In the old wooden church, there was a piano.  It was nothing like the one we have now, but it would play. Mama and us kids would go 30 minutes to an hour before church and clean it good. This was before people were paid to clean the church.  Mama and the family did it for free. If we were going to have a dinner, or something, we went and made sure the area outside was clear and clean. Food was really served from the ground. A cloth was spread on the ground but the area all around was clean. This was before hog wire was stretched between two trees and the food placed on the wire.

Anyway, I was sweeping the floor and all of a sudden the piano began to make a racket. These boys, Horace Anderson and his friend, were across the dirt road in the woods watching to see what was going to happen. Needless to say, I threw my broom down and got out of there ‘cause I thought, well I didn’t know what was going on. Well, what happened was these boys had placed frogs under the cover of the keys and closed the lid. When the frogs moved, they hit the keys making the piano play as if someone was playing, but no one was there! It was just the frogs. And I wasn’t there either!

Mr. Nolan Brown would drive a mule and wagons to pick up people who wanted to go to church in the winter. He had a bucket of coals sitting on something and quilts for us to wrap up in - to keep us comfortable. This was possibly in the brush harbor days, but certainly in the 1940’s.

Pastor Sol Price and Nolan Brown preached in the wooden church. (Nolan Brown was a substitute for the preacher.)

Tennie Collins, Sara Jane Cox, and another lady came to visit us. We lived where Wilfred Collins lives in a shotgun house. I’d had a dream that I told my parents about. I had dreamed I’d gone to heaven on a mule and wagon. I was very sick and back then the only way to get around was a mule and wagon. I heard my parents talking one night. Mom told daddy, “we’d better get in church ‘cause God is about to take her a little girl.”  I had diabetes really bad. It was so bad that when I went to the bathroom, you could scrape up sugar crystals.

One night, Sol Price was preaching at the church. He didn’t know anything about my condition. But that night he preached and said, “There’s a child here that’s been sick. She’s in worse shape than you think she is.”  My mom made arrangements to get me up there. He prayed for me. That night that man was used by God to do something for me.

From that day on I never showed any signs of diabetes. I could eat or drink anything I wanted.

Another person who often used of God was Sister Legear, who went up and down these roads on a mule and wagon. Before we left church this night, she had told me, “God’s going to use you tonight.  You obey God.” We left church and went to some Hartzog’s home. There were seven of us that went. I was a teenage girl at the time, but before I knew what I'd done, I’d crawled up in bed with that woman and put my hands on her. God brought that woman out of that bed.

Our church has always been noted for getting results when we pray.

When our church moved out of the brush arbor to grove meetings, the people would meet early. The men would go one direction into the woods and the women, what you’d call missionaries today, would go the other direction into the woods. They would be there about an hour praying. The men and women would come shouting through the woods to the church and when you got there, you could believe that God was going to do something.

Also, when the women were helping get money to pay off the loan for building the new church in approximately 1962 they sold a quilt with the names of the members of the church. Any family member of the church who wanted to participate could purchase a square with one name per square for 10 cents per square. After the quilt was made, it was sold and the proceeds went to Springfield. (Church records state that $59.00 was received from the hard work of 16 women.)

Those lamps that had been used in the paper tabernacle, then placed in the wooden church for lighting, were sold for $5.00 when electricity came to The Crossroads, and then to the church.

Some of the other things that happened:

Henry Hammack and his boys would sometimes come and play and sing gospel songs on Sunday morning. Those men could sure sing just like the Hammack men of today

Tom Jenkins used to lead Sacred Harp Sings.

Anner Lou Perkins Hall would get out and ride her bicycle to different homes to sell flavorings or get donations, or whatever was needed, to help raise money for the church.