Siloam Springs Seventh-day Adventist Church

A Brief History of Siloam Springs, Arkansas

Siloam Springs Church Organized in 1886

During the summer of 1885, James Watson Scoles, a very talented musician and singer, and Elder D. A. Wellman, held a series of tent meetings in Cincinnati, south of Siloam Springs. As a result, forty people signed a covenant to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Wood, 1885a). Following this, six weeks of meetings were held in Siloam Springs, where Elder Joseph Garner Wood joined James W. Scoles. The congregations were large and attentive and much of the time no more than half of the audience could be seated inside the tent. These meetings resulted in forty-three signing the Sabbath covenant (Wood, 1885b). In the spring of 1886, James W. Scoles, met with the church that had been established in Cincinnati, then went to Siloam Springs to prepare a little company for organization. Elder Joseph G. Wood joined him and six more were baptized, so on March 20, 1886, Elder Wood organized the Siloam Springs church with eleven members. Before Elder Wood left, six more were added to the church. Scoles next traveled to the church at Robinson, where two more took their stand for the Sabbath. In the summer of 1886, Elder J. G. Wood again held tent meetings in Siloam Springs. Interest there was increased by the efforts of a Disciples of Christ minister who was against the Sabbath, the law of God, and the Adventists. He told his audience to go and hear Wood and they would have some fun over the controversy. That night Elder Wood had a full tent and many who could not get in, including the Disciples minister, although he left early. Wood baptized six new converts at the close of the meetings (Wood, 1886).

Siloam Springs Church Reorganized in 1967

The Siloam Springs church was reorganized as the fiftieth church in our conference on July 15, 1967, following an evangelistic effort held in the Community Hall in Siloam Springs by Elder Don Houghton. In addition to new members won through the effort, some Gentry members transferred to Siloam Springs, making a charter membership of fifty-five. The newly reorganized church rented the Pentecostal Holiness church as a temporary place of worship, and began at once to study the possibility of building their own church home. A plot of three acres of land was purchased just off the bypass that carries both east-west and north-south traffic around Siloam Springs.

A New Church in 1969

A building fund was started on the day the church was organized, but by the end of 1968, the feeling was growing strong that members should borrow, if necessary, in order that construction might start at once rather than wait three or four years or longer for a sufficient amount to accumulate in the building fund. Construction work began early in 1969. The church was fortunate to have among its members a few experienced builders, and with the help of others not so skilled, they did most of the work. Some of these men worked, not just days, but weeks and even months, without turning in any bill to the church treasurer. The result was the Siloam Springs church, which would seat about 260 people comfortably in the sanctuary, besides rooms for its Sabbath school departments. The first meeting in the new building was October 18, 1969 (Wilson, 1969).

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Siloam Springs church on Waukesha Road in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

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Citations

Hearthstone Legacy Publications. (2012-2017). My Genealogy Hound. Retrieved from mygenealogyhound.com.

Wilson, J. O. (1969, Dec. 27). Southwestern Union Record, p. 9.

Wood, J. G. (1885a, Aug. 4). Review and Herald, p. 491.

Wood, J. G. and Scoles, J. W. (1885b, Sep. 22). Ibid., p. 604.

Ibid. (1886, Apr. 13). p. 236.