UNITED PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CHURCH
SARDIS PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CHURCH
SARDIS was a Primitive
Baptist Church and the community surrounding was about one and a half
miles north of Evant near Parsley Crossing on the Cowhouse
at the old Evant Highway. Sardis Primitive Baptist Church was
formed 10 June, 1876, near Murphree Cemetery in the home of Samuel
M. and Phebe (Nations) Murphree. Charter members were W.
M. West, M. W. Dumas, R. Burks. Samuel M. Murphree, F. B. Brown, A. Burks,
Elizabeth West, Nancy Dumas, R. N. Jeffries, B. E. Lee, W. R. Chambers, J.
B. Dumas, J. C. Caudle, Jasper Chambers, Pheba Murphree, Susan Brown,
Polly Ann Dumas, Rebecca Lee, Rebecca Jeffrey, Margaret H. Lee, and
Elizabeth Dumas.
Pastors have included: Elder W. S. Harris, Elder.
Albert Perry Koen, Elder, J. A. Goodwin, and Elder Len Dalton. Clerks
of Sardis Church have included: W. M. West, W. B. Hedgpeth,
Lawrence Koen, and E. B. Hedgpeth. Services continued to be
held in the Murphree home for a time before moving to the Little
Cowhouse School near Little Cowhouse
Cemetery. (Perhaps about
1911 when the Little Cowhouse School and Leesville School
merged into Union School.) Sardis Church next moved to Blue
Ridge before moving to Parsley Crossing 9 ½ miles south of Hamilton.
The Sardis Primitive Baptist Church was moved (building and
congregation) into Hamilton in 1946 and relocated on North Rice
Street (HWY 281) across the street from the IOOF Cemetery. A
fellowship building was added on the east side of the auditorium. After
1995 the two Primitive Baptist churches in Hamilton
consolidated at the location of Sardis and the name was changed to United
Primitive Baptist Church.
Click to see larger view.
Elder Len Dalton