Violea Ferguson remembers church services over the year. Violea says Granny Woods used to receive the spirit with great fervor during the sermon, and would run up the road towards her home jumping and shouting as she went. Aubrey Gore spent much time participating in church activities as a young adult. He played organ at the Baptist Church and remembers......
“Yes for many years I was a church pianist. Yeah, and I started from the time that I can remember I went to church up here until here recently when I became a cynic. I played guitar in the quartet and piano when I was a young teenager, then I played for the young adult choir. When I came back from the military I joined the Charlton sisters and my mother with me as pianist and we were doing T.V. We had been to Alabama, so we were gaining notoriety.” The church was also a place where Christmas and Easter programs were held. There was Sunday School for the children and the adults made sure they became part of the church family. This was especially important after the community school was closed. It was the one institution remaining that validated the community. Hazel Tynes recalls........
“Everyone in the community would come. We also would always have a program that was for Christmas at the church and at Easter time at the church—all the children. Might one or two mothers would form a—commitee, and they’d have this program for Easter and like at Christmas time. And the pastor that pastored her for 35 years, Reverend Porter, see, he would, always have a service, and he would have a watch meetin’—this kind of stuff. Most of the time, he’d have an early mornin’ service for Christmas and Easter and he always had a watch meetin’ on New Years.”
“I always had a speech to say, and havin’ a part in the play when I got a little bit older—y’know. And then they’d have this great big Christmas tree in there as tall as the ceilin’ and they’d have it all decorated up, and the Sunday school always gave a little gift to each child and a little fruit bag to each family—and this kind of stuff. And they would have a program at the Baptist church and the Methodist church which— but the kids would be in both of ‘em.”
“And there was a lady by the name of Miss Gladys goin’—I’ll never forget her—she’s up there in Bastian nursin’ home—uh, she would take me to the side and ask me couldn’t I do this or couldn’t I do that, and I’d try sooo hard, so hard to do exactly like she wanted me to do it. ‘Cause she always gave me somethin’, y’know—a candy bar or a pop or a quarter—somethin’ like that. She would have me doin’ these things that would fill her program out, and she worked with all the children”
The Tynes Chapel AME Zion Church is well known in the area and is attended by people outside of Dry Fork. Many blacks from Bluefield have come over the mountain to services and whites on Dry Fork have also worshipped at Tynes Chapel over the years. A Mrs. French from up Dry Fork was a faithful member until her death. The church is especially known for its singing. The Charlton Sisters were a popular group that traveled all over the region. The Tynes Chapel Choir today performs in several states and is an eagerly anticipated annual event at the Bland County Festival of Leaves.
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