Above:   The Historic Sanctuary, Gray United Methodist Church, Gray, Georgia

Source for All Images = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Date for All Images = Monday, May 4, 2015

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Last Monday, May 4, when I was driving from Athens to Americus, I stopped in Gray, just north of Macon.  My great-grandfather, George Washington Barrett (1873-1956), served the Gray Methodist Episcopal Church, South (now the Gray United Methodist Church), from late 1917 to late 1919.  The now “Historic Sanctuary” was about two years old then, for the congregation had rebuilt after a fire had destroyed the previous structure.  The building I photographed did not exist in the current outward form at the time.  The choir loft and the Sunday School rooms in the back did not exist until the 1940s.  I had seen pictures of the old building via Google street view, but walking on the grounds was much better, as I expected it to be.  Street view helped me to know what to look for when I arrived.

I think of other connections to my family’s history.  Firstborn son Randolph Winburn Barrett (1905-?), may God rest his soul, however or whenever he died, would have been an adolescent while there.  Second child Sarah Claiborne Barrett (1908-1954) was a child.  Third child George Dickey Barrett (1910-1989) would have been old enough to have memories of the place.  Fourth child Lucy Seguin Barrett (1912-2001) might have had some memories of her time in Gray.  My grandmother, Nell Fox Barrett (later Taylor) (1915-2001), was too young to have memories of her time there.  The same was true of sixth (and last) child, Margaret Elizabeth Barrett (1917-2007).

Below:  Views of the Side of Building Away from the Street

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The old building is lovely.  I am glad that it is still in active use for its intended purpose.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 9, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THOMAS TOKE LYNCH, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF ANNA LAETITIA WARING, HUMANITARIAN AND HYMN WRITER; AND HER UNCLE, SAMUEL MILLER WARING, HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, BISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE

THE FEAST OF SAINTS WILLIBALD OF EICHSTATT AND LULLUS OF MAINZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT WALBURGA OF HEIDENHELM, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS; SAINTS PETRONAX OF MONTE CASSINO, WINNEBALD OF HEIDENHELM, WIGBERT OF FRITZLAR, AND STURMIUS OF FULDA, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOTS; AND SAINT SEBALDUS OF VINCENZA, ROMAN CATHOLIC HERMIT AND MISSIONARY

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CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN, AND GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN OF ROBERT WESLEY BARRETT (1860-1924) AND SARAH JANE WINBURN BARRETT (1838-1883), PART II

Scans Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Robert Wesley Barrett (1860-1924) was the first child of William Wesley Barrett (1835-1911) and Sarah Jane Winburn Barrett (1838-1883) and the father of George Washington Barrett (1873-1956), my great-grandfather.  Nell Barrett Taylor (1915-2001) was my grandmother.

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Image Source = Randolph Fleming Taylor

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My great-aunt (1912-2001)–sister of Nell Barrett Taylor (1915-2001) and daughter of George Washington Barrett (1873-1956) and Nellie Sequin Fox Barrett (1876-1958)

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

Above:  George Washington Barrett

An image taped inside a family history book

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From the Journal of the North Georgia Conference of The Methodist Church, 1956, pages 110 and 111

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GEORGE W. BARRETT

The Reverend George W. Barrett was born September 3, 1873, and left us for his heavenly home June 12, 1956.  He was the son of William Wesley and Sarah Jane Winburn Barrett.  He was graduated from Young Harris College in 1899.

On January 17, 1900, he was happily married to Miss Nellie S. Fox.  He is survived by his wife and following children:  George Dickey, Lucy S., Nellie F. (Mrs. John D. Taylor), and Margaret E.  Another daughter, Sarah C., passed away June 12, 1954.  His home was one of culture and refinement whose spiritual atmosphere reflected the presence of the Master who was the real head of the house.

Brother Barrett joined the North Georgia Conference in 1899.  He was ordained deacon in 1899 by Bishop Hendrix and elder in 1903 by Bishop Key.  His appointments were as follows:  Alpharetta; Blue Ridge; Palmetto; Douglasville; Cornelia; Tate; Acworth; Union Point; Asbury, Augusta; Lithonia; Gray; Tignall; St. Paul, Gainesville; Winder; St. Luke, Augusta; Commerce; Rockmart; Second Avenue, Rome; Underwood, Atlanta, from which he retired in 1945.

He was at the table of the Secretary of the Conference for twenty-eight years–for twenty-one years the Secretary of the Conference, and editor of the Conference Journal.  He was a natural born Secretary.  In correspondence with the Publishing House as Editor of the Journal he was often addressed as “the model Secretary.”  In District Conferences or other church meetings, where a secretary was needed, they usually thought of Brother Barrett, if he were present, and elected him.

George W. Barrett was not only a gentleman but a gentle man.  Smoking flax he would not quench and the bruised reed would not be further damaged in his hands.  The ugly habit of self-assertion and self-seeking was not in his make-up.  He walked in deep humility with his Lord, content to feel that always the Master was at hand.

Brother Barrett was a sound Gospel preacher.  His sermons were not cluttered up with trivialities but dealt with the profound truths of the Holy Word.  He followed in the traditions of the fathers and was little moved by modern trends.  His people loved and trusted him.  They believed that in the midst of pretense and sham here, indeed, was a real man of God.  His life was an orderly one.  He was meticulous in his attention to details.  There was method in all that he did.  He was punctual in his appointments and prompt in his obligations.  He had strong convictions and was never ashamed or afraid to declare them.

