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Up from slave beginnings… the story of Gray's Creek Missionary Baptist Church
| The Rev. Wiley Harris fellowships with members outside of the new church.
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The life and culture of the African American church contain threads of African culture and remnants of the slave community.
These threads are visible across denominational lines and are seen in varied religious practices, such as lining hymns, call-and-response improvisation, the singing of spirituals, and demonstrative movement during corporate worship.
At Gray’s Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Arlington, Tenn., one is easily reminded of such deep cultural roots. It is the oldest African-American congregation in the county, and perhaps, in West Tennessee.
Before the advent of organized African American churches, African Americans in the 19th century carved out for themselves a spiritual culture born out of the endless toil and hardship of enslavement.
Music and dance were a way of life. From the fields to campground meetings, slave communities took every opportunity afforded them to engage in collective worship experiences.
Many slave owners allowed their slaves to build small frame structures called “praise houses.” Spirituals as we know them today began in praise houses.
Praise houses offered a place of sanctuary and relief after a hard day’s work in cotton or tobacco fields. Singing, shouting and dancing could be heard. Sometimes, one person would just steal away to the praise house for a personal praise session with God.
It was out of this unique tradition that Gray’s Creek Missionary Baptist Church in northeastern Shelby County was founded. The congregation opened its doors in 1843, some 20 years before slavery was abolished.
When two white churches merged, Green Bottom and Morning Sun Cumberland Presbyterian Churches, the smaller of the church buildings was left vacant. An African American Baptist congregation somehow purchased Green Bottom.
For years, no one bothered to name the church; it was simply called “the old Baptist Church.” In 1843, the church was named Gray’s Creek after the road upon which it was located. Today, the road is called Inglewood Place.
Two free men and dozens of slaves were the original members. Simon Price, a shoemaker and minister, along with Joseph Harris, a farmer and preacher, took the Gray’s Creek flock up from the loosely organized, praise-house worship services to a bona fide local church entity.
Tradition indicates that Rev. Price was the church’s first pastor, setting up an official pastoral office, a deacon board and several trustees. And from the time of its inception up to 1990, Sunday worship services, both day and night, were held only on the first and third Sundays; Sunday School was each Sunday morning; and a two-week revival began on the third Sunday night in August.
| Members stand outside the new church before the ribbon-cutting ceremony. (Courtesy Photos)
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Itinerant preachers traveled over the rural countryside all over the South, and holding services every other Sunday was a common practice. Some churches even held services once a month during the 1900’s when African American ministers were scarce or had so many communities to visit.
Although records are sketchy or virtually nonexistent, Rev. Joseph Harris, often referred to as “Free Joe,” is believed to have been related to Price, perhaps a cousin. Price was two years older than Harris, and the two lived in the same community; maybe even next door. Census data confirms that they were in the same general vicinity.
The Rev. Price had a presence in the 1850 census, but not in the 1860 census. He was listed 55 years of age. His final resting place is unknown but believed to be in Gray’s Creek Cemetery, where Free Joe was buried in 1875. Price’s wife, Kitty Price, and Rev. Harris wife, Fannie, also are buried in the cemetery as well.
Carefully preserved official documentation of birth and death certificates, along with the passing down of family and church history, indicate that many of the members who still call Gray’s Creek their home had ancestors who were a part of that very first congregation.
The church bell
A manually operated church bell in the front tower beckoned people to worship, choir rehearsal, funeral processions and other important events in the life of Gray’s Creek congregates. After 105 years, a church renovation in 1958 ended the bell tradition.
In 1913, the physical structure of the church was expanded. In 1924 the Baptist Young People’s Union (BYPU) was organized, and the Usher Board was added in 1926.
Electricity was installed in 1933. And the 40-year pastorate of the Rev. E.V. Jones, elected as pastor in 1936, included such improvements as bricking, inside plumbing, a baptismal pool, central heat, air conditioning, and audio equipment.
After slavery was abolished, men of the church donated their time and labor to building a brush arbor outside the church to act as a makeshift school for blacks.
In 1918, Shelby County constructed several schools for African Americans.
A new chapter in history
On Sunday, June 30th of this year, a motorcade wound its way through the streets from Fullview Baptist Church where the congregation had been meeting while a new structure was being erected.
An ensuing ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site of the sprawling, modernized edifice preceded Sunday morning worship. The Rev. Wiley Harris, pastor of Gray’s Creek for 29 years, celebrated the milestone triumph with his congregation. Sunday School and the Sunday worship were held for the first time in the new building.
After nearly 10 years of fund-raising and praying, delays and disappointments, the old Gray’s Creek church structure was torn down in April of last year, and construction began on the new worship center on the historic site.
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