Family and Friends

Church is a very important factor in my life. I literally was brought up in the shadow of the church. Both of my parents' families were active within the church throughout the years even before my birth. Having been a member of the same church for over sixty years, it's difficult to think about maybe choosing a church closer to where I live here in my golden years. The trip down the highway to attend the activities of the church have become difficult. There is no one to ride with me or to drive when necessary.

My memories of First Church go back - way back - to the log building that held many revivals. The rows of benches had no backs to lean upon and the sermons were long. When it came time to place something else there in its spot my Uncle, Oscar Deal, bought the log building; moved it back on to the field behind the church and it became two apartments. My family lived in it for many years once it became apartments. It was later moved again to a lot several blocks further away from the church. This became the place where he and Aunt Etta lived until moving up the road to the little town of Hildebran. Both sides of my family were in the Church of God when it first began in Hickory. My mother was one of the Harmony Five that sang at many of the Camp Meetings and Song Fests around the area as well as sometimes traveling to other states. My Father and his two brothers played Saxophones in the church band. Each had a horn in a different key and Dad played the tenor sax.

Different members of my family have taken an active roll in the church and its activities through the years. (Aunt) Ossie Setzer was Sunday School Teacher, Sunday School Superintendent, a Youth Counselor, and served on the Church Council where she was the secretary for a long time. She helped write the first published history of the Church along with Vernon Lafone. Many pictures of the early church were included in this book. After retirement from teaching in public schools 47 years, she dedicate eleven years of her time and talents in the church office. She was a lifetime member of the WOCG, a Keenager, and in the church Singles group.

Her brother, Arnold Setzer, was active in the church affairs until he moved to Anderson, Indiana, to work with our church college, where he worked until he retired. Oscar and Archie Deal, and sisters, Elsie, Desola, and Edna have all been lifelong members of the Hickory Church. Their sister, Grace, returned to it for a short time in recent years and Maye, one of the twins, attended the Church of God in Highpoint, N.C.


There was a time when a large white two story wooden Dormitory stood beside the church. Having been used for campmeetings in earlier years, it was turned into Apartments and rented for a number of years after the Campmeeting moved. One of the music directors, John Holman and his wife lived in it while he worked with the church. Irene Deese and her family lived in it for a short time and often you would find that apartment overflowing with youth of the church. The streets were not paved around the church and few were paved in the area. There was not a sidewalk, but instead a deep gully of a ditch to cross from the road. In rainy weather cars had a time getting up the hill beside the church because of the red mud and deep ruts. Galooshas lined the entrance way where they were parked until after the service. They were needed to trek through the muck and mire.

John Lackey, one of our pastors, and his family lived beside my grandparents before the Parsonage was build near the church. He designed and had the parsonage build and for close to sixty years other pastors followed him by living there. His children, Donna and Linford, were the age of my brother and myself. We spent a lot of time together as we grew up and got ourselves into a few predicaments along the way. On one such occasion, Linford put his mother and father's bed mattress (a fairly new one at that!) out on the lawn under the windows of their two story house (the parents were gone.) We took turns jumping out the second floor window at the end of the hallway onto it. Much to our horror, we were caught in the act jumping by them! I also remember they had one of the first television sets in the community. My brother and I rode to High School with them each morning, and while we waited for their breakfast to end we would get to watch the morning television show. But, Rev. Lackey would turn it off every time commercials came on that he thought were not suitable to be seen by Christians. Needless to note that more time was spent with the television warming up for the picture to return than watching the program itself.

Rev. Lackey was instrumental in our having Camp Sain. The very first time the swimming pool was used it was for a baptism. I don’t remember who the folks were, but I do remember that the water was icy cold! Of course we all remember just how icy it stayed since it was pure spring water, and how the green algae grew, making the bottom of the pool slick as glass.

When the pool was rebuilt and widened, my husband, Gordon, and son, Scott, were there to help with the laying of the special brick liner. Scott was about eleven and was not being too careful as he acted as the gofer for those working. He somehow stepped back and fell off the scaffold which was about eight to ten feet high. He had a bad headache and a huge bump on the back of his head. Elizabeth Plants (wife of our pastor at that time) put him next to a tree out of the rays of the hot sun and watched him while the men worked that afternoon. Several years later Scott went on to rebuild one of the bridges over the creek, work on the boys sleeping building at the camp. He also marked off the lines for the parking lot with the yellow paint to denote some dangerous areas at church and did some mulching and rocks around the church as part of his Eagle Scout work. He got his Eagle Scout Award at the Church in 1976. (Incidentally, he made the first yellow stripes on the "bumps" in the parking lot where his Aunt Ossie had tripped and broken her arm on one. Later, she fell at the door of the church breaking her hip. Oh well, I may as well add that she fell and broke her nose in the swimming pool many years earlier!)

