Heritage Column for June 30, 2005
By Fred Anderson
I never pass through the southern end of Augusta County that I do not think of Greenville Baptist Church and two strong personalities from the past and present: Mother Linda and Father Francis.
Malinda C. and William H. Peyton were key lay leaders of First Baptist Church in Staunton and later moved to a country home in the small village of Greenville and helped develop a new church there in 1884.
Their homes in Staunton and in the country were considered “an asylum for Baptist preachers.” George Boardman Taylor, the pioneer Southern Baptist missionary to Italy, was pastor in Staunton; and upon learning of William Peyton's death in 1891, he sent condolences from Rome: “Brother and Sister Peyton could not have been kinder to me and mine had we been their own nearest kin. He was the most generous man I have ever known-generous almost to a fault. He made me feel that anything he had was at my disposition if I needed it. One of his many gifts to me was a valuable riding horse when I went into the army as chaplain. He loved the cause of God and the house of God and was always a sympathetic and inspiring hearer of the preached Word.”
“Mother Linda,” as she was widely-known, also possessed a “self-sacrificing spirit.” When she died in 1907, she was extolled as “the highest type of Christian womanhood.” The prominent preacher William E. Hatcher often enjoyed the hospitality of the Peytons. On one occasion he was met at the railroad depot by Mother Linda, who cracked a whip over the heads of the horses and drove the buggy herself. Hatcher wrote about one visit, declaring that he was “petted and pampered, chided and upbraided by Mother Linda.”
As a visiting preacher from Richmond, he described a visit with the Peytons: “We talked of the past; we read the word of Christ together; we sang hymns, old and new; we knelt at the same altar; we asked our Father to spare us for other meetings on the earth and communed wonderingly about that other meeting on the green hills far away beyond this scene of strife and death.”
About 50 years after the passing of Mother Linda, another personality came to Greenville. Francis Harold Funk was 22 years old, “young and green,” as he admits, when he became pastor of Greenville Baptist Church in June 1955. He had been filling in for a pastor who had not returned and finally someone said: “Let's either call this man or let him go.” A vote was taken and Funk had become pastor.
He also was single, but he changed his status the next summer when he married the church pianist at Grottoes Baptist Church, where he had served as a summer pastor. Audrey Hogge Funk also spent the better part of the next 50 years playing the piano at Greenville while her husband served a half-century as pastor. The couple has one child, Lisa, whose entire growing-up years were at Greenville Church.
There was a time when Francis Funk almost left Greenville. About 20 years ago, when he was 55, he considered leaving. “The people came to me and asked for me to re-consider. I realized that I had made the wrong decision. They wanted to give me a raise and I said no because I didn't want people to think that it had anything to do with my staying.” He also admits that there were plenty of Mondays when he was ready to leave.
But he stayed. In the course of 50 years, he has seen changes in the area, including the construction of Interstate 81; has been shepherd to fully two generations; and counseled, married and buried scores of people. He led the church to construct a fellowship hall addition with educational space, which was paid for in short order. He still resides in the church's parsonage.
“Some of the same people who were here in '55 are still with us,” says the pastor. “There also are people here who were teenagers then and now are grandparents.” It has been a long time since '55 when Ike was in the White House, Davy Crockett's coonskin hats were the rage and Rock 'n Roll made the oldsters fuss.
Francis Funk is a great-grandson of Timothy Funk, the celebrated singing preacher of Singer's Glen Baptist Church in nearby Rockingham County. Timothy's father, Joseph, was called “the father of song in Northern Virginia.” For years they were associated with a singing school which was held in the Glen and the rise of shaped notes.
Francis admits that he cannot read music but rightly boasts that his voice is good and strong. At least once he followed in his forebear's lead and sang a solo in church. He would be the last person on earth to want to be known as “Father Francis” but, like “Mother Linda” of old, he has possessed a sweet and self-sacrificing spirit which has permeated Augusta County. Asked if he ever thought he would have stayed so long in one pastorate he responded: “No. I never dreamed I would be here this long. Not in my wildest imagination!” The people of Greenville are glad that he remained.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies.