Four-tilth* ot the membership ot St. Philip's Epis¬
copal Church in Germonton is composed ot (I to r.)
Miss Lillion Smoll. George Penick, Miss Louise
Powers, ond Mrs. Penick Miss Mildred Smoll wos
not present tor the picture. (Photo by Sid 8ost)
A
Tiny
Church
Is
Re-born
Anil I h«‘ congregation
liiis nearly «Ion bled.
By WMK LEE
SIYGLETAKY
For many years. St. Philip's Epis¬
copal Church in Germanton. N.C. has
had only ihrce members. Now. it has
five.
Built in the I880's, when the town
was the thriving county seat of Stokes,
the church was painted white and had
the traditi »nal steeple and belfry, but it
still has no electricity, no heat, no
plumbing — and no priest. In a spirit of
true fellowship, however, the Baptists
next door let the Episcopalians use
their water spigot and bathrooms.
Miss Lillian Small and her sister.
Miss Mildred Small, who live just
across the road, and their cousin. Miss
Louise Powers, who lives in the an¬
cestral home just down the road a bit.
have paid their dues and maintained
the church as well as they could since
the last funeral was held there five
years ago. Miss Powers acts as trea¬
surer.
However, the membership was
dramatically increased recently when
George Penick. grandson of Bishop
Edwin A. Penick. and his wife moved
to Germanton.
Othe recent happenings have
changed things, too. with the result
that the little church has been well-
filled for services held at 5 p.m. on
Sundays during the summer. A group
of young people at St. Anne's Church
in Winston-Salem, under leadership of
the vicar, the Rev. William S. Wells,
were looking for a project last year
when it was suggested that St. Philip’s
might be able to use their interest and
energies. Since then, they have come
regularly in good weather to scrape,
paint and repair the church. Their ac¬
tivities even included routing out a
swarm of bees that had taken posses¬
sion of the premises.
I.ast August. Mr. Wells began con¬
ducting services there on Sunday af¬
ternoons that were sometimes fol¬
lowed with picnic suppers. The five
members from Germanton were joined
by the group from St. Anne's and other
Episcopalians from Walnut Cove and
Danbury to make up the congrega¬
tions. The St. Anne's folk mass written
by one of the members is used with
music by three musicians using auto¬
harps and a guitar. And the new prayer
book is used although the old-timers
arc not exactly fond of it.
The interior of the church still boasts
its ornate brass oil-burning chandeliers
and the original stained glass windows
with the exception of one that had to be
replaced. Last year the Germanton
folks held ihcirown “Feast of Lights",
too. in the dead of winter, and although
Lillian Small said she almost froze, she
wouldn't have missed it for anything.
The Episcopalians w'ere in Ger¬
manton long before the church was
built, she said. “They were here from
the beginning. This was an English
settlement, unlike many of the German
ones nearby and services were held in
homes and in a room in the courthouse
before we had the church."
In the flush of youth. Germanton
was described by a visitor just before
the Civil War as being "a thriving town
of 20 houses, two hotels, four stores, a
Methodist church, and a flour mill." A
train once passed through it twice
daily. Sitting squarely on the
Forsyth-Stokes line, it served as a link
between the Moravians on the south
and the northern Stokes settlers.
Such well-known men as Benjamin
Forsyth. Joseph Winston, and Wade
Hampton were once prominently as¬
sociated with Germanton or lived
there, and some of the fine old homes
along Main Street still exist or have
been restored.
But activity in Germanton began to
decline when the county seat was
moved to Danbury and there were no
more court days there. The courthouse
in the center of town, with its gilded
cupola and the clock that was wound
only during the sittings of court, was
finally tom down in 1959 to make way
for a road.
Germanton’s sedate old age is con¬
stantly disturbed by the heavy traffic
that now carries people and products
to points beyond it. And there is no
longer the whistle of a train. But the
days of some of its residents have been
brightened by the revitalization of their
historic church for which they give all
the credit to "angels" from St. Anne's
and Walnut Cove.
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
I Published on
раце
6 1
I. Napkin. 2. Kindle. 3. Kine. 4.
Mankind. 5. Kingdom. 6. Kingfisher.
7. Mockingbird. 8. Bumpkin. 9.
Bumpkin. 10. Kindergarten. II. Rus-
kin. 12. Skinner. 13. Bodkin. 14.
Skinflint. 15. Firkin. 16. Rockingchair.
17. Husking bee. 18. Doeskin. 19.
Okinawa. 20. Buckingham.
THE STATE. August isao
