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==North Carolina==
===Asheville, NC===
====1913: Asheville Gospel Hall, NC====
The earliest work in North Carolina seems to be in Asheville in the western part of the state. The story of the Asheville Gospel Chapel starts with W. G. Smith, born in Scotland in 1884. Coming to the U.S. in 1911, he was commended to full-time Christian work about 1913. Mr. Smith moved to Asheville and first lived in a tent at the lower end of Swanannoa Avenue, from which he witnessed for the Lord Jesus. When several were saved and instructed, the Christians became interested in having the Lord’s Supper. Mr. Smith instigated the building of the Asheville Gospel Hall on Alabama Avenue.
The Varner family moved to Asheville in 1921 and were among the first in fellowship. Miss Carrie Bellinger, who had moved from Columbia, SC was a devoted and useful sister in the assembly. Evangelist Robert Curry worked with the assembly in the early 1920s. W.G. Smith had tent meetings in the summers of 1924 and 1925. During the later 1920s, Fred Nugent and Andrew Foster worked in the Gospel at nearby Canton. Some who were saved there and who later came to Asheville were Opal Snyder, Mrs. Reed, and Willa King. An assembly was started in Canton but was short-lived. The Lannings moved to Asheville in the 1930s and contributed much to the Asheville assembly.
In the early 1930s, three different evangelists lived in and worked out of Asheville: James Smith, David Calderhead, and Oswald McLeod. James Smith’s initiative in 1937 brought about the purchase of property and building at 20 Hanover Street, the home for many years of the Asheville Gospel Chapel.
During the World War II years, there was much to discourage. At times Ralph Poole was the only man to carry on at many of the meetings. Mr. Poole had been saved through the ministry of Donald Ross in Savannah. The women were faithful in maintaining a Sunday School. In about 1945, James A. Innes, his wife, and their three sons moved to Asheville from Minneapolis. They were a great help to the assembly for many years. About 24 were in regular fellowship in this period. William Brown came from New Jersey to assist in the work until late 1947.
After the war, the Sunday School, which had been discontinued, was restarted and a period of growth ensued. Soon the assembly needed more room. An addition to the Ashville Gospel Chapel was made in the fall of 1947. The children’s work grew through the start of a Bible school by Tom Innes and children’s meetings with Ernie Gross. Some were saved and several Christians who had left the fellowship in previous years returned, so that by 1952, there was again need for more room. The lot next to the chapel was purchased. This was the time of the Korean War, and some young men who had been active in the assembly were drafted. Plans went ahead, however, and an addition was started in 1953, about the time when a Family Bible Hour was started. When the Korean War ended, some men returned. Walter Peck moved back to Asheville and associated with the assembly. The Southeastern Workers’ Conference was held there in March 1955.
At about the same time that the work in Asheville began, a similar interest was stirring in Raleigh in the north-central part of the state, the so-called Piedmont area. The work at Raleigh dates to before 1924, when James C. Chappell returned from World War I. He had heard about the New Testament church meetings through a fellow soldier. He discussed what he had learned with his friend David Allen. They invited Sam McEwen and W.G. Smith to come to Raleigh for a Gospel effort, and these evangelists held a tent campaign in September 1924. After the campaign, a hall was rented on Gaston Street, and the first Remembrance meeting in the Raleigh Gospel Hall was held in November 1924, attended only by David Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Chappell, and the two preachers. About a month later four other Christians had joined the circle around the table. Records of the assembly show a continuous growth in numbers.
The two evangelists returned each year for five years. Souls were saved each year. By 1931, there was an assembly with 40 in fellowship, meeting in a former church building. James Chappell, a pharmacist, carried on an extensive pastoral and visitation ministry.
====1943: Lester Wilson====
While at Greensboro I opened up Burlington, a city of 20,000 about 20 miles from Greensboro. Mr. and Mrs. Gross were with me and we had two six-weeks series of meetings. The result was a nice group of Christians gathered, some saved in our meetings and other Christians contacted who were seeking food and fellowship. Mr. and Mrs. Gross stayed in Burlington until spring helping these Christians, and then moved to Florence, SC. I then went back to Burlington and had a six weeks series which was the best series yet in that city. The interest picked up remarkably and a number were saved and more Christians contacted. Each Sunday afternoon we have a meeting there and from 100 to 150 attend. We expect to give them more meetings during the winter and then another summer in the gospel, by which time we should be ready to “Remember the Lord.”
