Wartrace Church of Christ marks centennial

Wartrace Church of Christ is celebrating its centennial with a special service and fellowship dinner Sunday. The church recently doubled its size with an addition that includes a fellowship hall. (T-G Photo by Mary Reeves) [Order this photo]

"We're really celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Wartrace Church of Christ building," said Don Gallagher, who has preached at the church since 1997. "It was built in 1909. We're celebrating the past -- and the future."

The congregation has grown in recent years and much of that growth has been an influx of younger couples -- and their babies.

Don Gallagher, who preaches at the Wartrace Church of Christ, asked artist Sue Fuss, a member of the congregation, to paint this mural of the River Jordan as part of the church's renovation and centennial celebration. (T-G Photo by Mary Reeves) [Order this photo]

New building

"We wanted a nice place to get together," said Gallagher, "This year, we built a fellowship hall."

The new fellowship hall, which just about doubles the size of the original building, includes a new, open kitchen. The addition also provides space for more classrooms and allowed one of the old classrooms to be converted into a nursery for all those babies. A one-way mirror allows the children to see their parents during the service. The pews have been refinished, new flooring has been laid, and a mural of the River Jordan painted by church member Sue Fuss now decorates the wall behind the baptistry.

Sunday, the future those babies and their young parents represent will be addressed by the past, in the form of Bob Brewer, at the 11 a.m. service.

"Brother Brewer used to preach here in the mid to late '70s," said Gallagher.

After the service, there will be a luncheon in the new fellowship hall.

"We sent out invitations to people who have gone here in the past and may have moved away," said Gallagher. "It's also kind of a homecoming."

Old days

The church has an interesting history. According to a history compiled by Wartrace's Jerry Cook, the congregation was started by two women, Fannie Lou Moore and her younger sister, Tappie. Their father, James Knox Moore, was a Confederate soldier. In fact, he was the last Confederate veteran to die in Bedford County, back in 1941. Moore was an elder in the Presbyterian church, but his six surviving children became members of the Christian Church, which is what the Churches of Christ were called at that time. Cook speculates that the family's connection to the Lipscomb family in Franklin County -- prominent in the development of the Churches of Christ -- may have contributed to their choice.

That choice was made before the Moore family moved to Wartrace, at the time a bustling railroad town. There were no churches of their chosen denomination there, although attempts had been made in the past to establish one by various preachers and other men.

Where the men failed, the women succeeded. Fannie and Tappie organized the church in October 1900, and in November, J. D. Floyd of Flat Creek came to preach to the new congregation at the town hall. He preached three sermons and baptized four people.

They had no building yet, Cook writes, but they met for services and Sunday school once a month.

By 1906, the Christian Churches and the Churches of Christ became separate entities, divided over the use of musical instruments in church services. While the Wartrace church went by the name of Christian Church in the beginning, its method of worship made it a Church of Christ.

"There's no evidence to show any musical instrument ever being used on the worship service at Wartrace," Cook writes.

Today's building

For many years, the congregation continued to meet at the town hall or in the front room of the old limestone jail, which can still be seen in Wartrace. But the congregation was growing and with it, the need for a larger gathering place -- a permanent one.

William Washington Gant donated a half-acre lot on Bridgeview Street on Sept. 18, 1909. On Oct. 21, according to the archives of the Shelbyville Gazette, it was finished and ready for dedication. At the time, the church had a steeple, but no one today seems to know what happened to it.