She was born 90 summers ago about a country mile or two from Harmony Grove Baptist Church in Middlesex County; and for her home church’s 150th anniversary, Frances Stiff Appel of Richmond wanted to return to Harmony Village. She had moved to Richmond long ago to attend high school; and in the interval she had attended Averett College, worked, married and had a family. She was an active clubwoman, churchwoman and denominational leader. Now, she was a great-grandmother many times over.
Fred Anderson
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As a newborn, she had been brought to Harmony Grove on a pillow. She might have wished that she still had that pillow in order to endure an old-fashioned all-day meetin’ which the two-hour service proved to become.
For the occasion, she did what church folks used to do. She wore her best Sunday-go-to-meetin’ clothes. She even wore one of her favorite pins, one which was in the shape of calla lilies, the flowers she carried as a bride. She had been so excited over the thought of going down in the country that she hardly slept. She was up with the morning sun and ready for the journey to the river.
There was a time when the land kissed by the Rappahannock was anything but easy to reach from Richmond. When Frances was a baby, the choices of travel were limited. A person could take a train from Richmond to Norfolk and take a boat from Norfolk up the Rappahannock. Some even went all the way to Baltimore and then back down the Bay. Another possibility was by train to Fredericksburg and then by steamer down the river. It also was possible to take the York River Road to West Point, cross the Mattaponi by ferry and drive 25 miles to Harmony Village.
Today, Frances simply got in an air-conditioned automobile and rode on a paved highway from her door to the church door and most of the route was by Interstate. Every turn in the road was familiar. She and her husband, Wesley, had traveled it thousands of times on their journeys back to visit her relatives and then for many years to enjoy visits at their river home. The house was built on the same land which she had explored as a girl. It was on a little cove where she had fished. The only switching she ever received as a young girl was for going down to the river.
The river home was sold in recent years. It had been the scene of many outings for her family and friends and the members of her Sunday school class in Richmond. There are still some cousins living in the neck of the woods around Harmony but there was no need to call upon them. They would all be at Harmony Grove for the anniversary service and dinner-on-the-grounds.
The parking lot was filling up early. Tents had been erected to cover the tables full of anniversary memorabilia. A stiff breeze was blowing and some of the menfolks had to use their own weight to hold down the tents.
There were greeters everywhere and people were calling out names. There were handshakes and hugs. Some were waiting outside in anticipation of seeing Ed Harrow ride up on a horse, reminiscent of the old-time preachers who came by horseback. Others were scurrying to the sanctuary to find a seat before the place was full.
Frances Appel
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By the time the service began, every seat was taken downstairs, to the rear and up in the gallery. Chairs were placed down the aisle. It would be a big day at Harmony Grove. Frances sat in the middle but she occasionally looked over to the side where her family used to sit in years gone by. She had placed a large container of flowers at the front of the church as a memorial to her family. There would be time afterwards to use the flowers to decorate the graves of parents and siblings.
It was a service packed full. There were greetings from eight churches: mother Zoar, grandmother Hermitage, great-grandmother Glebe Landing and daughter churches, including an African-American congregation.
Even the pastor of a church which had formed from Harmony Grove through an unhappy split was present to bring greetings. When he alluded to the late unpleasantness, the Harmony Grove pastor, Roger Collier, came forward and embraced the guest, saying that it was all ancient history. “We are all brothers and sisters in Christ.” There was nothing but harmony in the Grove that anniversary Sunday in June.
There was much more: choir anthem, bell ringers, little children’s choir, big children’s choir, reminiscences from former pastors, Scripture reading, prayers, hymns and a two-preacher dual sermon. And then it was time to eat. Harmony Grove women were smart. They served the plates and the endless line speedily was given fried chicken, ham biscuits, potato salad and deviled eggs. An anniversary cake stood ready for slicing.
Table talk was full of old friends catching each other up on what has been going on in their lives. Frances was concerned that she might not know many people; but there were those who called her by her girlhood nickname and who exchanged greetings.
There was time after the meal to see the exhibits which the church’s historian, Myrtle Blake Faulkner, had arranged. She has been coming to Harmony Grove since she was 4 years old and she accepted Christ there at age 9. She played the church’s organ for 25 years and she has done just about everything else which needed to be done. She is the collective memory of the congregation. She has been assembling historical information on the various families connected with the church. She has arranged displays and recognized treasures in what some folks would think were ordinary things like a tuning fork or an offering basket.
There was time to join the pastor and church folks for the planting of young oak trees. Somebody said that it would take 50 years before those trees matured. There were enough children running around who would grow up to enjoy that shade. And 50 years from now, their parents would be the seniors of the church.
And so it has been for 150 years. Generations come and mature and provide for the new generations. Many will take that asphalt highway and leave; but like Frances Appel, they will return to Harmony Grove in due season.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.