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Wayne County Churches

Wayne County Churches

Arrington Prairie M.B. Church in 2010, Photo Courtesy of Michael J. Von Gebel

Arrington Prairie/Dickeyville History.

Arrington Prairie Southern Missionary Baptist Church was organized in 1849 with the help of an arm extended from the Ellis Mound church. The first place of worship was the old Catesville schoolhouse somewhere south of Glen Talbert's home in Berry township, which was at that time in Arrington township: perhaps the reason for its name.
   The early history of the church is brief because old records were lost. In 1877 while J. T. Dickey was the clerk of the church, he lost his home to fire and all church records previous to that date went up in flames. So an accurate account of the charter members cannot be told but tradition has handed down names of early members such as; Talbert, Dalton, Cates, Harris, Jones, Manahan, Linder, Richards, Dawson, Mahan and Denton.
   At the time the present site for the old building here was acquired, David Dickey was an active member of this church. He had moved here during the Civil War from Look Out Mountain, Georgia, where he led in organizing the Baptist Church there in 1849. He was the grandfather of Otis Fenton, one of our late Mt. Erie (now Greater Wabash) Association pastors. History tells us that David Dickey gave timber for the first church building here, and had it prepared and stacked on the ground before he died in April 1867. His was the first grave in the new cemetery. His tombstone may be seen there north of the old church site. It serves as a date for the building which was erected very soon after his death. A second evedence of that date is an old store bill for wrought iron nails used for the church. It was dated 1868. Charley Warren found the bill when he was removing the old Harlan house which formerly housed a general store. The bill was among others owned by the merchant. The nails were possibly used for building the old seats, some of which are in our basement now.
   The present history of the church began in 1877 after the old records were burned. Some of the early pastor's names that we do not have a record of which years that they served are as follows:
   T. W. Dickey, Joseph Overstreet, Art Teel, Bro. Vickers, W. J. Anderson, H. C. Victor, J. T. Dickey, A. C. Belangee, E. Dulanee, Ambros Mayberry, George Hall, B. H. McCann, Isom Simpson, T. H. Dickey and Branum Hall.

The following was taken from the History of Wayne County, Illinois.
Page 264.
   The Dickeyville Baptist Church was built by the Missionary Baptists about 1868, and is located on Section 30, Town 1 south, Range 6 east.

Submitted by Betty Beeson

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