Above:  The Historic Sanctuary, June 11, 2018

Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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I was driving through Gray, Georgia, where my great-grandfather, George Washington Barrett (1873-1956), served from late 1917 to late 1919.  He was a minister in the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1845-1939).  For two years he served a three-point charge that included the congregation in Gray.  He preached in the building pictured above.

The windows postdate his time as pastor, obviously.

Notice the side view of the building.  The back section, with the door facing toward the street, is younger than the rest of the building.  According to the church’s website, the back section dates to the 1940s.

One way of connecting with one’s ancestors is to visit places they lived, worshiped, et cetera.  I try to imagine my grandmother, Nell Barrett (1915-2001), on this site as a young child.  I try to imagine my great-grandfather, not as the silver-haired gentleman I have usually seen in photographs, but as a younger man.  Here I have a tangible connection to my family’s past.  Liturgically and theologically I would not fit in at Gray U.M.C., but that is fine.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 21, 2018 COMMON ERA

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Above:   The Youth Fellowship Hall and 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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George Washington Barrett (1873-1956) served the Gray Circuit (then in the North Georgia Conference) of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, from late 1917 to late 1919.  The physical plant of the Gray Church has grown and changed since then.  The first addition was to the back of the now Historic Sanctuary.  The front part of the building dates to 1915.  The back of it dates to the 1940s.  The brick Youth Fellowship Hall has been in existence since the 1960s.

The congregation has adapted two houses for parish use (one for the Administrative Offices) and erected new buildings across the street from the Historic Sanctuary and Youth Fellowship Hall.  The relative positions of the new worship space, the Historic Sanctuary, and the Administrative Offices is obvious below, with the Administrative Offices to the right.

Plans for a new space intended just for the public worship of God exist.  The new sanctuary will sit next to the current main worship space, the family life center.

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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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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Above:  George Washington Barrett (1873-1956) and Nellie Seguin Fox Barrett (1876-1958) with their Daughter, Nell Barrett Taylor (1915-2001), My Grandmother, Probably in the 1950s

Image Courtesy of Randolph Fleming Taylor

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EDITOR’S COMMENTS:

1. I have interjected personal names, place names, and dates into my great-grandmother’s undated text occasionally to make clear the chronology and geography.
2. The original title of this text was “Beautiful Things My Husband’s People Have Done for Me.”
3. I have written my own reflections, which arrive at a different conclusion:  http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/living-in-an-aquarium/.  Such a life is not for everybody.
4. The Methodists used to move their pastors and pastor’s families in late November or early December, depending on the year.
5. I have used North Georgia Conference Journals, George Washington Barrett’s Descendants of John Barrett and William Winburn (Decatur, GA:  Banner Press, 1949), family oral tradition, and my storehouse of church historical knowledge as sources of details.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 13, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS AQUILA, PRISCILLA, AND APOLLOS, COWORKERS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL

THE FEAST OF ABSALOM JONES, EPISCOPAL PRIEST

THE FEAST OF ANDREAS KATSULAS, ACTOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT LICINIUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF ANJOU

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Poor child!  She does not know what she is getting into.

Thus spoke the widow of a preacher when my sister told her of my approaching marriage [on January 17, 1900, when my great-grandfather, George Washington Barrett, was pastor of the Alpharetta circuit] to a young itinerant Methodist preacher.   I informed sister that I preferred a hard time with him to luxuries without him.  However, I spent many moments wondering what she meant.  I am still wondering, though I have found that her opinion is very largely accepted.  After reading a recent magazine article, I decided that it is time one should give the other side of the picture; and so I desire to tell of some of the many lovely things my husband’s people have done for us.

First of all, to my way of thinking, is the friendly welcome that has invariably been accorded to us.  Not once have I been made to feel as if I were on probation–that they were waiting to decide whether to accept me as one of the community.  Always we have been met at the train and taken to the parsonage where a welcome committee was assembled and a delightful meal served in such bountiful quantity that culinary labors were reduced to the minimum while we were getting settled.  The parsonage has been prepared for us as well as the brief time between the departure of the our predecessor and our arrival allowed.  And when obtainable, flowers added to the festive array of the home.

A short time after we reached our second charge [Blue Ridge Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Blue Ridge, Georgia, 1902-1904], my husband was requested to meet some friends at the Y.M.C.A. one evening.  A lady friend came up to keep me company while he was there.  Soon he returned with a check for a splendid suit of clothes, the compliment of the railroad men of the town.  They chose to bestow it rather than to see if the new pastor pleased them or no.  It was a timely gift, though they did not know it, for they thought the pastor was a bridegroom.  He had been, almost three years before, and was still wearing his wedding suit for best.

