A house RESOLUTION

 

to recognize and honor the storied history and significant contributions of Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church for two centuries and to wish the congregation many more years of prosperous and productive ministry.

 

Whereas, Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church began as a "church within a church," where enslaved members worshipped God at Gapway Baptist Church, in 1826. Around 1840, Gapway Church leaders gave their permission for Peter and Primus Gerald, sons of Alcey Lewis Gerald and slaveowner Samuel Gerald, to exercise their faith because they had an understanding of the Scriptures; and

 

Whereas, these brothers along with two sons of Poo Too Gooshular, Dan and Moses Reaves, a blacksmith, conducted services under a brush shelter with the supervision of Gapway Church deacons.

Around 1841, the congregation's first permanent structure was built; and

 

Whereas, in 1866, the Gethsemane Association ordained three ministers: Cornelius Reaves, Thornell Reaves, and Simon Owens. Nazarene has been under the leadership of various pastors beginning with the three founding fathers. Twenty-eight ministers have served the congregation since then. As more churches were established in the 1880s, a need arose for a unified body to bring congregations together in fellowship, so the Nazarene Union was formed in 1882; and

 

Whereas, the Sunday School Convention, an auxiliary of the Nazarene Union, is documented as the sole surviving Nazarene Union record from that era. Faded by more than one hundred twenty-two years, the document identifies four trustees who purchased land in Mullins for sixty dollars and twenty-two cents. The location, transfer history, and present ownership of the land are unknown; and

 

Whereas, in May of 1867, a group of one hundred sixteen families of Nazarene Baptist Church heard about the efforts of the American Colonization Society to emigrate former slaves to the country of Liberia. Led by Minister Cornelius Reaves, a nephew of Moses Reaves, they set out from Mullins Depot to board a ship set to land in Liberia two months later. They were not heard from until a year later when a letter from Allen Reeves, brother of Cornelius, arrived and assured their families and the church of their safe arrival to Grand Bassa County, Liberia; and

 

Whereas, in March of 1875, a series of tornadoes destroyed the congregation's first wooden structure. According to the Daily Phoenix, a Columbia newspaper, "Not a fragment of Nazarene, a Baptist Church of the Colored People, was left to mark its original site. The benches were carried forty or fifty yards and torn into splinters." Around 1877, a new church was built; and

 

Whereas, Noah W. Cooper, a teacher and local historian, wrote in the Mullins Enterprise, "The Negro church in those days was Nazarene near Gapway. There hundreds of Negroes went to preaching. They would stream in as far as Horry to go to meeting at old Nazarene." Current Mt. Olive and St. Paul Baptist churches are among churches that descended from Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church. The 1877 church building served the congregation until 1971 when the newest sanctuary was built; and

 

Whereas, built around 1900, Nazarene "Colored School," a one-room school, served the children in the area. Similar to Rosenwald School, it was built across the road from the church by the congregation with lumber provided by the Collins family. Later, in this exact spot, a two-room school was built. Nazarene Baptist Church owns two cemeteries, one located on the church grounds and the older one near the church. These cemeteries are final resting places for slaves and their descendants; and

 

Whereas, the South Carolina House of Representatives is grateful for the courage and faith of the members of Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church and for the legacy the church is leaving for those who will follow, and the House members look forward their continued contributions to the community as the congregation worships and serves God. Now, therefore,

 

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

 

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, recognize and honor the storied history and significant contributions of Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church for two centuries and wish the congregation many more years of prosperous and productive ministry.

----XX----