A music director and his wife, Sheldon and Esther Cline, were employed during my junior and high school years. He was especially gifted with musical arranging and drew large crowds to our church to hear the choir productions he led. Before he came to Hickory, the only organ we had was a pump organ which took a talent of pumping the peddles creating the air for playing as the keys were played. Most of our music was the piano since few had mastered playing the pump organ. Esther Cline brought her electric Hammond Organ with full foot pedals and all, to Hickory and used it at the church until we bought our very first electric organ. I took piano and organ lessons from her during their stay in Hickory. Some of my lessons were paid for by babysitting with their two daughters.

Sheldon went up the road to Camp Sain and gathered rocks from the creekbed by the carloads to build the huge chimney on the house which he built next to Clarence Howard, not too far from the church.

That first organ we purchased was not a "full" sized organ. It was small in comparison to an average sized organ and only had a small section of foot pedals. The organ now in use was donated by Aunt Edna Deal Biggs in memory of her parents (my grandparents.) Several summers back, a thunderstorm ruined that organ and it was replaced with a newer, better version and rededicated to her parents (my grandparents.)

When Martin Schutjer and his family came to Hickory Church he also had children near my age. I would stay with his daughter. Marlys, at the parsonage when he went to a revival or to Anderson, Indiana, for meetings. His son, Clifford, would play the musical saw for church sometimes using a regular bow required for playing the violin. Rev. Schutjer built the pulpit furniture and altar in the old sanctuary. He loved working with wood and the furniture was made as a token of that love. I was married by him in 1959, in the older sancuary which is now the spot of the Grow Room. Shortly after he left, came the Blevins family. I especially remember his wife painting the wall of the ladies’ restroom. It was located in the basement of the church and was quite dark. The wall painting seemed to brighten up the room so much ... During his time in Hickory, the "new" sanctuary was built. Then during the time we had Pastor Plants, who followed Pastor Blevins, the old church was torn away to make room for the building as it is today.

Many changes have taken place with the church and life as it used to be, in my lifetime. Gone are the days when we caught a city bus and rode up to the Bolicks’ home place (for ten cents), walked through the pasture, under the barbed wire and through the woods to get to Camp Sain. Or, when the cows shared the Camp with us, and we had to open and close the pasture gate to come and go when driving into the camp. Many times we would get caught in a summer storm and end up having to push the cars up the muddy hill to get out of the pasture. Back then, we had our summer camps there for the surrounding churches - with no lights, only a pump that we primed each time it was used after sitting unused for awhile. Only wooden shutters covered the windows of the main building where the girls slept. Two rows of lofts were built across one end of the building and we had a choice of being on the floor, or up on one of the lofts for our pallets of quilts to sleep upon. Shutters on windows were not a convenience the boys shared. They had only a three-sided shed-like affair with lofts built in it to sleep! Irene Deese (then) Perkins had the largest black frying pan you have ever seen for cooking breakfast! We had many morning breakfasts in the early morning chilly dew outdoors packed around the open fireplace that started with the scrambled eggs she fixed over the open fire in that fry pan.

Others have come to lead the flock and share their lives with the congregation. As the years pass, my own involvement is more and more limited. No longer can I sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, or play the piano once in a while. Gone is my involvement with other facets of the church as a whole. Age, injuries, physical problems, and distance from the church all work together to keep me home and relying on the weeking newletters to keep in touch with the church and the people that make up the church. Many new names and faces are taking over the leadership as the years pass. In the not too distant future, the church building will be moved. In the works now, are plans to build a new church in another area of Hickory. Gone will be that which has been such a comfort in my time of needs. Gone will be that material site which held memories of life - friends and family - as I once knew it. The church building may change. The people may change. The Lord will always be with us where ever we may be, as long as we reach out and call. It's the people that are most important to him and we must always keep our own lives centered on Him.


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