After the Burlington campaign I went to Siler City, a town 35 miles away where a group of Christians were exercised about New Testament principles. This interest was contacted and helped by our radio work and these Christians built a nice tabernacle capable of holding 300. We started meetings the middle of October... some eighteen professed and a nice number of Christians were contacted and helped. The interest was excellent for a new field, up to 150 some week nights, and 235 Sunday nights. Mr. Frank Detweiler helped in this series by taking care of children’s meetings and singing, as well as noon hour meetings in factories. An assembly should be established in Siler City in the spring after a winter’s work of teaching and consolidating.
Thus we have in these parts three large, active assemblies in 1943: Raleigh with around 75 in fellowship; Winston-Salem with about 150; and Greensboro with 100; a possible 50 Christians in Burlington not yet breaking bread, and around 35 in Siler City not yet breaking bread. Some 800 children are in the Sunday Schools of these assemblies.
I have had five series this year... and some 150 radio broadcasts... and now that brother Mackay has recently moved to Greensboro, I will be free to work Burlington and Siler City...
The secret under God that has produced results in NC is going to a place and staying there until something is done. This will take years. You can’t expect people to get saved one summer, and without any teaching or pastoring during the winter, find them going on and ready for an assembly the next summer.”
Mr. Wilson continues in this article to espouse his philosophy of pioneering, which was quite different from that common in Canada and the northern part of the U.S.
The Christians at Raleigh Gospel Hall constantly brought the Gospel to the surrounding cities and countryside. Fred W. Nugent had introduced the young Lester Wilson to Raleigh in 1931. A building at Clayton, 17 miles southeast, was made available for a Gospel campaign, which the seasoned evangelist and the young preacher were to launch together. Home affairs kept Mr. Nugent from participating, and Lester Wilson fearfully started the meetings alone. Crowds packed the big building and in five weeks 51 persons professed faith in Christ. For three years, Mr. Wilson, a guest in the Chappell home, preached in church buildings and school houses, and held Bible readings in homes around the Raleigh area.
====1932: Six Forks, Raleigh, NC====
A branch work at Six Forks, nine miles away, was opened up by Lester Wilson in 1932.
====1939: Raleigh Gospel Chapel, NC====
In 1939, the Raleigh Gospel Chapel was built on Franklin Street, about a mile northeast of the city center, to house the growing assembly. Evangelistic meetings, the Sunday School, and personal work all contributed to further growth. By 1946, about 225 regularly attended the Breaking of Bread. In 1952 the main auditorium was enlarged to hold 420 people. The Sunday School averaged 375 at that time.
In November 1974, more than 400 people filled the Gospel Chapel on Franklin Street for a service commemorating the fifty-year history of the Raleigh work. W. G. Smith, then 90, reminisced about tent work in the early days. Lester Wilson, then working in Albany, GA spoke of the burdens and blessings of pioneering days in North Carolina.
The Christians at Raleigh Gospel Chapel sold their building and joined with other Christians in 1993 to form the North Ridge Bible Chapel in Raleigh. (see below).
North Ridge Bible Chapel in Raleigh was formed by a merger in 1993. Several Christians desiring a testimony in a new part of Raleigh were joined by the group that had been meeting at the Raleigh Gospel Chapel on Franklin Street. The latter Christians had decided that a move should be made from Franklin Street at the time. Helping with the establishment of this testimony were Clarence Jeffreys, Richard St. John, L.H. Price, Cliff Webber, C.C. Pipkin, and John Gordon.
The North Ridge Bible Chapel, including an auditorium, class rooms, and fellowship hall, was built in 1994. About 200 were in the fellowship in 1999, with a Sunday School of about 100 students.
