STRANGERS HOME, Ark. (AP) - Evelyn Tiffee desperately wanted to save her church.
Strangers Home Methodist Church had been in operation for generations in rural Lawrence County. The local population dwindled, and no matter how hard Tiffee tried, there were not enough congregants. The church was forced to shut its doors almost 35 years ago.
Now the building there may be demolished. It won’t happen without a fight from Tiffee’s adopted granddaughter, Gail Berndt.
“My grandmother is gone. … It’s all I have left of her,” Berndt said.
Berndt wants to get the church onto the National Register of Historic Places. But there will be obstacles.
The original church burned along with a cache of documents, including dates as to when the church was constructed. Locals think the current building was built in the 1930s, but no one knows for sure.
What they do know is the building is steeped in history.
Tiffee’s daughter, Gail McGonigal, attended the church as a young child. The 63-year-old remembers weddings, pot luck dinners, Christmas celebrations and other events at the church.
She got married in the church and had the funeral services for both her parents there. In the adjacent cemetery, generations of her family are interred.
“I went here for many years,” she said.
Nearly two decades after the church closed, Berndt decided to honor her grandmother by reopening it in 2000. She found a preacher and tried to rebuild the congregation, The Jonesboro Sun (https://bit.ly/1xCOMFS ) reports.
It remained open for about a year. The preacher got sick, and the church was forced to close again. Weddings, funerals and other social gatherings were still held there until a few years ago.
The church floor is now badly damaged. The once vibrant pews are covered with dust. The pulpit is silent.
During a visit to the church Thursday with a Sun reporter, one of Berndt’s family members found a letter sent to her at the church. It was sent in 2002.
Berndt said she was told the Strangers Home Association, which governs the church and cemetery, wants to tear down the church to make room for more cemetery plots.
McGonical said she’s heard those rumors in the past, and nothing came of them. But one of these days the church will be demolished if something isn’t done, she added.
Berndt has been engaged on a fact-finding mission. She hopes to save the little country church and the memories she made there so many years ago.
She knows a church service will never be held there again. Her goal is to preserve a little piece of history.
“I want it to be left alone,” she said.
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Information from: The Jonesboro Sun, https://www.jonesborosun.com
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