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By Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
Hi Everybody….
Just wanted to share a recent experience with you all. My curiosity just got the best of me today.
I needed to travel to Columbus, Georgia to take care of some personal business.
So, I left Roanoke around 9:30 in the morning in the pour-down rain. On my way to Columbus, I was thinking to myself about all the times I’d wanted to go to Oak Bowery, and just bum around and check out the area. I was day-dreaming about finding Liberty C.M.E. Church, so I’d know how to get there whenever I decided to go visit on a Sunday morning.
So, once I got done in Columbus, what did I decide to do? I set my GPS to take me to Opelika via Highway 280 West. From there, I would be traveling to 431 toward LaFayette and Roanoke.
By the time I hit 280, it was raining. And by the time, I hit 431 it was raining cats and dogs. But, I would not be deterred. I had so longed for this opportunity, and I was not going to be denied. Would you believe I stood out there in a pour down rain, and snapped this photo?
Once I got to the Oak Bowery Community, one of the first things I did was snapped a photo with my phone camera of the Historic Marker there on 431 in front of the United Methodist Church. This marker gives a lot of information and history about the founding of Oak Bowery, that really corresponds to the history written by Beatrice and Ynez.
But I wasn’t finished. I wanted to find Liberty C.M.E. Church… So, I left the Historic Marker, and headed back toward Opelika, and took the first right. But, I saw a church but it wasn’t Liberty…. Turns out it was St. Luke. But, I saw some very interesting things there….
I passed on by the church and eventually encountered a very old cemetery which was fenced off. I so wanted to get out of the car, and walk the cemetery. But, It was raining so hard, I didn’t get out of the car, but wondered, maybe if some of my ancestors might would possibly be in that cemetery?
Realizing that the church I passed was not Liberty C.M.E., I pulled off the side of the road, and set my G.P.S. to take me there. I was rerouted back the other direction, and across the highway U.S. 431 heading East. I went down a LLLLLOOOONG Dirt Road. The road was soooooo long, until at times I became fearful and started to turn back, but by Grace of God, I kept on going. Really didn’t see anything on the road…. But, finally I did come to some kind of enterprise on the left, that looked like some kind of lumber-yard. Maybe that wasn’t what I was seeing…. But it gave me the courage to continue. It seems like that road was at least 7 or 8 miles long. But, I kept going. FINALLY, I came to a crossroad and what was sitting directly in front of me? YOU GOT IT, Liberty C.M.E. Church. I had to snap a picture, because according to Bea and Ynez’s history, this was our family’s original church.
There on the church billboard, was the name Reverend Lorin Manley, just as Reverend Shelia Crabb had told me. I felt like I had struck gold! But I wasn’t satisfied yet. There was a Cemetery across the road, and I so wanted to walk the cemetery and see the names on the graves. But it was raining entirely too hard to get out. Yet, I had discovered the church I’ve been wanting to find for so long. Though I didn’t get out of the car, the ground was solid enough for me to drive through without messing anything up.
Satisfied that I had met my goal of many months, I decided to head toward home. This time my GPS told me to turn left there in front of the church… I obeyed. After about 2 miles, I was back on 431 headed north — toward home, feeling so fulfilled that I had found the community where my ancestors worshiped (and probably many still do) for many many years.
Finding Liberty C.M.E. makes me whole in many many ways. It helps me to understand why my mother’s family and our cousins in Anniston, The Barrow Family, were such STAUNCH METHODISTS, and made their way to the Smith Tabernacle C.M.E. Church. Although my mother left Oak Bowery at around 5 years of age, by 1948, when she married my dad, she was still a member of the C.M.E. Church as evidenced by her certificate of marriage to my father, which showed that they were married in the CME parsonage by a Reverend C. Leeth. After my mom met my father, and they made their home in Roanoke, Alabama, they raised me in the Methodist Church (not sure which group it was, but eventually our church became a United Methodist Church. During his lifetime, my father demanded that I bury him on “Methodist Soil” a demand which I honored to the letter.
Methodism is a choice I have made for myself and my family based on my family’s history. Understanding that my religious beliefs were established a very long time ago my my foreparents makes me more confident than ever that it is the right choice for me. They were very blessed and prospered as members of the Methodist church. And if it was good enough my Wilkie and Hattie Lee Peters Clark, then it’s good enough for me.
Home for now…. But, I shall return.