CARROLLTON — The oldest African-American church in Carroll County, Bear Marsh Missionary Baptist, will celebrate 147 years of ministry Sunday at 2:30 p.m., with a special service.
The guest speaker will be the Rev. Terell Collins, pastor of Morning Star M.B. Church in Greenwood and Bethel Christian Church in Coila. Special music will be provided by Carl and Pamela Smith of New Beginnings Church of Vaiden, as well as guest choirs. Annie Shack will present the history of the church, and other members will give various parts of the service.
Before 1869, blacks and whites generally worshipped together, and the church’s history reports that a group of blacks who attended Carrollton Baptist Church went to officials to request a church of their own.
Everyone was agreeable to that request, the church history reports: “A true spirit of Christian brotherhood prevailed between the two peoples, and they were able to arrive at a satisfactory arrangement, establishing the first black church in Carroll County.”
The worship site was under a bushy area about a mile from the present church. The Carrollton Baptist Church pastor assisted on Sunday afternoons, but soon the group erected a log cabin. Later the congregation purchased land and built a frame building on the current site.
The church got its name from a marshy area between two streams inhabited by bears.
In 1923, the church was destroyed by fire, but the pulpit, a marble top table, and two stained glass windows were saved by church members. The pulpit and the table are still in use. In the fall of 2008, the exterior and interior of the church were renovated.
Jermaine McCaskill, 30, who is a trustee, Sunday School superintendent and a choir member, said the church is still a very active one, with many youth and young adult members.
“People in college come home and go to church,” he said. “The fellowship is wonderful here. People sometimes stay an hour or two after services are over.”
One of the elder members of the church, Perrine Lott, now 89, has been a church member since she was 12. Her great-great-grandparents, Henry and Lucinda Askew, were founding members. The church is family to her, she said.
“As old as I am, the younger generation has always treated me like I’m their mother,” Lott said. “They ask me, ‘Can we do this?’ They show me respect. They don’t look at me as my age, and I feel like I’m as young as they are.”
To Annie Shack, Bear Marsh is like family.
“We get together every Sunday to relax, have peace, hear good singing. I look forward to seeing the young as well as elderly members,” Shack said.
The current pastor is the Rev. Keith Clark, who said, in a letter to the church, “God has truly blessed our efforts and rewarded our hopes. What a blessing it is to reach 147 years of faithful service to God here in the city of Carrollton.”
After the service, guests are invited to join members in a fellowship meal.
