GOSPEL PREACHER HUGO McCORD PASSES

THE GREAT DEBATE

The next major recorded event is a great debate which was held in Monett, Arkansas. You ask, what would be the significance of this to the church in Caruthersville? It is because the debaters were W.C. Wright of the Christian Church in Caruthersville and Curtis Porter of the church of Christ in Monett, Arkansas. Keep in mind that I know there was a debate between Brother Laird and a Mr. Wright of the Christian Church. There is an item in the paper in which Mr. Wright stated that he had debated two members of the church of Christ previously. One of these debates was probably with brother Laird. I am not sure of the location or the time. Remember also that brother Porter was a graduate of Monea College where brother Laird taught.

The debate propositions for the Porter/Wright debate surprised me. They were not about instrumental music and the use of missionary societies as one might expect. The following propositions were debated: First – The Scriptures teach that man is wholly mortal, and unconscious between death and resurrection. W. C. Wright affirmed. Curtis Porter denied.

Second – The Scriptures teach that those who die in disobedience to the Gospel of Christ will suffer everlasting punishment (endless torment.) Curtis Porter affirmed. W. C. Wright denied.

Third – The Scriptures teach that only regenerated people share in the resurrection of the dead. W. C. Wright affirmed. Curtis Porter denied.

I have a book entitled, Quibbles that Backfired by W. Curtis Porter is which he speaks of his debate with Mr. Wright. He states:

“I met W. C. Wright of the Christian Church in a debate in Monett, Arkansas, where I now live, in 1921. While he was a preacher of the Christian church, he had gone beyond their ordinary doctrine, and had embraced the doctrine of the Christidelphians. He had become a materialist in concept. He held to the idea of no endless punishment for the wicked, and no resurrection for the unbeliever. Their position is, and his position was, as he had expressed it, that when an unbeliever dies, he is just as we sometimes say a long time dead. There will be no resurrection for him. He affirmed during that debate that only regenerated people will share in the resurrection of the dead. He defined regenerated people as those who had believed in the Lord, repented of their sins, confessed their faith in Christ, and have been baptized into him. Nobody else is regenerated today, they are God’s people and they have no part, anybody but them, in the resurrection. And in our discussion of it, he introduced a statement by Paul in 1 Cor. 15, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive,” and he defined as “in Christ” those who had been baptized into 9 Christ. He preached that in Christ all shall be made alive. Nobody shall be made alive except those that are in Christ. Therefore, nobody raised from the dead except God’s people: nobody but Christians. Only those “in Christ” will be made alive. I said in responding to it, “I know that the term in Christ sometimes refers to those who are Christians, but not always. In this place, I am certain that it does not. For not only did Paul say that “in Christ shall all be made alive, but he said that “as in Adam, all die.” As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. And if “in Christ” means only Christians, “in Adam” means only sinners. They are used in contrast. If in Christ means nobody will be raised except Christians, then those who die in Adam means nobody will die except alive sinners. And upon that basis then, we would have to reach the conclusion that those who are raised will be those who never died, and not one of those who died will even be raised.” With this reply by brother Porter, Mr. Wright’s quibble backfired.

There is a report of this debate in the Pemiscot-Argus on August 7, 1921. It is written by a B. B. Goodman of Memphis who shall become an important part of the history of the church in Caruthersville. He said, “The speakers conducted themselves in a high class gentlemanly way, as they should. No personalities engaged in by either. This debate was conducted on a high plane and much good was done and everyone said they received instruction that would be beneficial. Curtis Porter asked W. C. Wright in every session to repeat the debate in Caruthersville. Mr. Wright did not answer Mr. Porter in this question until the third day. Mr. Wright refused to repeat the debate in Caruthersville, because the church he is pastor of asked him not to meet brother Porter or anyone in Caruthersville in debate, and in respect to their wishes he refused to have the debate in Caruthersville. The debate was to be held in the Christian church of Monett, but at the last moment they refused the use of the building. Other church houses were sought, but refused. The picture show house was arranged for, but as soon as this was known to the church people, they brought pressure to bear on the management of the show house and he refused the house, so the debate was held in a grove about one and half miles from Monett, an ideal location. Large crowds were in attendance and the best of order prevailed. Some estimate that the attendance at each session was as much as one thousand. On Wednesday of the debate in one of Mr. Wright’s speeches he denounced in no uncertain tones the people of Monett who would not allow the debate to be held in Monett, saying that they would not allow a full, fair and honest investigation of the word of God, calling them “over pious sapsuckers, peckerwoods, etc.” The Monett, Ark., debate is now history. Mr. Wright, your brethren in Caruthersville supported you to debate the above propositions in Monett, Ark. In as much as they thus endorse your teachings, why should you and they refuse to have fair, honest and honorable investigation of these propositions at Caruthersville? Again we ask you to meet the issue in debate. A few months ago, through the paper published at Piggott, Ark, you threw the gauntlet at every man’s feet. Why should you go to the bushes so soon?”