When our first baby [Randolph Winburn Barrett, 1905-?, born when his parents were at Palmetto, Georgia] came, we had many lovely attentions bestowed.  He happened to be the first baby that had ever lived in that parsonage.  When it was time to put him in short clothes, before I could get more than started at making them, behold, the ladies of the charge sent in the most complete outfit one could wish.  That was paralleled when the sixth baby [Margaret Elizabeth Barrett, later Bartlett, 1918-2007, born when her parents were at Gray, Georgia] was on the way.   I was much too sick to sew, though I tried to do so while lying in bed.  The ladies sent me word that they were making the layette for me and I was not to sew at all.  And it was such a beautiful little wardrobe–sheer, fine materials, hand-embroidered, [with] fine lacy tatting on edges and set in as medallions, and an abundance of garments, even a little pillow with hand-embroidered slips, and a number of extra garments for me.  And all this when I had not been worth a thing to the church, for I had been too sick to do any church work, and we had illness in the family too.

This same charge [the Gray Circuit, Gray, Georgia, 1917-1919] being dissatisfied with the reception of their pastor, because they had only one hour from the departure of our predecessor and our arrival, sent me word at Christmas that I was not to prepare a Christmas dinner.  It was sent on Christmas Day, and what a feast it was!

At another place [Gainesville, Georgia, where my great-grandfather served at the St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1922-1925] my husband’s brother [Robert Wesley Barrett (August 18, 1860-January 13, 1924)] had died and was brought there for burial.  [The Barrett family was from Gainesville and Oakwood.]  The family connection being large, we had considerably above a score with us to lunch.  What did those blessed women do but send in lunch for the crowd, and some came and helped serve, and then they washed up and left everything ready for the next meal!

It was here [St. Paul Church, Gainesville, Georgia], too, that various improvements to the parsonage furnishings were added along during our years of service because, they said, they wanted us to have the opportunity to enjoy them while there.  And it was here, having learned someway the date of our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, [that] some of the members of our church combined with friends in another church in town and presented us with a handsome chest of flatware.

So far as I know there has been no attempt to criticize my own or even my children’s dress, but I’ve often been complimented on the children’s appearance.  And whenever I have had either a new hat or dress, the ladies appeared to take as much pleasure in them as I did.

At another charge [Tignall-Broad River Circuit, Tignall, Georgia, 1919-1922] one of our stewards [Yes, the Methodists used to have church officers called stewards.], a widower, lived across the street from the parsonage.  Beginning with a ten-pound turkey for our Christmas gift, he filled the three years of our stay with loving, brotherly attentions so delicately offered that one could not feel offended.

We were quarantined just at the Christmas holidays because of diptheria in our home and people feared the children might not have their stockings filled; so they proceeded to provide against such an emergency.  And how they did provide!

Another time [at Tignall] the children and I had whooping cough.  Our oldest daughter [Sarah Claiborne Barrett (1908-1954)] was very ill and the youngest [Margaret (1918-2007] of our brood of six was under two years of age.  To secure help was almost impossible, it being peach-packing time.  I was under a great strain, for my husband was away holding meetings on the charge.  Those good friends sent out of the community and brought in a nurse, telling her to stay as long as I needed her.  They paid her salary weekly and I knew it not until she was leaving and I endeavored to pay her for her services.  It was here that, when we were unexpectedly moved [in 1922], the Woman’s Missionary Society sent a committee to ask me please not to clean up the house.  I protested because such was not my custom, always leaving the house ready for our successor.  But Mrs. S. put her arm about me tenderly and said,

Please, you can do it for us because we want to do it for you.

I did it and to this day can never think of it without grateful tears.

I do not believe these were exceptional charges.  I could name some lovely things from every place we have lived and I truly believe all the churches want to really love their pastor’s family; but this is enough to show

the sunny side

of parsonage life.

It has been a happy life to me, though, of course, there are some things I should prefer otherwise–but is there any lot in life without some drawbacks?  But this is my most sincere and loving tribute to the churches my husband has served.  They have treated me as they would wish to be treated if they were in my place.  Could anyone ask more?

NELLIE SEGUIN FOX BARRETT

NO EARLIER THAN 1924

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:  George Washington Barrett

An image taped inside a family history book

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I have derived most information from Journals of the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, (through 1938) and of The Methodist Church (1939 to 1945 and 1956).  I have also drawn information from George Washington Barrett’s small book, Descendants of John Barrett and William Winburn (Decatur, Georgia:  Banner Press, Emory University, 1949).  And I have added my own knowledge from other sources.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 20, 2013 COMMON ERA

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Some Preliminaries:

Most pastoral moves occurred in November.  The North Georgia Conference made the transition to Summer moves after George Washington Barrett retired.

