June 2022
Alexander City 150th
9
Submitted photo
The First Baptist Church of Alexander still sits in the same lot as it does in this photo taken around the 1960s. Since this photo was taken, the church has expanded and added more areas for the community and congregation to use.
The Churches
E
ven at its beginning, Alexander City was home to several prominent churches. The firsts of which were founded in 1872. On August 3, 1872 eleven men and women guided by Rev. A. K. Tribble met under a bush arbor and organized the Youngsville Baptist Church. J. T. P. Christian and B. B. Reams were elected deacons and T. S. Christian, Sr. was elected clerk. According to church leaders currently there, the church was among one of the first places for community gatherings in the city, with its roots beginning during the summer of 1872 after residents in the village of Youngsville gathered for a religious revival. The church renamed after the Town of Youngsville changed its name to Alexander City. The
church is now named Alexander City First Baptist Church. The Methodists began their congregation under the same bush arbor in the August of 1872, just two weeks after the Baptists officially founded their organization. When the Methodists annual conference met in the fall of that year, the first pastor of the Methodist church was appointed — Reverend W.T. Patillo. Patillo was from Pickneyville and he travelled to the Youngsville congregation and taught in a one-room school house on the same hill as the bush arbor. The Methodists and the Baptists met under the same roof until 1877, when the Baptists completed their own house of worship. The Methodists completed their church in 1875. A correspondent for Dadeville’s newspaper said the Methodist church in Alexander City
“now presents a beautiful appearance. It, of course, has no similarity to the cathedral in Milan, but is has been very much improved.”
In addition to Alexander City First Baptist Church, there was
The story continues on Page 10