In the tent meeting of May, 1921, brother Paisley had preached against the false doctrine of no eternal hell. Now the Christian church preacher had been met in debate on the subject but in Monett, Arkansas rather than in Caruthersville. Brother B. B. Goodman wrote this report of the debate and challenged Mr. Wright to debate brother Porter in Caruthersville. On August 11, Mr. Wright replied and refused to debate. Such a debate would no doubt have helped the church here, but it was not to be.

TWO EVANGELISTIC TOOLS OF THE EARLY 1900’S

In His book Standing For The Faith, a History of the Churches of Christ in Tennessee, 10 John R. Williams brother William Woodson relates how local churches were often established in the early 1900’s. “The primary means was by evangelistic efforts either in a tent in a new area, or a building or hired hall. Interested churches sent preachers across the state and these men preached at out of the way places as well as at large centers of population. Each church was encouraged to win converts. A small band would be reached in a tent meeting. They would decide to establish a church, make an appeal for help, and soon a new meetinghouse would be announced, and the cycle would begin again.”

Brother Earl West wrote that it was soon discovered that owning a tent was a comparatively inexpensive way of doing evangelistic work. Tent meetings provided a vital instrument for evangelizing at the turn of the century. But hand in hand with tent meeting were debates. “No activity…was more exciting or generally more fruitful than the brotherhood’s religious debates.” They were also an evangelistic tool of the church for many converts were made from denominationalism by means of hearing the truth defeat error in debate.

Both of these means, tent meetings and debates, played a prominent role in the re-establishing of the church in Caruthersville in 1921 and 1922.

THE BAIRDS MOVE TO CARUTHERSVILLE

Sometime during this period, C. T. and Maggie Baird, whom many still remember, moved to Caruthersville. Their daughter says they obeyed the gospel in Lake County, TN at Jones Chapel under the preaching of John R. Williams. It is said that “If it had not been for him, they would not have known about the church.” They later moved to Caruthersville. Brother Baird is listed as one of the elders in the church in 1962.

According to the 1962 church directory, in 1922 the church started meeting in private homes. It says that the only ones in attendance were Mr. and Mrs. C.T. Baird, Charles McCord and family (which includes Hugo, but it is interesting that his mother is not named, probably because she was not yet a member of the church), Mrs. Ella B. Hunt (of whom I have found nothing out) and Mrs. Cassie Mangrum who had been baptized after the 1921 tent meeting.

C.T. Baird’s daughter, Gladys Evans, has said that the McCord family was already here when the Bairds arrived in town.

THE McCORDS MOVE HERE ALSO

So far, the only member of the local church we have found is Cassie Watkins Mangrum in May of 1921 unless it be Dr. Word, the dentist back in 1910. But at some point a family moved to Caruthersville by the name of McCord. I suspect it may have been around 1921 or 1922.

Hugo McCord’s mother had taken him as a little boy to Sunday School at the Methodist church in New Albany, Mississippi, where his grandfather was a staunch member. Later they moved to Holly Springs and attended the Methodist church there.

Hugo’s father attended Georgia Robertson College in Henderson TN (which later became FHU) along with a fellow student by the name of N. B. Hardeman. It is believed that he obeyed the gospel during this time. However, his wife did not. Hugo’s father was named Charles S. McCord. He was a business man, who held Coca Cola franchises in Fort Scott, Kansas and Caruthersville. According to brother West, there was no New Testament church in Caruthersville at that time and that brother Charles McCord sought to establish one. You recall the earnest plea in the paper after the 1921 tent meeting to establish the church on “a firm basis” and that “the members are earnestly requested to be present at the place designated next Sunday morning.” The two men mentioned in connection with that meeting was the preacher, F. L. Paisley and B. B. Goodman who wrote that article about the debate in the paper.

