Mount Olive Church of Christ

by

Fred McCaleb

Mt. Olive is located in the western part of Fayette County, Al. on highway 107
about 10 northwest of Fayette, Al. It was begun before 1900 by Bert Barnes who
invited preachers to preach to his neighbors in the yard of his home. Later
they held meetings in "brush arbors." The first old Mt. Olive church building
was a wood framed building with home made wooden benches. It was built about
1900, and the first elders of the church were Bert Barnes and Taylor Fowler.
The charter members were as follows: Mr. & Mrs. Bert Barnes, Mr. and Mrs. Jim
Mobley, Mr. and Mrs. Jimmie Collins, Mr. and Mrs.Doc Hyder, Mr. and Mrs. Hardy
Housh, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor Fowler, a Harper family, a Dobbs family and Mr. and
Mrs. Murry V. Stewart. Some of the older preachers of this church were Jeremiah
Randolph, Joe Holbrooks, R.L. Taylor, Jimmie Woods, preacher Stansberry and
others.
The present building is a brick building located on highway 107. It is about a
mile from the old wooden Mt. Olive church building which was located on a
gravel road that ran from where the present building is on east by Shady Grove
Church and to present county road 51 on the east end. The present (1995) brick
building is the second building built on the new site. The first meeting held
in the building at the new site began July 4, 1947. The elders in 1959 were
Carey C. Nichols, who also preached, and Lou Allen Fowler, a preacher, who was
a son on one of the first elders, Taylor Fowler.

My dad (H MCCaleb) and I attended Mt. Olive in the 1930s. My dad was a long time
member there, attending from 1931 until his death in 1958. We walked to church
on Sundays over the gravel road. Bert Barns was an outstanding member. He was
old and walked with the help of a walking cane. He would point the cane at one
as he explained the scriptures and argued the Bible. My best summer wearing
apparel was a white pair of pants and white shirt. Vistus Fowler, the oldest
daughter of L.A. Fowler, taught a Sunday School class under an oak tree. She
was also a Fayette County school teacher. During my attendance at Mt. Olive,
the two main preachers were Lou Allen Fowler and Carey Nichols. One would
preach one Sunday and the other the next. These preachers continued to do this
all their lives until they died in the 1970s. I don't know if the church ever
paid them anything very much. Lou Allen had a large family, mostly girls. Both
Lou Allen and Carey worked hard in the fields and at odd jobs they could pick
up to help support their families. Sometimes they got to run a "big meeting" at
one of the other churches in Fayette or surrounding counties and earned maybe
five or ten dollars for the service. They loved to preach and try to explain
the gospel. Sometimes another neighboring preacher of Fayette County, or some
other place, would come in to run a big "summer meeting" in August when the
crops were laid by. The house was lit by kerosene burning lamps for the night
services. The lamps were suspended from the overhead ceiling, and they were of
a little fancier brand and had bigger globes than the simple ones used in the
simple home of the time. Electricity had come to Fayette County by the time the
church was moved to highway 107. Bert Barnes generally kept the preachers that
ran the "big meetings." He lived across the road and down the hill from the
church. He and the preachers liked to talk religion. At that time families
would invite you to go home with them, eat dinner, and talk.
I, Fred McCaleb, became a member of the church at Mt. Olive about 1934 during
one of the summer "big meetings." I have forgotten who was running the meeting,
but I think it was Lou Allen Fowler. I was baptised at the Dubose pond. The
country churches had no indoor baptismal's at that time. Baptism's were mostly in
a nearby river.
Fred McCaleb revised edition