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1845-1939) reunited with its parent, the Methodist Episcopal Church (1784-1939), and a sibling, the Methodist Protestant Church (1828-1939) to form The Methodist Church (1939-1968).

The Methodist Church (1939-1968) joined with its relative, the Evangelical United Brethren Church (1946-1968), to create The United Methodist Church.

I recommend Google Street View as a wonderful way to get good images of some of these church buildings.

The Conference my great-grandfather as a troubleshooter frequently, hence many short pastorates.   Often he had only a few days’ notice before a move.

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1894

Licensed to preach on November 15

1895-1899

Student, Young Harris College, December 1, 1895-May 22, 1899

1899

Admitted to the North Georgia Conference, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South

Ordained Deacon by Bishop Eugene R. Hendrix, D.D., L.L.D.

1899-1902

Pastor, the Alpharetta Circuit (five churches)

Supply Pastor, starting July-November 1899, filling in for the pastor, who was ill

1900

Married Nellie Seguin Fox on January 17

1902-1904

Pastor, Blue Ridge Church

1903

Ordained Elder by Bishop Joseph Staunton Key

1904-1906

Pastor, Palmetto Circuit (five churches)

1905

Firstborn son, Randolph Winburn Barrett, born

1906-1908

Pastor, Douglasville Circuit (two churches)

1908

Second child, Sarah Claiborne Barrett, born

1908-1910

Pastor, Cornelia-Demorest Circuit (two churches)

A few years ago, when I taught some courses at the Demorest campus of Piedmont College, I noticed a certain building across the street.  The Demorest Womens’ Club house looked like an old church.   That is because it used to be one.  It was the home of the Demorest congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS).  Demorest also had a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC).  The two Demorest congregations merged in 1939, when their denominations did, moving into the stately MEC building.  That building, unfortunately, has gone the way of all flesh.  In the late 1940s, however, the Methodist and Congregationalist churches of Demorest merged, forming the Demorest Methodist Congregationalist Federated Church (currently a United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church affiliate), in the home of the former Congregational Church, just up the hill and behind the old MECS church.  The bell in the yard of the Federated Church is from the former MEC structure.

So, when I look at the clubhouse of the Demorest Womens’ Club, I see a building in which my great-grandfather preached.

1910

Third child, George Dickey Barrett, born

1910-1911

Pastor, Tate-Nelson Circuit, Marietta District (two churches)

1910-1912

An Assistant Statistician of the North Georgia Conference

1911-1913

Pastor, Acworth Circuit (four churches)

1912

Fourth child, Lucy Seguin Barrett, born

1912-1917

Statistician of the North Georgia Conference

1913-1914

Pastor, Union Point Circuit (four churches)

1914-1916

Pastor, Asbury Circuit, Augusta (two churches)

1915

Fifth child, Nell Fox Barrett, my grandmother, born on February 2

1916-1917

Pastor, Lithonia Circuit (three churches)

1917-1919

Pastor, Gray Circuit (three churches)

1918

Sixth child, Margaret Elizabeth Barrett, born

1918-1924

An Assistant Secretary of the North Georgia Conference

1919-1922

Pastor, Tignall/Broad River Circuit (two churches)

1922-1925

Pastor, St. Paul Church, Gainesville, Georgia

1924-1944

Secretary of the North Georgia Conference

1925-1927

Pastor, First Church, Winder

1927-1944

Editor of the Conference Journal

1927-1929

Pastor, St. Luke Church, Augusta

1929-1931

Pastor, Commerce Circuit (two churches)

1931-1935

Pastor, First Church, Rockmart

George Dickey Barrett (George’s son) made new carved oak furniture–an altar rail, a lectern, pulpit chairs, the communion table, and choir panels for the church in 1932.  He donated his time and labor, but the church had to hold fundraisers to finance the purchase of materials.  The church used this furniture until 1954.  Sources = http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=360&dat=19831109&id=NogxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Oz4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2676,2069657 and family accounts

1935-1937

Pastor, Second Avenue Church, Rome

1937-1945

Pastor, Underwood Memorial Church, Atlanta

1943-1956

Resided at 866 Euclid Road, NE., Atlanta, in a house his wife, Nellie Sequin Fox Barrett, inherited

1945

Retired

1956

Died on June 12