====1967: Faith Bible Fellowship, Raleigh, NC====
====1964: Parkway Chapel, Winston-Salem, NC====
Parkway Chapel in Winston-Salem, at 2651 Buchanan Street, was established in 1964 by J.H. Cockerham, R.H. Wofford, H.R. Larrymore, C.C. Fishburne Sr., Tommy Steele Sr., L.A. Cowling, and H.R. Cromer as a hive-off from Glenn Avenue Gospel Chapel. For a time, the assembly had the name “Parkway Gospel Chapel”. In addition to those mentioned, elders at Parkway Chapel include P.J. Bonardi, W. Kornelis, and I.G. Scherer. About 135 adults and youngsters are in the assembly. Parkway has commended a worker to serve with Child Evangelism Fellowship.
====1967: Fair Oaks Chapel, Winston-Salem, NC====
Fair Oaks Gospel Chapel in Winston-Salem began in the fall of 1967, its roots being in Glenn Avenue Gospel Chapel. Those involved in the start-up include George Binkley Jr., Herman Cromer, Bill and Don Fulk, Nelson Davis, A.T. Watkins Sr., Jim Binkley, and Frances Forcum. The assembly is now known as Fair Oaks Chapel. Leadership has been shared also by Tommy Steele Sr., Julian Stephenson, and Charles Baker. Fair Oaks Chapel has commended a worker to the Lord’s field in Korea. About 30 adults and youngsters attend Fair Oaks Chapel.
===Greensboro, NC===
Lester Wilson found the going tough the first year in Greensboro in 1939, but the second year was different. He held tent meetings and souls were saved. About 30 people were involved in starting an assembly. A vacated Baptist church on Forest Avenue, having a large auditorium and 17 Sunday school rooms, was purchased in 1940 by the assembly and became the Forest Avenue Tabernacle. Within 15 months of taking this building the assembly tripled and the Sunday school had over 250 in attendance. Ernest Gross joined Mr. Wilson in August 1941. A steady radio program was carried on in connection with this work. In January 1943, William Brown moved to Greensboro and remained until about August, when he moved to Asheville. Harold Mackay then moved to Greensboro. The work continued to grow under his care and reached over 100 in fellowship, with a Sunday school over 300. A daily radio program was carried on at that time. A branch Sunday school at Halburg opened up during Mr. Gross’ stay, was carried on by local brethren.
From this work has developed the present Shannon Hills Bible Chapel in Greensboro on Vandalia Road. Leaders since the early days include Jim Redling, J. Eddie Schwartz, Larry Batts, C.R. Andrews, Charles Crawford, and Mark Shelley. The assembly has had seven full-time workers over the years, and 12 others have gone into full-time Christian service. Shannon Hills Bible Chapel has commended several missionaries to the foreign field, including South Africa and Burundi. About 350 people attend Shannon Hills Bible Chapel.
===Burlington, NC===
===Siler City, NC===
====1943: Siler City Chapel====
Evangelistic work was carried on simultaneously in Burlington and Siler City, with Sunday morning services in the former city and Sunday evening services in the latter. A temporary tabernacle was employed in Siler City for the evening Gospel meetings. A little company started Breaking Bread in 1941. Some Christians, having heard Mr. Wilson over the radio, urged him to come to Siler City; these gave the work an early start by their solid testimony. In October 1943, Mr. Wilson held his first series in Siler City, with a number of souls saved. Later, Frank Detweiler and William Bousfield had a series out in the country in a tent, and more were saved.
In 1946, about fifty Christians in the Siler City assembly were carrying on the work and built the Siler City Chapel in April of that year. William Bousfield stayed for three or four years in the area, living in Winston-Salem and also helping in Siler City and Sanford. Joe Giordano moved to Siler City in 1949 to help with the work there.
===Durham, NC===
====1944: The Gospel Center, Durham, NC====
A Christian woman in Durham, who had heard the Burlington radio broadcasts, asked Lester Wilson to have meetings in her home. Mr. Wilson came in January 1944, and a month later followed with a special series of meetings in a large rented store building on Mangum Street. Welcome Detweiler, from the Curly Hill country in Pennsylvania, came during a quiet time in farming to help with the singing in these meetings. Some 25 people were saved, and many more in a follow-up series. The Gospel effort continued through 1944, although in smaller quarters. During that year Welcome Detweiler traveled seven times back and forth between the Pennsylvania farm and Durham. In October 1944, he helped form a Young People’s Discipleship group.
