‘There’s so much to carry forward’
SILVER POINT, Tenn. — At first glance, it looked like…
Beautiful is the floor for those who sing good news
A happy ending for a former Christian Chronicle story.
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When I saw Ted Parks’ photos from the West End Silver Point Church of Christ story, I probably spent more time staring at the floor than most of you did.
There’s a reason for that.
When I visited the historic house of worship in late 2021, the floor was in pretty bad shape — faded and warped in places. The annual reunion there had ceased due to the pandemic. The 106-year-old building was frozen in time. A dusty banner over the pulpit welcomed folks to the 2019 gathering.
Harold Carr, chair of the 24th annual homecoming reunion of the West End Silver Point Church of Christ, leads a group during a Saturday song fest.
Sister Evelyn Buck gave me a tour of the facility, once the hub of a thriving Black community in the segregated South, complete with cottage industries, a Church of Christ and a preacher training school established by G.P. Bowser that was the forerunner of the Nashville Christian Institute.
Sister Buck was a delight. At 90, she was sharp as a tack, recalling the days she spent in the small building, which served as her elementary school as well as her church’s meeting place. She had photos, copies of historical documents and programs from previous reunions, all carefully stored in Zip Lock bags in her cottage home, just down the street from the Silver Point building.
My favorite moment was when she recalled the baptism of Walter, one of her five children. She watched with tears in her eyes.
“My youngest son was sitting beside me,” she said. “He looked up at me and said, ‘Mom, don’t cry. He can swim.’”
I wrote a feature on sister Buck, “Last of the ‘living water,” that ran in the February 2022 issue.
In late September, I got a letter from Rebecca Landes in Arkansas. She wanted to alert me about a “Prayer for Our Nation” effort on Oct. 1 — sadly, we didn’t get to do anything on that — and to tell me about her quest to find a copy of a hymnal called “Choice Selections” mentioned in Edward Robinson’s book, “Hard-Fighting Soldiers: A History of African American Churches of Christ.”
Sitting on her front porch in the Middle Tennessee community of Silver Point, Evelyn Buck talks about her years growing up in the West End Church of Christ.
Robinson wrote that no known copies of the hymnal had survived. Sister Landes and her husband, Doelas, took that as a challenge.
They started with the nearby 9th Street Church of Christ in Fort Smith, Ark. It was one of the last places where Bowser did ministry work. Larry Bishop, 9th Street’s minister, talked to the older members but couldn’t find a copy of the hymnal.
The Landeses contacted the Combs Street Church of Christ in Fayetteville, Ark., and church members in Memphis, Tenn. They tried the Blackton Church of Christ in east Arkansas and the historic Jackson Street Church of Christ in Nashville, Tenn. No luck there, either.
Finally, after reading our story on sister Buck, they found her number and gave her a call.
“Why, I have a copy right here,” she told them. “It is in a Zip Lock bag in my bookcase. Yes, and if you come here, I will let you hold it.”
Sister Buck’s daughter made a copy of the hymnal for the Landeses. They also talked about the Silver Point reunion, which hadn’t happened for two years and might be hindered this year since the church’s floor was not safe to be walked on.
“Doelas tried to find someone to help repair it,” Rebecca Landes said in her letter. “That was difficult, long distance. Eventually, a local man said he would see to it.”
The reunion happened — outside and inside the building with its new floor. The Landeses got a special invitation and attended. I’m thrilled that Ted, one of our dedicated correspondents, was there, too.
I’m so thankful for the Landeses’ letter. “Beautiful are the feet” (Isaiah 52:7 and Romans 10:15) of the postal worker who brought that good news.
Sister Buck’s hymnal, titled “Choice Selection: New Choice Selection Song Book,” was printed in Fort Smith and is likely one of the last editions produced, Doelas Landes said. Many of the songs include the name of the person who “selected” them for the hymnal. Sadly, there are words only, no music, for many of the songs.
A historical marker outside the West End Silver Point Church of Christ.
“I have asked Mrs. Buck to consider singing the songs for recording,” he said. “Hopefully, she will do this and it will add much value to the hymnal.”
May I suggest a recording studio?
It has a beautiful floor.
ERIK TRYGGESTAD is president and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact [email protected].
