Bethel Baptist Church

Front: This church was organized in 1851 by Revs. Lewis Parker and John Hoover, with twelve charter members and Rev. Hoover as its first minister. The congregation has worshipped on this site, on land donated by Mathias Mathis, since it was organized. It first met under a brush arbor, then in a log church built in 1852. The second sanctuary here, a frame church, was built in 1887. Reverse: The present sanctuary here, built in 1949, is attached to the 1887 church; it was remodeled in 1984 and again in 1991. Four members later became Southern Baptist ministers: Revs. W.E. Weekley, W.H. Dowling, G.D. Kinard, and W.E. Brant. Pastors with the longest tenures at Bethel were Revs. John Hoover (1851-68) and L.S. Shealy (1917-20 and 1934-47).