Catlin Hollow Methodist Church Doors

October 6th - Sunday

Today is an appropriate day to post the final picture of an ongoing project of our doors and to tell the story behind the "doors".

They are indeed the original doors from the Catlin Hollow United Methodist Church that was built in 1854. The church was originally named in their charter The Methodist and Baptist Union House for the use of Methodist and Baptist Churches.  It was built by joint stocks of $10.00 per share.  The Methodist were allowed to use it half of the Sabbath each week and the Baptist used it the other half of the Sabbath.  The next week they switched times, giving each party equal time.

They elected a President - Henry Bailey; Vice President - Dexter Catlin; Treassure - Edward McInroy
Wardens were:  Cyrus Catlin and Joel Catlin

The lot the church sits on in Catlin Hollow was purchased from Cyrus and Maria  Catlin for the sum of $25.00.  It was interesting to me to find that each family purchased two pews the reason they purchased two pews, was that the women sat on one side and the men on the other side.

Moving along, it was noted that the church and land and out building which now included sheds was later deeded to the Catlin Hollow Methodist Episcopal Church for the sum of $50.00 and this happened in 1891.
At this time Rev. A.W. Decker was the minister and with his help and with the support of the members many improvements were made.  Nathan  Austin supervised the carpenter work and did much of it himself.  He and Floyd Erway replaced the low ceiling of the church with the beautiful woodwork that is still in place today.  Mrs. Nathan Austin was president of the Ladies Aide and they raised money to purchase new pews, made the addition for Sunday School rooms.  

In 1950 under the leadership of Marion C. Finch we began the preparation for the rededication of the church for the Centennial celebration.  The men of the community met to paint the church buildings.  It was a known fact none of the men wanted to paint the bell tower, finally Daddy (Burt Goodwin) said that he would paint it and I remember a huge hurrah going up as no one wanted that job, so Daddy climbed the tall ladders and up he went with the paint pail in hand and did the job and honestly it didn't seem to bother him.  Other men prepared the lawn, planted shrubs, and trees.  In 1953 the interior of the church, including the sidewalls, floors and pews were refurbished and the church stood ready for the rededication ceremony.

Just to bring back memories for local people these are a list of the people that were active members at the time of the time of the dedication:  Dwight Austin, Floy Austin, Harold Austin, Gladys Austin, Dorothy Austin, Clara Austin, Mrs. Loren Bell, William Compton, Myrtle Compton, Truman, Compton, Verna Compton, Fred Compton, Irwin Clark, Elwin Ely, Agnes Ely, Mary Ely, Daisy Ely, Addie Ely, Charles Ely, Waunita Ely, Edna Fuller, Floyd Goodwin, Delilalh Goodwin, Buirt Goodwin, Ethlyn Goodwin, Dora Gilliland, Edytha Keeney, Margaret Kimball, Doris Lyons, James Meckes, Mary Meadows Grant, Robert Mattison, Nate Niles, Edna Niles, George Paris, Mrs. George Paris, Sybil Reese, Beverly Stafford, Fred Smith, Emily Spencer, Kenneth Spencer, Barbara Spencer, Catherine  Wilcox, and James Wilson.

The many hours that I have spent stripping the paint from these doors I have remembered so many things about different people from the 20 years that I attended this church and the years of memories of these dearly departed people, I could write a book about each and every one of them, all of them are a part of who I am, because we lived with them they were a part of our family growing up.  Fred Smith was my Sunday School teacher and what a sweet person and I continued that friendship throughout our lives and he recently passed away, but I know that I will visit with him again in Heaven as I will all of these folks.

I need to tell how I came about these "doors".  I knew that some one had purchased the church.  It had been a hunting cabin, then someone had purchased it for a home, and as I drove past each day on my way to work I noticed that the doors had been taken off and placed to the side.  I kept thinking I wonder if I could buy them from him, so one night I got up enough nerve to stop and ask, and he didn't know, but perhaps.  I told him that I had the history of the church from the beginning to the end, if he would be interested in it along a picture of the original picture.  He then told me he would trade the doors for the history and the picture.  I was delighted.  The next night I took my end of the deal to him and he had some of the stained glass from the windows for me along with the doors for me.  He even delivered them to me.  I was delighted with my new treasure.  They were solid and heavy.  Krista and Steve helped me carry them to the back of the house and we propped them up and I painted them.  Yea!, I was so  happy, but every time we had a storm they would fall down, finally, I put screws in the hinges to hold them in place.  That worked for a bit, but the doors were so heavy that caused problems, so Lou has redone all of that for me along with recaulking the restoring them, so it has taken the summer to get them back into shape and I am so pleased with the final results.

Beginning to scrape the paint

Lou taking over with a new tool Brion and Janet gave him

Inside all donw

Caulking and restoring 

Getting ready to paint the inside

The church closed in the 1960's.  I was the last person to be married in the church and Rev. Finch came back to do the ceremony.  At that time the attendance was very low and there was talk of closure then.  The church was sold for $5,000. and the money was given to Whitneyville Church and was used to help built their current parsonage.  Many of the people mentioned in the above post are buried in the Catlin Hollow Cemetery.  The church building will soon be 160 years old.  The doors are sold wood and were hand made and beautifully made.  I would love to know what craftsman's hands made them.