A Brief History of Huntsville, Arkansas
The Work Begins
Adventist work in Madison County began with a series of evangelistic meetings held in St. Paul. A pioneer in this work was Elder H. Clay Griffin and his assistant, Mont Kinzer (Madison, 1984). A small Sabbath school group made up of isolated believers began meeting in Huntsville in 1948 (Westermeyer, 1948).
Huntsville Church Organized in 1963
On April 20, 1963, a twenty-two member church was organized by I. M. Evans and P. I. Nosworthy. Among the members who formed the nucleus of this church were Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Beldsoe, and Mrs. J. Conley (Beeler, 1996), George Cook, the Delwin Dunford family, Nettie Allred, and Carol and Sarah Wickham (Madison, 1984). Their first baptism was held four months later, with a couple to whom Dr. and Mrs. Ernest Wiswell had brought the message. At the constituency meeting held on April 26, 1964, the Huntsville Church was voted into the conference sisterhood of churches (Minutes, 1964). They were meeting in a rented church but by early 1968, land had been purchased on which to build a church (Record, 1968). The new church was dedicated on May 20, 1981 (Madison, 1981).
Citations
(1964, Apr. 26). Executive Committee Minutes. Shreveport, LA: Arkansas-Louisiana Conference of SDA.
(1968, Apr. 13). Southwestern Union Record, p. 8.
(1977, Aug. 4). New Sign at Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Madison County Record, p. 9.
(1981, May 28). Seventh-day Adventist Church Dedication. Ibid., p. 14.
(1984, Apr. 19). Adventists Schedule Homecoming. Ibid., p. 9.
Beeler, Charles R. (1996). A History of Seventh-day Adventists in Arkansas and Louisiana 1888-1996. Keene: Arkansas-Louisiana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, p. 140.
Westermeyer, W. H. (1948, Jun. 30). Ibid., p. 3.
How it all Began 