structure adorned with jewel-toned stained-glass windows and a high bell tower is a stately reminder of the once bustling community of Black Hawk in southwest Carroll County. The church and the old Black Hawk School House make up downtown Black Hawk, and although they are the last of what was Black Hawk proper, the two buildings remain a draw to the community with Sunday services three Sundays each month and monthly music performances at the school house.
Black Hawk United Methodist has 34 members on its rolls, with 15 or so attending regular worship services – 11 a.m. on the first Sunday of the month and 9 a.m. on the second and fourth Sundays. There is no service on the third Sunday. A Wednesday night Bible study draws five or six regular members to the former church parsonage located just next door to the historic church.
This past Sunday, a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Black Hawk United Methodist congregation filled the historic church to capacity with guests from around the state, including notable television host Walt Grayson, who served as guest speaker at the occasion.
According to Ken Strachan, who attended Sunday’s celebration, Grayson explained to those in attendance that in 1999 he was assigned to come up with features that were significant to the 20th century, as 1999 was drawing to a close and the new millennium was about to begin. Grayson said he went to Tupelo and featured the birth place of Elvis Presley.
Grayson said a Tupelo hardware store played a pivotal role in Elvis’ destiny. At 11 years old, Elvis visited that hardware store to admire a .22 rifle. Eventually, he brought his mother to the store to show her the gun. Elvis’ mother balked at buying the gun, telling her son he was too young, and Elvis threw a tantrum. Gladys Presley bought her son a guitar instead.
“In life when things don’t work out like we want or thought it should, down the road we see God’s plan,” Grayson said. “Through time, things happened that were not what we wanted. We see later we were better off, that was God’s plan. We got a guitar.”
A covered-dish lunch followed the service, led by Pastor Jack Marshall, across the road at the Black Hawk School House.
“We had a lot of people who came,” Shute said. “I’d say we had 200 or more came; the church was pretty full. A lot of the Baptist came, too. Everyone had a good time.
Shute said Elizabeth “Cricket” Wasson King of Inverness attended the celebration, as well as his aunts, Mildred Clement McLellan of Durant and Joyce Shute Tate of Black Hawk.
“[King’s] daddy, Mr. Wasson, preached here in 1941,” Shute said. “Her family lived right across the street from my mother, and they played together.”
The Black Hawk United Methodist Church was first put on the circuit of the American Methodist Episcopal Church in 1818. The original church was built from logs and served the congregation up until 1880, when a new church was built on land deeded for the church by William and Elizabeth Gillespie in 1840. In 1904, the current church was constructed.
According to an article published in the October 8, 1905, edition of the Carrollton Conservative, constructing the Black Hawk United Methodist Church cost $2,500, and it was dedicated on October 1, 1905 by Bishop Charles Betts Galloway, who was once pastor of the Black Hawk church.
“The people of Black Hawk and the community built a beautiful, substantial and tasteful house of worship, and had it seated with handsome oak pews,” the article stated.
The article went on to say that following the church’s dedication, a reception was held at the home of J.B. Streater, a community pioneer and owner of a general Mercantile business who served as the church’s Sunday School Superintendent for 57 years and eight years emeritus.
According to Shute, the church served as a house of worship for both Methodists and Baptists in the Black Hawk community. Shute said because the Methodist minister pastored several churches on the circuit, with a stop at Black Hawk the first Sunday of the month, the Baptist preacher would preach the other three Sundays of the month to a joint Methodist and Baptist congregation.
“The Baptist preacher came to Sunday school, and then he asked if he could preach [on the Sundays the church did not have a preacher],” Shute said. “He did, and we all stayed.”
Sunday school was organized in 1850, and from 1850 until 1926, the position of Sunday School Superintendent was held by just three men, Samuel Atkinson, G.D. Purcell, and J.B. Streater. Streater was followed in 1926 by Shute’s grandfather, B.F. Clement, who served for 20 years.
Over the years, the Black Hawk United Methodist Church thrived, even in the lean years like the Great Depression.
According to a call for tithes from the Pastor S.W. Hemphill to his parishioners from October 1, 1931, the pastor addressed the “distressed financial conditions” of the Black Hawk church. The letter asked that each family raise one pig and give the proceeds to the church. In addition, it requested the women pledge “one-tenth of all chickens and eggs handled by them during the conference year.”
Shute said many of the current members of Black Hawk United Methodist Church are members of the old families –the Clements, Shutes, Phillips, Beards, and Funderburks. Florence Beard is the church’s oldest member at age 102.
“Now everyone in the church is related,” Shute said.
Funderburk said she married into one of the old families of Black Hawk, and she and her husband relocated to the area to care for her mother-in-law. She has been attending the church for 27 years, and although the church’s congregation may have lessened in numbers, the church family is still very much a family.
This same sentiment was spoken by Pastor Lou Knighton in 1998 in an article published by The Conservative.
“I have pastored 12 churches in the past 11 years, and I believe the Black Hawk church has the best attitude of any church I have pastored. Our congregation has a very positive attitude and works very well together,” Knighton said.
Shute, who has faced health issues over the past year, said he gains support from the church family, especially the Wednesday Bible study group, and Pastor Jack Marshall. Shute said Marshall has driven him to every doctor’s appointment from Jackson to Oxford, and the conversations the two have had have kept his spirits up during the process.
“[Marshall] has been there every step of the way,” Shute said. “The church has been very supportive.”
Shute said as it has throughout its long history, Black Hawk United Methodist Church has been the center of the community.
“We don’t have a local Black Hawk paper so when you come to church you get the news,” Shute laughed. “We always support each other, and we always have.”