The new converts in Durham expressed a desire to establish a nondenominational local church, and at the end of 1944, purchased a lot on Driver Street for a building site. In January 1945, Welcome Detweiler and his wife Helen moved their family to Durham to guide the young believers. In April 1945, a company of 18 gathered in a rented building to Remember the Lord, their first meeting as an assembly. In June, the first section of the new chapel, seating 300, was officially opened and called The Gospel Center.
The first Thanksgiving Bible Conference of the Gospel Center was held in November 1945, and has continued to be an annual event throughout the church’s history. Interest quickened in September 1947, when quite a number were saved. An addition was completed in October 1948, but within six months the enlarged building was being crowded as much as the original. In March 1950, a house and lot behind the chapel were purchased, and the building was enlarged to a capacity of over 960 in the main auditorium. By the mid-1950’s, average attendance at the Family Bible Hour was about 1200.
In 1954, Welcome Detweiler had two weekly radio broadcasts in Durham. A leading professor at Duke University telephoned that he had been listening to Mr. Detweiler on the radio for several years and wanted him to come and try to help him. Psychiatrists had done him no good. That visit eventuated in the man’s salvation.
====1964: Northgate Chapel, Durham, NC====
A number of Christians living in the Northgate area of northern Durham desired to reach their own neighborhood with the Gospel. In 1964, about one-fourth of those attending the Gospel Center left to start the new assembly, now known as Northgate Chapel. Still, the Gospel Center continued to expand. A gymnasium was built at the Gospel Center to accommodate youth programs.
Larry Batts became Mr. Detweiler’s associate in 1973. Later, he left to engage in full-time service in Burlington and later in Greensboro. Rod Sharp of Scotland joined in the work at the Gospel Center in January 1979 and remained there until 1990.
A number of men and their wives were commended by the Gospel Center into full-time Christian ministry, most within the U.S. though two served in Zambia.
====1976: Grove Park Chapel, Durham, NC==== When the East Durham area began deteriorating, causing many members to move away, the Christians purchased an 8-acre tract on Sherron Road in 1976. Many were reluctant to move, but when one of the members was shot and killed in the church parking lot in 1987, the decision to relocate became imperative. Construction of a new chapel was begun in 1989, designed to seat 450. A new name was chosen Grove Park Chapel. The first services in the new Chapel were in July 1990.
Dale Brooks began serving part-time at Grove Park Chapel at that time, and became full-time in 1991. For three years, Daniel and Teressa Pierce served as full-time youth ministers. These serve with several elders. About 300 adults and youngsters are in Grove Park Chapel today.
===1946: Sanford, NC===
Sanford Chapel in the town of Sanford, had its beginning in March 1946, when Lester Wilson and Welcome Detweiler rented the Armory at Sanford for three weeks of meetings. Some eighteen persons professed salvation. An army barracks was bought from Camp McCall (now Fort BraggLiberty) in the summer and moved to McIver Street where it was remodeled. Temporary benches were installed, and the auditorium seated more than 400. Gospel meetings were held nightly for six weeks that summer. Clarence Low joined in the campaign in 1947 and later moved to Sanford. Ray Felton also ministered at several meetings. Lester Wilson stayed with Sanford Chapel until his health broke in 1948 and he had to leave for a rest.
A lot on 405 South Third Street was purchased, and there the first Sanford Chapel was built. The first service was held in January 1949. Clarence Low served the Lord there for 18 years.
===1954: Goldsboro, NC===
An assembly work began in Goldsboro, 42 miles southeast of Raleigh, in about 1954, helped along by John Milton Mills from Raleigh. It continues today as Goldsboro Gospel Chapel.
