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Skagit River JournalSubscribers Edition Stories & Photos The most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit. Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness |
Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug |
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We have recently received a book about the Ocona Lufta Baptist Church in Swain County, North Carolina, in which the Conner family was especially active. Read more below about this church and the county, courtesy of Peggy Lambert, who read the original story on our site. |
Jehu, Dock and Margret Conner, at left, with other unidentified members of the family, and hounds on front steps, in uniform of the mountains, gallus overalls, at the new house sometime after 1910. The others are unknown. |
A family outing at Charlies Bunion, Ellie and Charlie in the center, sister Ruth at the far right. Click on thumbnail for full-size photo. |
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Far left: Helen Conner and an unknown child in front of the old Memorial Hospital on State Street in Sedro-Woolley. Opened in 1929, the year of the big stock market crash, the hospital remained in that location — where State Street Alternative High School is today in 2004 — until 1964. Helen later worked in Dr. Charles Hunter's clinic, at its original location downtown and then in the new clinic, built at the corner of Murdock and Ferry streets in 1953.. Center: Some of the nurses that Helen worked with, also taken in 1932. Can anyone identify the others?. Right: Helen's first grade class at Lyman Grade School in 1917. Helen is the third child from the left in the middle row.. |
Ocona Lufta church, from the Florence Cope Bush book, courtesy of Peggy Lambert. |
Although the beautiful church building still stands in the forest, the Lufta Baptist Church closed in 1939 after the federal government condemned properties for inclusion in the new federal park. Rev. Dan and Patsy Lambert joined with other families to form a new church in the nearby town of Cherokee. The Lamberts carefully preserved the original church records on which the book is based. As the author noted, the Lamberts hosted the Lufty Baptist Church homecoming and officiated at many weddings, some more formal and modern, and others that were based on the austere mountain rites of yesteryear. Another section of the book provides the setting for the original church, establishes historical context and leads up to when Rev. Henry Conner took over:Later, church members decided a more accessible church site should be located because of poor traveling conditions which made attendance difficult for the elderly and infirm. An organizational meeting was held June 6, 1836, [and among those attending were Samuel Conner and Masy Conner]. Minutes from this first meeting indicate two places of worship were established, one on each side of the Ocona Lufta River. This was to accommodate the members who had difficulty traveling to one church site. It is assumed the early settlers had not built enough bridges to make traveling convenient.
Ed Conner, from the Florence Cope Bush book, courtesy of Peggy Lambert.
The members resolved that the church would meet in the homes of Brother Samuel Conner and Brother Jacob Minges [or Mingus], each one in their turn, until they could get a regular meeting house. Prayer meetings would be held in the homes of Brother Conner and Brother Minges on each fork of the river, between each monthly meeting. . . .
In 1880, a building committee consisting of William Alexander, J.H. Queen, H.J. Beck, W.H. Conner, M. Treadway and F.M. Barton was appointed to consider a new church building. As in previous years, no more is said about the new church or the committee in the records. . . .
January 18, 1896, a committee consisting of John R. Kinsey, T.M. Jenkins and W.H. Queen apparently located a suitable site and proceeded to build the church now standing.
That chapter continues with fascinating details of how the church, the river communities and institutions coped with the four years of the war. William Henry Conner was a son of Jacob Conner, who arrived in the mountains of western North Carolina at the time that the Baptist faith was gaining acceptance in the area where the Calvinistic Protestants held most sway, and where the Moravians and Methodists were conducting mission work. Brother Henry professed faith in Christ in June 1847 and became a member of the Ocona Lufta church, but when he began preaching in 1850 he moved to the Shoal Creek church. He was assigned to preach at Ocona Lufta in 1860, just in time for the Civil War, and he and his wife, Rachel (Swaringen), lived there for the rest of their lives. Their son, Franklin "Dock" Conner, told his grandson, Charles Conner, of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, that William died on March 14, 1887, after he was thrown into the icy waters of Deep Creek, when his wagon overturned. Until Mrs. Mrs. Bush wrote her book, there was sadly little record of the importance of Henry Conner's term as preacher. She noted that he witnessed more than 1,500 conversions and baptized more than 1,000 people during his ministry. His son, Wiley Evans Conner, preached at Ocona Lufta before he moved to Knoxville, Tennessee and served as pastor of the Fourth Avenue Baptist Church.Lufty Baptist Church is part of pioneer America. Established June 6, 1836, it served as a home church for people on their way north, south, east and west across the Great Smoky Mountains. Settlers whose names are found on the early rolls and in the church minutes appear in later history as residents of other states and participants in events creating the world today.
The Smokemont store that the Jehu Conner family owned for many years, from the Florence Cope Bush book, courtesy of Peggy Lambert.
Ships were still bringing immigrants to our shores and people needing more and more land when the little Baptist church was brought into being. In their quest for a home, the new Americans pushed into territory claimed by the Cherokee [Indians]. Demands from these new citizens forced politicians in Washington, D.C., to make the decision to end the Indians west.
Lufty was a unique church in a unique setting. It is difficult to image the original church was organized two years before one of the saddest events in our history took place. The government removal of the Cherokee Tribe started in 1838. The Trail of Tears, the Cherokee name for their journey into the Oklahoma territory, left the Lufty Church in a settlement filled with confusion.
General Winfield Scott searched the Ocona Lufta area for Indians who did not want to leave their homes. An estimated 1,000 Cherokee hid in the mountains and caves along the Ocona Lufta River and escaped the Federal troops. Many of the soldiers were not familiar with the mountains and couldn't find the Indians. The North Carolina Volunteer Militia was ordered to answer the muster call to help locate and collect the Cherokee for the January journey to the West. A few church members participated in the roundup and removal process.
Twenty-eight years later, Lufty Baptist Church was there when the first shot of the Civil War was fired at Fort Sumpter, South Carolina. This war touched the heart of everything American. It divided families, churches and communities. Lufty was no different. The internal struggle was evident in the documents preserved by the church.
A.D. Carver: Received by experience, October 1886.By the way, Aden Carver never recognized the border splitting the Smoky Mountains between two states, and at age 90, he crossed the mountains to join the Civilian Conservation Corps in Gatlinburg, probably the oldest member of the CCC. He joined to help restore the region to its original beauty after the lumber companies moved out and the U.S. government moved in. He died a decade later, in 1945, at age 101.
Aden Carver: Received and baptized, October 1864; Dismissed by letter, November 1876; Dismissed by letter, August 1881; Served as Sexton of the church from January 1908 to March 1910.
Did you enjoy this story? Please consider subscribing to the optional Subscribers Edition. That is how we fund this grand project. Please report any broken links or files that do not open and we will send you the correct link. Thank you. Preserve your family keepsakes . . . allcopiersystems web page Schooner Tavern/Cocktails at 621 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, across from Hammer Square: www.schoonerwoolley.com web page . . . History of bar and building Oliver Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 82 years. Joy's Sedro-Woolley Bakery-Cafe at 823 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 82 years. Check out Sedro-Woolley First for links to all stories and reasons to shop here first or make this your destination on your visit or vacation. DelNagro Masonry Brick, block, stone — See our work at the new Hammer Heritage Square See our website www.4bricklayers.com Would you like to buy a country church, pews, belfry, pastor's quarters and all? Email us for details. Are you looking to buy or sell a historic property, business or residence? We may be able to assist. Email us for details. |
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