Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise here today to pay tribute to the Bayou Meto United Methodist Church in DeWitt, Arkansas, where my parents were married, my family and I have attended for more than fifty years, and my brother Mark and his family are members. This month marks our church's 25th anniversary, a significant milestone for the congregation and the entire community.
The Bayou Meto United Methodist Church was organized in 1881 as the Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South. The original 13 charter members chose the southwest corner of the Bayou Meto Cemetery to build a small wooden sanctuary of sawed boards. The sanctuary only had six windows, four of which were made of glass shipped by boat from St. Louis to Crockett's Bluff and hauled by ox wagon to the church site. The original building was heated by a wood stove and furnished with handmade pews and oil lamps.
The Bayou Meto United Methodist Church played a prominent role in the community during this time, serving as the local school until residents could build a school house elsewhere. The first minister, Reverend C.T. Thompson, traveled on horseback from Goldman once a month to preach two services.
By 1915, the church community was anxious to expand. Mrs. Joe Webster donated one acre of land to the church and local residents moved the original building to a new location using horses and ropes. Just four years later, the congregation sold the church building as a private resident and built a new structure to accommodate the growing congregation. The original building still stands about 1,500 feet from its first location.
The new sanctuary included a bell tower and bell donated by a prominent Jewish merchant of DeWitt, Mr. T.M. Loeb. Although our community constructed Sunday school rooms, a pastor's study, and replaced the original church pews, the sanctuary is almost identical to the one constructed in 1919.
The Reverend C.H. Andrews became the church's first resident minister in 1939. During his tenure, the church constructed a parsonage, and a new education building. The church's current minister, Reverend Jackie Gregory, now occupies the parsonage and is the minister for both Bayou Meto and Lodge Corner Churches. The congregation continues to worship in the sanctuary, and the community frequently holds weddings, funerals, reunions, and meetings in both the sanctuary and education building.
The congregation has grown smaller over time as residents leave for larger towns, in search of job opportunities, schools, or greater convenience. As Lucinda Ax Jacobs wrote in her history of the Bayou Meto Cemetery, ``Our Bayou Meto community was settled by former soldiers, both Union and Confederate, glad to find peace and a place they could build homes, raise families, and make an honest living for themselves.'' This phrase remains true for those of us who see this community as their home, and intend to remain to raise our families and earn an honest living.
The Bayou Meto United Methodist Church has a long history, marked by the community's strong commitment to service. Every single building on the church property was constructed by the men in this community through hours upon hours of hard work and sacrifice. This spirit is unique to our church, and will guide the members in our congregation for years to come.
On May 28, 2006, our community will gather to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Bayou Meto United Methodist Church. I ask my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to join me in recognizing this community on this important day in history, and to send our best wishes for a memorable service of homecoming and remembrance.
