New Year's Edition

" Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." --- Lamentations 3:22-23

Birthdays since we let met: Chris Rawls - Dec. 25, Tommy Broughton - Dec. 25, Renee Smith and George Abshere - Dec. 28, Norma McCoy, Betty Grace, Michelle Weaver, James Gill and Alexis Whitlock - Dec. 30, Mateo Martindale - Jan. 1, Aletha Broughton - Jan. 2, Martha Welker - Jan. 3, Charlotte Abshere & Xavier Henderson - Jan. 4, Delbert Moring - Jan. 5, Billy Wilson - Jan. 6, Deborah Huddleston and Doris Kee - Jan. 8, Ricky Sanders - Jan. 9

Christmas has come and gone. Happy 2014.
Changes at the West Saline Community Center: with the advent of a new regime, all building locks have been changed after the alleged theft of some $45 in new locks from the office... a room for which only two officers had the padlock key.  Currently, until the outside locks have been changed, all outside doors are chained.  Room renters who need access to their storage rooms should contact President Nikki Warner at 870-884-0664 or Secretary/Treasurer LaVetrice Gill at 352-8527 between 7am and 6pm. A meeting last Sunday afternoon left it undetermined if storage renters will be issued new passkeys. Sorry folks.

Some other changes probably coming down the pipe: people reserving the WSCC for events will probably have to pay a cleaning deposit up front to be refunded after the event should the meeting space be deemed properly cleaned. More on that after the next board meeting, which is Jan. 12 at 2pm.

Written by Belinda Brown, a well-known Cleveland County historian and posted online at: http://argenweb.net/cleveland/index.html  concerning Hebron Methodist Church:
"The Methodist of this community began meeting in the 1860's in the Gravestown School building, which was located about one mile east of the present location of Hebron Methodist Church.
In 1884, Amanda Urquhart and Mrs. Kate Fraser gave land for the church and cemetery. Mrs. Urquart died in 1887, Mrs. Fraser in 1908. 
No one knows where the name "Hebron" originated.  It is imagined that the founding fathers of the church selected the name from the Bible.  There is no record of the community being called "Hebron" before the organization of the church.
The first Hebron methodist Church was built in 1884. The original church building bruned in May 1917. While the church building was being rebuilt, the congregation met in a brush arbor constructed in front of where the church now stands.
After crops were layed by that summer of 1917, 3 men of the church got up at 3 a.m. and made a trip by wagon to Warren. Southern Lumber Co. gave them 3 big loads of lumber to rebuild the church. The men were Fred Childress, Robert Merrill and Evan Marks.  During the summer months, the men of the community met and built the new church, with the ladies bringing food to serve. The new building was near enough completed by cold weather that fall to begin having services in it.
The first church had two front doors, with three rows of seats, two isles. The new building has double front doors with one isle in the center of the church. The present church has had additions of 3 Sunday School rooms, then a fellowship room with a kitchen and 2 bathrooms. later a metal building was purchased and put behind the fellowship room for more class rooms.  A concrete porch, with cover has also been added. Siding has been put on the outside of the church. Inside, paneling has been added over the beaded ceiling on the walls. 
A very inspirational tent meeting was remembers as being held around 1920. A large tent was set up on the grounds of the church, with a large crowd of people coming on horseback and by wagon.
Hebron was originally part of the New Edinburg Circuit. Later was taken into the Kingsland Circuit. L.C. Gatlin was pastor of the church when it burned. Some of the other pastors that were remembered were: Hugh Revely, H.A. F. Ault, John Simpson, W.T. Bone, W.D. Golden, C.R. Andrews, Harold Scott, Richard Poss, W.C. Almstead, James Beck, Edgar Outlaw, L.C. Wax, Robert Johnson, Elam Turner, William Paul Woolley. The last two each served 10 years.
Some of the first members of Hebron Methodist Church remembered were: Mrs. Kate Fraser, Mrs. Amanda Marks Urquhart, Sampson Rogers, John Jones Mitchell, J.L. Mitchell, Frank Owens, Ellen Jane Mitchell, Will Owens, Helen Rogers, Sarah Graves, J.E. Davis, Anna Lee Marks, Amelia Marks, Melissa Marrill, Kathryn Tolfree Marks, William Wolf, John W. Lavillian, Susan Carson Morgan, Jackson Hamaker, Fannie Marks, H.S. Harris, Arkansas Rogers, S.M. Owens, Maggie Graves and L.A. Childress."
And so the wheel of time turns. Go Eagles.