Antioch Baptist Church was organized in 1886 and built on land donated by Thomas Green Lawson. It was the first church which my grandfather Flint Adams belonged to. Papa was baptized in his own beloved Plum Creek near the ford where the bottom fields were, and where he seined for shiners to fish with. Later, this church became my daddy's first pastorate when he was ordained to preach in 1952. The oldest grave in this cemetery is that of two-year-old Jehue Crocker in 1887. Mary Tarbutton (age 28) was buried there in 1890; J. Fred McMurtry (two years old) was buried there in 1901.

        One morning late in February of 1945, my mother arrived at the Antioch School to learn that Mrs. Ellen Cooper had passed away. Mother walked with her friend Billie Jean Jones over to the Jones' home. The girls changed into their Sunday clothes and walked back to the church, where they sang at Mrs. Cooper's funeral as Mrs. Moody, their school teacher, accompanied them at the piano.

        The little dirt road which originally meandered through the center of the cemetery and on down a little ways by the Antioch School provided us youngsters with delightful terror, especially on the occasion of visiting the Halloween Carnival held at the old schoolhouse every year. Carnival fortune-teller Mary Joy Adams was a true throwback to her Grandma Georgia, who was herself a reader of tea leaves.

        My grandparents, Flint and Georgia Adams, moved to Antioch in 1941. Papa was a shrewd farmer whose production of crops and livestock was top of the line. He taught his children work and respect. According to the custom of the times, when Mr. Flint had turned twenty-one, he worked one day for the county to receive his first poll tax. Always taking an avid interest in the community, he loaned political candidate Jack Oliver his horse and saddle to "go 'lectioneering."

        It was in the Antioch community that Papa's daddy passed away. Great grandpa Robert Hill Adams was born on Pudding Creek in Virginia and died on Plum Creek in Texas. He got up and dressed, putting on his shoes and overcoat, and shortly after midnight, crossed the back fence on that bitterly cold winter morning, January 13, 1946. They found him in the back field lying on his back like he had just lain down that way. Uncle John picked him up and brought him to the house in his arms.

        Tragedy struck the Adams family on Oct 11, 1947, when Flint Thomas Adams, Jr., was killed in an automobile accident near his job site in Galveston.  Papa Flint telegrammed his brother Jim in Silsbee of F.T.'s death, but the telegram wasn't delivered until several days after the funeral. Miss Georgia had lost her first husband and infant son to the flu epidemic. Now she gave up her firstborn Adams child.

        The trials and tribulations of clearing and cultivating new soil, carving out a living, and caring for a family were more easily embraced with a good sense of humor. When Mr. Flint flipped his green 1946 Ford pickup in a ditch, Miss Georgia reported that he climbed out the window and checked to see if his hound dogs, which had been riding in the back, were okay. He then jerked off his straw hat and began catching the gasoline which was running from the overturned vehicle. All the while, Miss Georgia was pinned upside down in her seat!

        Many memories are rooted in the lives of family members who once tromped Plum Creek. Buried near Mr. Flint and Miss Georgia are two of their grandchildren. John's son was stillborn on May 10, 1957. Bob's six-year-old son Jay Lynn ("Baby Jay") died in 1958 after stepping into the path of an oncoming car. Both my sister and I married men from the Antioch community, and most of the Antioch folks not kin to us are kin to my children or hers. My youngest brother and his family make their home in the Antioch community on the old Dennis Shillings place on which sits the pond where Miss Georgia, Uncle John, Aunt Betty, Uncle Red, and Bobbie Sue were all baptized. A 4-H Club active for many years meets in the community house located on land donated by Bob Adams, whose son Jimmy earned the Gold Star Award for the highest level of achievement in the 4-H organization. Stretch berries, which combined with sweet gum resin make the best chew of gum ever, still grow today along the cemetery fence.

                                      1 part hen shit bush
                                      2 cups of sugar

                                      Boil till it forms a thick syrup and mix with whiskey.
                                      Put into a bottle and cork.

                                      pine buds
                                      french mulberry root
                                      blackberry root
                                      allum

                                      2 cups sugar
                                      4 cups salt
                                      1/4 lb black pepper
                                      1 oz salt peter
                                      1 tablespoon soda

                                      Stir up thurly.

                The Antioch School No. 53 existed in Shelby County from 1893 until the school was annexed to Center School in 1953 under the Dormant School Law. In 1934, the teachers were Orva Jones and Dorothy Shilling. The students have been identified as front row from left, Glenn Lawson, Nolan Jones, Charles Jones, Vernon Cooper and Forest Lawson; second row, Hurst Reynolds, unidentified, Totsie Lawson, not identified, Joy Lawson, Ruth Shillings, Helen Jane Jones and Billie Jean Jones; third row, Mildred Ashberry, Joy Harris, Dorothy Lawson, and Marcelle Jones; 4th row, Billy Shillings, Calvin Harris, not identified, Holbert Lawson, Leon Waldon, Ernest Lawson Jr., Joel Lawson, Mary Louise Burns, Margie Jones, Bert Garner and Nolan Cogswell; 5th row, Orva Jones, teacher, Virginia Arie, Opal Waldon, Mildred Lawson, Eldon Jones, Marie Lawson, Helen Ashberry, Hester Williams, Ruth Lawson, and Dorothy Shilling, teacher.
                J. J. Rushing was the first recorded teacher of the Antioch School. The 1893 field notes of the school read: Beginning at James Rushing's, thence N to Huse Stephens thence in same direction to Flat Fork thence east down the Flat Fork to the Pleasant Grove line, thence S to W. W. Lawsons, thence in same direction to Plum Creek thence up Plum Creek to the Ashberry dist. line, thence NE to James Rushing's, the place of beginning.
                The first trustees of the school in 1893 were W. H. Watson, T. N. Crocker, and J. A. Tarbutton. Joseph McKee was one of the trustees in 1895.
                In 1910, school records show that J. O. Jones was paid $45 for land for the school. The teachers that year were L. O. Martin and C. A. Crocker. Miss Era Rushing was a teacher in 1912 when there were 81 pupils.
     Miss Evie Beck was the last teacher at Antioch School in 1951.
(Box 744, Mattie Dellinger, LIGHT & CHAMPION)
 

Jimmy Wayne Adams (1965)
receives the Shelby County 4-H Gold Star Award.

NOTE: Lee Oliver "Ollie" Martin and Lillie Maude Tarbutton had a daughter named Cora Lee who married Oscar "Shirril" Jones. The Martin family moved from southeastern part of AL to Shelby Co in the mid 1890's, along with extended family members the Newton family. Ollie was the son of Jefferson Daniel Martin and America Ann Newton. They are buried in on the old Martin place with daughter Lula and a few children. The cemetery book "Our Dead" listed them due to death certificates. America Ann Newton was the daughter of Francis Marion Newton "Frank" and Emily Lucrecie Windham. They are buried in the Joaquin Cemetery. The Windhams buried here in the Antioch Cemetery are from the same family but several generations back before you get to a common ancestor. -Pat Jones

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