History of Hickory Grove Chapel
Early 1963, a number of members of the First Church of the Nazarene in El Dorado, Arkansas, began to discuss forming a new church on the northwest side of El Dorado.
On Sunday night, June 23, 1963, several of these people met at the home of Don and Maxine Cameron. After prayer and discussion, it was decided to go home and pray much for Gods will to be made known and then to meet again on Wednesday night at the home of Farnum and Bonnie Harrell to see what to do.
On Wednesday night, more people came. After prayer and discussion it was decided to pray and seek the will of the Lord and to meet again at Farnums house on Sunday morning for more discussion.
Sunday morning, it was decided to appoint a committee to see if any land was available in the community. Everyone was much in prayer for Gods will.
We met again on the next Wednesday night. The had found a place on Agnes Road - 1 ½ acres of land with a 4 room house. The place was owned by Tom Harrell and he wanted $4,000.00 with $1,000 down and $60.00 a month until the remainder was paid. We voted to take his offer and took up a collections right then. There were ten (10) families present. Each family had $100.00 in cash. (We knew that God was in this because we were poor people and none of us ever had a $100.00 extra.) So we gave the money and the next week bought the property. The ten (10) mens names were listed as trustees on the deed. Sam Starrett, B. R. (Brantley) Sinclair, Cecil Harrell, Farnum W. Harrell, S. G. (Sam) Sinclair, Donald R. Cameron, and R. L. (Bob) Sinclair. The deed is recorded in the Union Count Court House and was paid in full December 4, 1967.
The night that we took up the collection for the down payment, we discussed the building of a church and decided to see about tent to worship in until the building itself could be built. The following week, we bought a WWII Army tent from Mike Yoder for $28.
We met for worship the first time in the tent on July 7, 1963 with 22 present.
We called Royal Shultz to be out pastor. He asked for a few weeks to find someone to take over his church in Little Rock, AR. He was a member of the BMC (Bible Missionary Conference). We determined to be non-denominational. He did not want to leave his denomination but was willing to come preach for us. We found out later that to stay in good with his superiors, he promised to bring our church into that denomination. He held prayer meeting for us on Thursday nights. Rev. Yates from Homer, LA. Also a member if BMC preached for us on Sunday morning and Sunday night. This arrangement was in effect until November of 1963 at which time Rev. Shultz came full time.
With lots of hard work, much prayer, and the blessing of the Lord, we had our first service in the new building on Mothers Day of 1964. The church was not finished and we were using secondhand theater seats for our pews.
We named our church Hickory Grove Chapel partly because it had so many hickory trees around it and partly because we didn't want any denominational ties. We felt that we could reach more lost people that way.
In the spring of 1965, when Rev. Shultz realized that we were not going to go into the BMC, he left. Some of the people went back to the Church of the Nazarene, some dropped by the wayside, but a few of us stayed on.
There was a little over four years before we had a full-time preacher. We had someone preach for us whenever we could get them. When we didn't have a preacher we sang songs and read scripture - our policy was to read one whole chapter - comment on it as we felt led. In that time we read the entire New Testament.
Those who spoke to us were: Rusty Pedigo, Rodney Parnell, Tommy Morton, Pete Kelley, Edd Williams, Coye Lyons, Bill Platt, Gus McMillian, and I'm sure there were others that I have forgotten.
In September of 1970, Fred Dumas called me and said that God had called him to preach and could he come preach for us. I told him to come on and that after we heard him the church would decide. He came and preached until July 1971 at which time he went into the Baptist denomination and was ordained a Baptist minister at Midway Baptist Church.
In the summer of 1972, we called Don Davis to be our pastor. He was with us until mid-1974 when he went to live in Georgia where he was from originally. Not too long after his return home, his father died from cancer.
In August of 1974, we called Vernon Cornish of Indiana as our pastor. He stayed until the end of April of 1975.
Don Davis returned as pastor and stayed until November of 1978.
Roy Perdue started teaching a Bible class on Thursday nights in 1976 and was still teaching when Don left. After Don left, we called Roy to be our pastor...he is still with us today.
In 1976, we bought new pews from Fordyce Furniture and Cabinet Co. at a cost of $1,476.45. We also put carpet down the aisles and across the front to the entire church.
On March 7, 1979, we bought a piano from Parker's Music at a cost of $1,545.00.
In 1981, we started our fellowship hall and finished it in 1983.
This history has been written by Lypell Harrell, mostly from memory, although some of the dates are in notes I have kept over the years.