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I now pass to the churches of olden time. In the first settlements in the Choctaw Nation by the whites there were no churches. Services were held, however, in farm houses by the primitive Baptist ministers and the old time Methodist. These pious ministers traveled through the country, visiting farm houses and making appointments to preach. Word would be sent to the neighbors and the people far and near would come to the services. Cedar Creek Church was the first Methodist Church built in East Mississippi and in Clarke Co. It was built in 1835, and stood on the NE 1/4 of the NW 1/4, Sec. 7, T. 1, R. 18E. I was then a boy and helped to hand boards to cover it. Prom all information I can get, I am the only living person that helped to build the church. Cedar Creek Church was added to the old Winchester Circuit and was the most northerly church of the circuit. James McLeod was the first itinerant minister on this circuit. He preached to the people at this church once a month and was engaged in his ministerial services all the time, only resting one day in each week. McLeod's family was located near the Frost Bridge in Wayne Co. and was supplied with all the necessaries of life by the people of that section. The neighboring people used to vie with each other as to who could do the most for the preacher's family. There is no question that the preacher's family fared better than any other in the country. In a word they were supplied with everything in the way of a living and clothing. Two hundred dollars was all that the preacher received for his ministerial services. It now takes several thousand dollars to pay the preachers to do what McLeod did for $200. Quite a change has been worked up in the fast times of money and "upper ten preachers". Elim Baptist Church, whose pastor in the year of 1840 was Elisha Sumerale, stood in Sec 5, T. 2, R. 17E., and was, as were all the other Baptist Churches of that day and time, of the primitive order. After 1840 Matthew Wolf preached at this church as long as he was able to travel. Their ministers received nothing for their services. It is a noticable fact in this day and time that the Missionary Baptist and Missionary Methodist have religated these old time Christian churches to the rear, and they cut no figure in the Christian religion of this day and time. 10 Quite a change in the religious time of 65 years ago and now. There is a cause for this change, and many of the young people as well as some of the middle aged know nothing of it. well do I remember when this change was made. It took place in the thirties. There came from New England a lot of Missionary Baptist and Methodist preachers full of fanaticism and the wild hunt for money. They succeeded in the disruption and division of the old time churches and set up the foreign missionary cause. These fanatical preachers were the recipients of the foreign missionaries work in China. This movement took place in the thirties and is kept up to the present time. If the truth was known, in my opinion, no less than two hundred millions of dollars of the peoples' money have been paid out to Christianize China, and in the face of all the ministerial work there, outside of murderous war on these people by the Republican party for political purposes, China is China today. It is surprising to me that when Jesus Christ and his apostles failed to christianize this people, that a set of Hew England fanatical preachers would attempt to do that which Christ himself failed to do. It is not so surprising after all when it is well known that the character of New England is to monopolize and control the balance of the country, even if they have to wage a murderous war under a false pretense on an innocent people who would dare to protect and defend their constitutional rights. Well do I remember along in the thirties, forties and up to the fifties when this country had the best government the world ever saw. There was no cause why it should not have advanced to a high degree of honor and fame. It was not my purpose in the outset of this manuscript to refer to politics, but at this point I will have to do so that I may be able to show what I witnessed during the opening of the thirties. History gives an account of some of the happenings in which New England controlled the African slave trade and also the kidnapping of African negroes. When it was ascertained that negro labor was not profitable in the northern states it was abandoned and their negroes brought South and sold to Southern farmers and planters. New York was the last state that disposed of her negroes, in 1829. Then it was that the Abolition party was started, headed by Thad Stevens, Wendell 11
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