Recollections of Mrs. Gertie Denton Collins
Miss Cyndi Reed
interviewed Mrs. Collins, 90 years young, and Mrs. Jean Reed transcribed the
audiotape. A copy is available at the East Texas Oral
History Archive located at the LaGrone Family History Center on N.
Shelby St.
in Carthage, Texas.
I remember very
well going to church at Cedar Grove. We
had two rows of pews and a big aisle down the middle of it. In the middle, we had a big wood stove that
would keep us warm in the wintertime. My
dad would always take a load of wood to use in the church’s stove. We went all the time to church and to Sunday
school. At one time we didn’t have any
Sunday school down there, so we all went to the Methodist
Church. Everybody went to the same church for Sunday
school, just like a community thing. We
would have church in the afternoon when we didn’t have a full-time
preacher. The preacher from Central
would come down and preach in the afternoon.
It was just a little church. In
fact, part of the original church was still there until they moved it away just
a couple of months ago. Remember how the
ceiling was curved in the corners? I always thought that was pretty.
Instead of
revivals, we had Protracted Meetings that would last a week at a time. In the evenings before the church time of the
revivals we would have a prayer meeting.
Different ages, you know, would be in different prayer meetings. There were a bunch of us little girls, say
about nine or ten, that were led by Mrs. Emma
Marshall. Mrs. Emma would lead us in
prayer and discussion. During the
previous day, we would have all tried to read as many chapters as we could, and
then we would gather together to pray about it and to tell just how many
chapters that we had read. So, we would
just sit out in a little circle, beside the church, on the grass and recite
verses and pray.
I was baptized when I was
twelve. I was baptized in what we call
the “wash hole”. It was a water hole
where we all went swimming down in the creek.
Brother Willingham was the pastor and he baptized me. It seems that I
was sitting at home, thinking about my age.
I remembered that Jesus was twelve when he went to the temple, and it
stuck in my mind. It struck me as
beautiful.
Then I remember Christmas time at
the church. We always had a big
Christmas tree. My daddy was the one
chosen to get it. He would bring it in a
wagon or something, you know. It was
great big and touched the top of the church.
And for decorations, I don’t remember much that we had other than
candles. We had little candles on a
clipper, and we would clip that on the limbs of the tree. It would light it all over. And of course, everybody who took a present
would get a present. Christmas time is a
good time to remember.
Note: "Miss Gertie" passed away in May 2001, a few weeks after
giving this interview.
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