[Granville-Hough] 24 May 2009 - Taking your Religion with you for 9 Generations

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Sun, 24 May 2009 06:10:44 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Taking Your Religion with You for 9 generations- 24 May 2009


Genealogy is a study of family and community history. It goes far beyond
who begat whom into what each generation did and what got passed on as a
heritage.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

	It came to me the other day that one line of my family had established
churches as they moved to new communities. It goes like this:
Stephen Cole brought his family from Great Britain to Pennsylvania about
1720.  They could not find enough land where they settled in what is now
Delaware, so the sons
James, Mark, and John Cole joined George Robinson in making a new
settlement in 1743
in what is now Roanoke, Southwestern VA.  This was the absolute frontier
where they had to build log huts, clear land, hunt game, and fish.  Mark
Cole established the
first church, an Episcopal church, which met in his home.  He was the
Reader, or lay leader. His brothers and others of the settlers
participated.  This was the first generation to establish a church.
However, his wife was Baptist, as were other settlers, so there was
great interest in the Baptist activities on the frontier.
    James Cole, Jr, nephew of Mark, moved to the Pee Dee River of South
Carolina, where he became a dedicated Missionary
Baptist.  There they heard that William Bean had successfully flatboated
from Southwestern VA to the Natchez country in West Florida and to New
Orleans. They
decided in 1772 to move by flatboat to the British Territory of Natchez
Country.  They could avoid the war which seemed imminent. James Cole,
Jr, and seven other families moved back to the Holston River in
Southwestern VA where they could build log flatboats and float down to
Natchez Country.  The Coles, Carters, and others not recalled, got to
the Holston River and built 8 flatboats, one
for each family.  They floated down the Holston River to the Tennessee
River, but they lost one family and flatboat at Muscle Shoals, the 100
foot drop in the rapids of the Tennessee at the Northwest corner of
present day Alabama.  The other families managed to roll their
flatboats on logs around Muscle Shoals, then went on down to the Ohio
River, then to the Mississippi River, then down to the first British
settlement at Natchez.  The trip was over 1600 miles.  The British gave
them land in 1776 on what became Cole's Creek, and the families
established  the first Protestant church in what is now Mississippi, the
Baptist Church of Cole's Creek.  This was the second generation to
establish a church.
    After the Revolutionary War, Natchez Country became Spanish
Territory and the Baptists on
Cole's Creek had to worship in secret.  The minister had to flee back to
South Carolina.  In 1797, the United States was
able to get the Natchez area by treaty and the people of Cole's Creek
moved south and east. Mark Cole,  son of James  moved south and was  a
charter member of the Zion Hill Baptist Church in Amite County.. Then he
moved his family east to Pike County and became a member of a new church
there. This was the third generation to establish churches.
    In 1833, the Choctaws ceded their land in Mississippi and moved to
Indian Territory (Oklahoma).  Five of Mark Cole, Sr's children moved
into the Choctaw land in Smith County and in 1851 joined in
establishing  Zion Hill Baptist Church of Smith County, MS.  John F. and
Lucy Cole were charter members. My great grandparents, Hiram and Susanna
(Cole) Miller soon joined.  This was the fourth generation to
establish a church.
    My grandmother Martha Lenora (Miller) (Keyes)joined the Zion Hill
Church in January, 1862.  Later, after widowhood and remarriage to my
grandfather Frank Hough, they moved into another part of the county and
were charter members of the Fellowship Baptist Church of Smith County.
Today, the Fellowship Church has the most beautiful cemetery in Smith
County.  This was the fifth generation to help establish a church.
    My own mother, Nancy Elizabeth (Richardson) Hough, after WW II,
began to see rural churches closing as people left farming and moved to
coastal jobs and opportunities.  The remaining farm people could go to
the town churches, but they had little in common with the town people.
My mother helped establish the Eastside Baptist Church of Magee, MS, and
welcomed all the farm people who had been members of the country
community churches.  It is really a farm folks church which meets in
town.  This was the sixth generation to help establish a church.
    My brother, Clifford Hough, helped my mother in establishing the
Eastside Baptist church, becoming the seventh generation to help
establish a church.  When I was a college student, I joined with John
Carter, who I believe was descended from the flatboat Carter family, and
we went into the cotton mill section of Starkville, MS, and began
holding services there.  Shortly afterward, I was inducted
into the Army, and so was John Carter.  The cotton mill closed, the mill
town section of Starkville was rezoned, razed and the families all
left.  So the seventh generation church I helped establish did not survive.
    My niece, Carol Hough Linger and her husband Russ were members of
the Rogers, AR, First Baptist Church, when that church established a
mission church in Bentonville, AR.  Their family went with the mission
church which later became the Bentonville Calvary Baptist Church.  They
were the eighth generation to help with a new church.  Their children
were 13 and 8 when this happened so their presence and attendance
helped.  So at least the ninth generation has been involved with new
churches.