ARP 101 By Rev. William Holiman
Churches (now the Pottsville ARP Church). They were by no means the only ARPs who left the Carolinas for Arkansas. Former North Carolinian Thomas M. Oates, writing back in 1854, tells his cousin William Weir that he had “better leave them hillsides for some- one else to work and come to Arkansas weer {sic} the land is better.” And come they did! In 1850 there were no Oates family members in the Pottsville area. In 1852 there were Every adult listed North or South Carolina as their state of birth. The Bell family of Lincoln County, NC, moved to Pottsville in 1854. They took a train to Memphis, then a steamboat to what is now North Little Rock, AR, then a smaller boat to Pottsville. By the 1860 census, 1,002 people in the area came from the Carolinas. - rick was the organizing pastor for this congregation in 1853 and served as stated supply off and on until 1867. Long-serving pastors at Pottsville include the Rev. Monroe Oates (son of early settlers and grandfather of ARP ministers James and W. O. Ragsdale) from 1868-1899. Rev. C. T. Bryson came from Chicota, Texas, and served here from 1908-1948, and Rev. Thomas Morris from 1954-1992 (with a small break to minister in Monticello). The Arkansas Presbytery of the ARP Church was organized at Pottsville in 1861. So many ARPs grew up in Pottsville that at the church’s 125th Anniversary service, there were people present from eighteen states and twenty-two towns in Arkansas. The families of the Pottsville Church have been active in sending their children to Erskine. Martha Bell, whose parents had come by train and steamboat, went back to Erskine and married Ebenezer Dunn Ellis of Due West. This family lived in Lake Wales, FL, after 1915. This family gave a substantial gift to Bonclarken in its early days, as well as building a new building for the Bethany church of Pottsville. Pottsville provided the founding members for the con- 1879. Rev. Monroe Oates, for many years, would travel by horseback on the 5th Sunday of the month to preach to them. Eventually, the congregation grew large enough to sup- port a pastor. One of the early
I
This is the church that was built after the church burned in 1959.
I Churches left King’s Mountain on the South Carolina/North Carolina border. These settlers went to what is now Pottsville and founded the Bethany and Pisgah ARP
was quite successful, with a substantial two ladies who were determined non- instrumentalists left the church for a time. incident reported in many Arkansas pa- pers, he attempted to kill himself using a hatchet. I am glad to say that he survived and returned to his family home in Vir- ginia. This little congregation provided at least six ministers, all with the last name of Nelson.
The Russellville, AR Church was orga- nized in 1893, by Rev. Oates, mainly with members from Pottsville, after a preach- ing crusade by Rev. W. W. Orr. The con- gregation built a small building. Some years later, Rev. Orr came back to hold an- other preaching crusade. So many people joined the church that they pulled down the same site.
The Little Rock church, later renamed Place, was also organized in 1893 with members from Pottsville. This congre- gation was, for many years, the premier congregation in Arkansas. In 1905 when a religious census was held in Little Rock, out of a total population of about 40,000 people, 285 declared themselves to be ARPs. The building the congregation built in 1912 was added to the National This congregation also began a mission in Jacksonville, AR, and then in the 1950s, another one in Southwest Little Rock.
What do you want to know about the ARP denomination? Send ques- tions to
arpeditor@arpsynod.org. Did you know there was a Arkansas
The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Arkansas
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