B. B. GOODMAN FINDS CHARLES McCORD

Brother West wrote that brother Charles McCord sought to establish the church here and that the opportunity came when B. B. Goodman, a traveling salesman for the Stratton-Warren Hardware Company of Memphis, TN approached him. Brother Goodman was a member of the Union Avenue church in Memphis. He had searched for a congregation in Caruthersville but had found none. I surmise that brother Goodman was looking for that congregation which they had started the previous year, but couldn’t find it meeting anywhere. It is not inconceivable that he may have had something to do with the tent meeting with his preacher, J. W. Dunn back in 1911. Nevertheless, when brother Goodman learned that Charles McCord was a member of the church, he sought him out. The two of them worked together to establish a New Testament church here. Brother Goodman asked brother McCord to rent a lot, assuring him that Union Avenue church would send a tent, chairs, and songbooks as well as a preacher and a song leader for a gospel meeting.

THE 1922 TENT MEETING

L.L. Briggance

Brother West wrote in another book that the congregation in Memphis was begun in the same way, through tent meetings. After securing financial help, a tent was bought for $61.50 in the Spring of 1905 and used to build up the church there. By late summer, the tent was debt-free. Brother B.B. Goodman had seen this method work in Memphis and was determined to utilize it in Caruthersville. Brother West records the year of this tent meeting as 1923. However the paper clearly identifies the time as June 16, 1922.

Brother L. L. Briggance, a Bible teacher at what had now become Freed-Hardeman College, conducted this first meeting. The paper said, “Briggance, a minister of the Christian persuasion from Henderson College, Tennessee is holding a series of Gospel meetings in a tent on the James Moors lots next to the Majestic Hotel.” This was the same place where the tent meeting was held the previous year. “Large crowds are attending and considerable interest is being manifested. The song service is conducted by a Mr. Holland of Greenfield, Tenn. and is an enjoyable feature of the services. Briggance is a fluent speaker and holds the attention of his audience from start to finish.”

On June 16, 1922, the tent meeting ended. The paper recorded three additions to the church: Mrs. Ruby Clifton, J. H. Simmons and Hugo McCord, small son of Mr. And Mrs. C. S. McCord. It said, “These candidates were baptized Wednesday morning at the Caruthersville Natatorium, which, by the way, is an excellent place for such rites.” The church was slowly growing and was helping to produce within its ranks, a well-known gospel preacher. Brother West recorded that in the tent meeting with brother Briggance, Hugo McCord heard his first gospel sermon and learned that the church was not a denomination and that sprinkling was not baptism. Hugo was twelve at the time. He made the good confession and was baptized in the city swimming pool (called the Natatorium) which was directly across the street from the house where they lived. James Mott tells me that this pool was at the corner of 5th and Ferguson. Interestingly, this would have been about a block away from where the first church building had stood at 604 West Sixth Street.

GRATITUDE FOR B. B. GOODMAN

Brother McCord was grateful for the rest of his life for brother B. B. Goodman who paved the way for him and his mother to enter the practice of New Testament Christianity. This brother Goodman from the Union Avenue church in Memphis, must have been quite a man. From the tent meetings which he organized using Union Avenue resources, to the Monett debate and his challenges to the Christian church preacher in the local paper for a debate in Caruthersville, brother Goodman obviously felt strongly about establishing and building up the church here. We need men with his zeal and attitude today.

HUGO McCORD’S FIRST SERMONS HERE AT CARUTHERSVILLE

In a private letter in which brother McCord wrote in December of 2000, brother McCord wrote, “After brother Brigance baptized me in the city swimming pool, the next Sunday the small group had the Lord’s Supper in Sister Hunt’s home. Soon they transferred to the Smith Parlor, and from there in time to a room above Sawyers’ Pharmacy (called the Odd Fellows Hall), and there some patient people listened as I attempted to preach my first sermon!”

Hugo McCord (1952)

In August of 1928, seventeen year old Hugo preached his first sermons while encouraged by his family and the other members of the small congregation. He spoke on “Christian worship” and “The Conversion of Cornelius.” Hugo decided that he would become a gospel preacher. The only school he knew of was the Old Georgia Robertson College in Henderson, TN, where his father attended. At that time, brother Briggance had left to teach in Murray, Ky., A.G. Freed had resigned to work with David Lipscomb College, and N. B. Hardeman had left to visit the Holy Land. The school was being led by Claude Hall and C. P. Rolland. N. B. Hardeman later returned to take up the presidency of the school.