For more than eighty-two years Brother George W. Barrett had lived among us, walking in the straight and narrow way, his face always toward the morning.  At last the weary feet could carry him no farther.  The gentle knight laid down his shining sword.  The mantle of his noble calling fell from his shoulders unsoiled.  His nerveless hands could no longer hold the working tools of his loved employ.  So he left us–the earth better for his coming, heaven richer for his going–to be at home with God.

WALLACE ROGERS

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EDITOR’S COMMENT:

It is, I admit, an overwritten obituary in places, but that is excusable.  If one cannot become flowery in an obituary, where can one do so?

I do recognize one glaring omission:  There is no mention of his firstborn son, Randolph Winburn Barrett (1905-?), who disappeared in the 1930s.  I propose no single reason for this, and I hope that nobody thinks I am.  In fact, I suspect that there are at least two reasons for this and almost everything else in the realm of the human race.  I do know that, for a set of reasons, Randolph became a topic to avoid in the household, so I am not surprised that he is absent here.  Maybe the primary reason was grief.  I have no evidence to suggest otherwise, so I extend the benefit of the doubt.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 20, 2013 COMMON ERA

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Above:  The Parsonage of Winder Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Winder, Georgia

Scan of a photograph reproduced in C. Fred Ingram, ed., Beadland to Barrow:  A History of Barrow County, Georgia, from the Earliest Times to the Present (Atlanta, GA:  Cherokee Publishing Company, 1983), page 265

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George Washington Barrett (1873-1956), my great-grandfather, served as the pastor of Winder Methodist Episcopal Church, South, from November 1925 to November 1927.  Thus he, his wife, Nellie Sequin Fox Barrett (1876-1958). and four or five of their six children lived in this parsonage for two years.  Randolph Winburn Barrett (1905-?) had left the nest in 1922, at Tignall (https://taylorfamilypoems.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/a-mothers-prayer/).  Sarah Claiborne Barrett (1908-1954) might have left the next before November 1925, but I know that the four youngest children were part of the household at the time of the 1930 Census.   So they would have been part of the household in 1925-1927.  They were:

• George Dickey Barrett (1910-1989);
• Lucy Seguin Barrett (1912-2001);
• Nell Fox Barrett, my grandmother (1915-2001); and
• Margaret Elizabeth Barrett (1918-2007).

Scan of a photograph reproduced in C. Fred Ingram, ed., Beadland to Barrow:  A History of Barrow County, Georgia, from the Earliest Times to the Present (Atlanta, GA:  Cherokee Publishing Company, 1983), page 279

The brick structure of the church, erected in 1904, looked like this until the early 1920s, when renovation occurred.  The building had its new front doors, front porch, and front steps when my great-grandfather and his family arrived.  The parsonage was on the right, behind the church building.

Above:  The former home of First United Methodist Church, Winder, Georgia, Circa 2010

Image from the former website of the Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, Winder, Georgia

The First Methodist Church relocated to a new plot of land in 1964.  When I found the old building in 2010, the Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, an independent congregation, had occupied the building and undertaken the work of restoring it.  Alas, a fire resulting from a lightning strike destroyed the structure last Summer.

When I compare the older and more recent church photographs and recall what I saw when walking the ground, I notice that the old house on the left in the older photograph was still there in 2012 and and that the old parsonage was not.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 20, 2013 COMMON ERA

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A Related Post:

https://taylorfamilypoems.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/former-home-of-first-methodist-church-winder-georgia/

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A Photograph from Late 1946

Photograph Courtesy of Randolph Fleming Taylor

From left to right:

Lucy Seguin Barrett, my grandaunt;

Randolph Fleming Taylor, my uncle;

John Dodson Taylor, III, my father;

Sarah Claiborne Barrett (1908-1954), my grandaunt;

Margaret Elizabeth Barrett Bartlett, my grandaunt

On the left side:  Lucy Seguin Barrett (later Vanlandingham)

On the right side, from left to right:

Nell Barrett Taylor (1915-2001), my grandmother;

Lucy Seguin Barrett, my grandaunt;

Margaret Elizabeth Barrett Bartlett, my grandaunt

The photograph is undated, but sometime during the 1980s seems plausible to me.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 9, 2013 COMMON ERA

From Left to Right:

Nell Barrett Taylor (1915-2001), my grandmother;

Nellie Seguin Fox Barrett (1876-1958), my great-grandmother;

Sarah Claiborne Barrett (1908-1954), my grandaunt;

Margaret Elizabeth Barrett Bartlett (1918-2007), my grandaunt;

Lucy Seguin Barrett (1912-2001), my grandaunt;

Carolyn Burns Barrett (April 4, 1913-May 4, 1996), George Dickey Barrett‘s wife;

Elizabeth “Libba” Barrett (now Seka) (born 1940), daughter of Carolyn Barrett and George Dickey Barrett

Thanks to my uncle Randy for sharing this photograph, taken in Atlanta, Georgia, apparently in 1953.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 9, 2013 COMMON ERA