===Piedmont area assembly interaction===
===Late 1940’s: Zebulon, NC===
In the late 1940s, a little group began meeting for Bible readings in the home of Ralph Carter at Zebulun, 17 miles east of Raleigh. About 45 were attending, and about a dozen of these, mostly women, began Breaking of Bread in the Carter home. In the early days, a Sunday school was held and on Sunday evening there was a Gospel service in an abandoned store and service station four miles from Zebulun, with from 35 to 50 attending. The assembly continues today as Union Hope Gospel Chapel.
===Early 1950’s: Reidsville, NC===
A protracted campaign in Reidsville, north of Greensboro, in the early 1950s did not result in the formation of an assembly there, though that had been the goal. However, an exercise developed in the late 1980s in the hearts of four brethren from Shannon Hills Bible Chapel in Greensboro, for a New Testament church in Reidsville. In the spring of 1989, with the hearty encouragement of the brethren at Shannon Hills, the Reidsville Bible Chapel was launched. Jeff Johnson, Steve Andrews, Jerry Denny, and Andy Burgess with their families began the work after serving in responsible positions at Shannon Hills Chapel for several years.
Reidsville Bible Chapel met first at the Reidsville YMCA, but in 1997 constructed its own chapel at 3016 S. Park Drive. About 80 adults and youngsters are in the assembly.
===1975: Graham, NC===
===1968: Wilmington, NC===
The Wilmington Bible Chapel started in the summer of 1968 and met initially in the home of Ralph and Marietta Samppala. The three families who began the work, George and Linda Bowman, Robert and Blanch Duncan, and Ralph and Marietta Samppala had moved to Wilmington for work reasons and each had an assembly background. The meeting moved in 1972 to a rented house on 41st Street, and in 1974 built and moved into the Wilmington Bible Chapel. The active assembly later added an auditorium and a gymnasium for its Awana program.
Ralph Samppala, Jim Whaley, George Bowman, Willis Stancil, and Bill King have been leaders over the years. Wilmington Bible Chapel has commended workers to the Lord’s vineyard in Colombia. About 175 adults and children come to the chapel.
===Pre-1967: Waynesville, NC===
Waynesville Christian Fellowship in the southwest part of the state has its roots in a children’s work, as is frequent in the formation of many assemblies. David Adams had left Cuba after the communist take-over of the country and contacted Clayton and Kathleen Davis about Gospel meetings in the Waynesville area. A campaign of many weeks showed no evident conversions, but when a Sunday night Bible class for children was begun in the basement of the Davis home, the interest was evident. With Joe and Wilma Jo Arrington, and Dennis and Mary Lou Caldwell helping, the class grew to over 100, and several were saved.
A desire for other meetings developed, and in 1967 three families joined with the Arrington, Caldwell, and Davis families to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in the Davis home in Maggie Valley. Later the assembly purchased and moved into a building on Highway 19, opposite Lake Junaluska, and took the name Waynesville Christian Fellowship. George Corn and Dick Reed have shared in leadership of the assembly, which now numbers about 100. Other workers who contributed significantly in ministering in the early history of the work were George Landis and Charles Rolls. The assembly has commended Harold Wells to ministry in the U.S.
===1989: Newton-Conover, NC===
The adjacent towns of Newton and Conover are midway between Ashville and Winston-Salem. The Newton-Conover Gospel Fellowship grew from a Bible study in the home of Andy Schaper. The study was attended by members from several local churches. Teaching from the Scriptures led the group to desire observing the Lord’s Supper and establishing a testimony as directed in the New Testament. Helping to establish this testimony were Andy Schaper and Jack Proctor. The group met as an assembly beginning in May 1989 at the local YMCA.
In 1992, two adjacent buildings were purchased and modified to provide a facility for meetings and Sunday School. About 20 are in fellowship now, with about 25 in the Sunday School. Several Spanish-speaking folks are attending.
==Sources==
• Questionnaire Responses• Asheville Gospel Chapel, anonymous, undated but after 1994• Historical Sketch of the Sanford Chapel, anonymous, undated, but after 1989• Brief History of Graham Bible Fellowship, anonymous, undated, about 1990• Letters of Interest, January 1944, p.25; July 1946, p.16; December 1949, p.18; November 1953, p.3; March 1954, p.12; June 1959, p.11; March 1975, p.5• Uplook, October 1989, p. 357