Hugo’s desire to go to Henderson was so great, that he left Caruthersville High School in 1928 to spend his senior year at the high school at Freed-Hardeman. That year, 1928- 1929, was the last time that Freed-Hardeman conducted High School.

Brother Hugo was first invited to preach at the church in Booneville, Mississippi on March 24, 1929. Later, when another brother had to cancel a Gospel Meeting for the Beech Hill church in Tippah County MS, brother Hugo was asked to fill in. His second Gospel Meeting was held near here in Holland, Missouri on June 15-30, 1930. He prepared by memorizing one of N.B. Hardeman’s sermons in his first volume of the famous Tabernacle Sermons at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. After this first sermon was preached, an elder announced to the crowd that this young nineteen year old preacher should be helped to attend college. He asked the people to walk up and place their gifts upon a table. Later the Coleman Avenue church in Memphis had him come over each week and preach for them.

THE BAPTISM OF MRS. CHARLES McCORD

Brother Hugo told of the happiness in his family when his mother was baptized. “My mother’s love and respect for her godly Methodist parents held her back several years from obeying the gospel. But one night, lying awake in bed, she aroused my father, saying, “I cannot read about 13 Sawyer’s Pharmacy in 1910 my church in the Bible. I want to be baptized, and I want running water!” Although the city swimming pool wherein Hugo had been immersed was just across the street from their house, it was not “running water.” The Mississippi River was only a half mile away from their house, but the current was running too fast to baptize in it. It was too dangerous. So the next morning, they drove some 16 miles to a bayou, near Steele, Missouri where running water was found. It was there that Hugo’s mother was baptized for the remission of her sins (Acts 2:38).

Joy Broderick remarked to me that she remembered her family picking up brother and sister McCord and bringing them to church at 11th and Carleton.

MEETING ABOVE SAWYER’S PHARMACY

SAWYER’S PHARMACY

Hazel Manley remembers meeting in the Odd Fellows Hall above Sawyer’s Pharmacy. Gladys Baird Evans, daughter of C.T. Baird, attended with her husband, Arthur, who was converted from the Baptist church and baptized in the Mississippi River. Others who attended during this time were M/M C. T. Baird, Eric and Eleanor Taylor, Charlie and Belle Watson and son James, and Glenn and Laura Figgins. Gladys Evans said that one of the preachers during that time was William Davis Medearis. Brother Medearis began preaching in 1939. In Preachers of Today, 1952, his biographical sketch does not mention located work in Caruthersvile. However, it does mention his being on the radio in Caruthersville. Gladys Evans believes that brother Medearis lived in Kingsport, TN. He attended Harding and Freed-Hardeman Colleges during the 1930’s, and it is believed that he drove in and preached for the church periodically during this time.

CHURCH BUILDINGS

By the time the church moved to the frame building on the lot at 11th and Carleton in 1940, there were only about 25 members. In addition to the names of those mentioned by Hazel Manley above, Marie Tripplet adds the names of Mrs. Hemphill, The J. J. Richardsons, M.M Dycus, M/M/ Sayre, M/M Townsend, M/M Jones, and M/M Watkins and their daughters and perhaps others. The frame building was moved to the back of the lot and replaced with a new building in 1948. In 1952 an educational wing was added. The old frame building from 1940 was moved to the corner of 20th and Rufus for the use of the Eastside congregation. The building is still at that location and is being occupied by a family. By the time of the 1962 church directory, the church had prospered to around 300 members.

When the congregation outgrew the facilities at 11th and Carlton, plans were made to obtain property which would allow for future growth. Construction on the building on Hwy U was begun on October 11, 1964. The church moved in 1965 to that building on Hwy U.

In 2003, the church was made an offer from the Jesus Name Tabernacle United Pentecostal Church to purchase the Hwy U property. Since the building was aging and in need of constant repairs and was much greater in size that the church’s present needs, the decision was made to sell it and build a new building on Playground Road. Work began in May of 2003. On December 1, 2003, the church moved out of the Hwy U building and met for three weeks at the American Legion Hall. On Christmas Eve of 2003, we gave our first tours of the new building and met in it for the first time on the last Sunday of the year.