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Oak Grove church's 100-year history recounted
Editor's note: Caroline Deeds Wilson gave the following history of the Oak Grove Advent Christian Church at its 100th anniversary celebration Sept. 30.
When Jim Deeds asked me to give a history of the church, he said to keep it short. So I will do my best to give you a history, with facts, and try to keep it short.
Our family branch starts with William Alexander and Rachel Haynes Deeds. John L. Deeds, father of William Deeds, lived in what is now Germany. There was war in the area and young boys 14, 15, 16 years of age were being drafted and taken into the army. This was in the middle 1700s .
Merchants looking for hard workers with low pay would go to other countries and pay passage to America if the family members would work for them until the amount was paid. The ship landed in Philadelphia, Pa.
When John Deeds fulfilled his obligations, he moved on and found work to make enough money to purchase a covered wagon and moved his family to the Shenandoah Valley. Land was cheap, as there were mansions on one side, Indians on the other and cheap land in between.
Children were born, married, some died, but John and some of his family settled in Rich Patch, Va. The family members scattered, three sons moving to West Virginia. William purchased 150 acres of land on what is now Douthat State Park Lake and surrounding area. Some family members moved with him. He died in 1899.
One son, John Lewis Deeds, married Sarah Ellen Zeigler and they purchased the land on which some of his ancestors now live, with the Donald Barden Family living in the home place, fondly called "The Big House."
Some had jobs, but mostly they lived off the land. They were neighbors, as well as family. They worked together to cut trees, saw them on Henry Deeds' saw mill and build their homes.
One of John and Sarah's sons, Edward Leroy Deeds married Ruth Ramsey. Another of his daughters, Mamie Ramsey, married Charles Deeds. Brown C. Ramsey was the father of these girls and had also given Charles Deeds 25 acres of land when he married his daughter, Mamie.
On April 24, 1905, Murray Leroy Deeds, two years, 10- month old son of Edward and Ruth Deeds, died. Prior to this, the Deeds family had a family cemetery where the swimming area is located in Douthat Lake.
Seeing the need for a family cemetery, Brown Ramsey gave the families one acre of land on which to make a family cemetery and little Murray Leroy Deeds was buried there. Many were to follow.
In 1936, prior to the opening of Douthat State Park on June 15, 1936, William Alexander and Rachel Haynes Deeds, among others, were moved to this cemetery.
After the land was designated as the family cemetery, the men folk got together, cut the trees, sawed the lumber and built a small little church on a quiet knoll surrounded by the George Washington National Forest. They called it "Paradise Church."
It was filled with the reverence to the Glory of God and His Son, and even had a belfry with a bell which still rings out today.
Most of the ministers serving this group of people were of the Advent Christian faith so on Sept. 15, 1907, a dedication service was held and the church has since been known as the Oak Grove Advent Christian Church and the cemetery now has 101 persons buried in it.
The worship services were held in the afternoon, with Sunday school taught to the little ones on a bench by the pulpit by Daisy Deeds. The church was heated in the winter with a wood stove situated in the middle of the floor. A little weather worn "john" sat near the woods for those who could not wait to go home. Student ministers served the church for several years during the summer and pastors form the local Advent Christian churches filled in also.
The Rev. Robert Hughes served the church from 1959 to 1986 at which time the Rev. Douglas Moore started offering services twice a month. October 1984, the Rev. John Mark Hughes, son of the Rev. Robert Hughes became the pastor and served until 1987.
When Mark Hughes left, the Rev. Moore again started having two services a month. Grover Nicely Jr. felt the call to serve God in 2004 and was ordained at the annual conference and started alternating services with the Rev. Moore.
On Feb. 27, 2005, a dedication service was held at Oak Grove and the Rev. Grover Nicely Jr. became a full time pastor with Sunday school at 10 a.m., followed by worship at 11 a.m. Many mentors stood with Grover as he was given his charge by the Rev. Louis Dodd asking him to not take lightly his calling as it would be had for him and his wife, Ruth Deeds Nicely, as the call to God was a 24-hour, seven day a week job. He was given the right hand of fellowship.
Grover and Ruth visited the homes in the community and invited them to come worship with them and have a following of 20 to 35 persons each Sunday.
Through the years, Oak Grove has faithfully supported Camp Accovac located at Millboro which offers so much, not only to the youth, but also to adults.
Some update: In late 1985, the church board voted to tear down the present church and build a bigger one or remodel and add on to what was there. It was voted to add on and remodel. If I miss someone, it is not intentional; Danny Deeds, Jim Deeds, David Deeds, Tommy Fridley, Paul Fressler, Scott and Robert Fridley, all pitched in and a fellowship hall was built on the back, with a basement wood furnace with heat ducts to the upstairs rooms. A bathroom was built, a well dug and a septic system put in. With God's hand at work, this has become too small. A kitchen is being started in the basement area. This was completed in 1987.
Many graves in the cemetery were grown over, lack of care had allowed trees to grow too big, bushes took over many tombstones, and the cemetery was in need of some tender loving care. Many graves were just marked with the funeral home markers which were missing or could not be read. I, along with many family members, researched the records of those buried in the cemetery.
Joe Reynolds, before his retirement, was a concrete worker, one of the best. He offered to encase funeral home markers in cement. Bob Slusser at Nicely Funeral Home had his employees make me the missing 38 markers and Joe encased these in cement. We set a clean up, place markers day for Saturday, May 22, 2002 and had a big turn out. In several hours, the cemetery was cleaned, the markers placed and we had a cemetery in which to be proud.
Jim Deeds asked me if I could furnish him a book with pictures of those buried in the cemetery. It took many long hours, and much work but I did present this to him in the last week. Like many things, there are no pictures of some of the people buried here bit I was impressed with how many I did find. I hope he has that on display for you today.
I, for one, am proud to have grown up learning about God in this little church. And I am proud to say I was the first person married in this church. I am glad I married into a Christian family who believed that Sunday was God's day and you were to be in church with your family. I still follow these instructions today and have introduced my grandchildren to God through Bible school. This world would be a better place for us all if some of the old time religious had rubbed off on our "now" generation and instead of finding excuses, shopping the malls, they remembered the vows they took when they accepted God as their Savior and were in Sunday school and worship service as was God's instruction when he made this world and put man and woman in it as found in the first book of our Bibles.
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