OUR HISTORY
Our Beginnings...
First Assembly of God formed its organization in the fall of 1939 under the name of The Assembly of God Church. According to our records, It started by holding services under some large oak trees behind Ora Lee Braxton’s old hardware store on Railroad Avenue. They called these services the Brush Arbor meetings.
The First Building...
Then in 1940 they moved into an old house behind the Free Will Baptist Church on the corner of Palm Street and Magnolia Street. As the Church grew, they needed more parking space, so they purchased the land where the church is today for $100. They started off having services in a small building constructed of brown tar-paper in 1941.
In 1942, the first church was built out of lumber that was donated from the members of the church. The lumber was stored in Sister Ethel Merchant’s house to prevent anyone from stealing it. All of the church members worked together on the building. In 1947, the first parsonage was built beside the church. It stood there until 1956 when it was sold for $500. There wasn’t another parsonage until 1991.
Growing...
The services were held in the old lumber church until 1956 when they outgrew it and built the block building which is now our Fellowship Hall. All of the church members brought blocks to help build the church. The old lumber church was sold for $300 and was located on North Street and has recently been torn down. The pastor at the time was Alma R. James.
The Fellowship hall was added on to the back of the church in 1976. During 1978, under Pastor William Mears, the Pastor’s and church offices were remodeled and the paneling was added in the church. Also during this time the church name was changed from The Assembly of God Church to The First Assembly of God Church with permission from the General Council.
New Buildings…
On August 11, 1988, Malva Yon Braxton, John Sebren Braxton and Mary Morris Braxton of Cottondale donated five acres of land on Hwy. 164, now Lovewood Rd., to the First Assembly of God Church. The land is used today for the church cemetery. Mrs. Malva Braxton gave the gift in remembrance of her husband, the late Elly Lee Braxton, who was a devout supporter and an active worker in the church, although he was never a member.
On June 4, 1991, the four lots west of the church were purchased which included a house, which was then remodeled to become the parsonage. The Parsonage has since been sold and moved to Brown Street in Graceville. Remodeling was done in 1996 when the sanctuary walls were painted white and new carpet was installed in both the sanctuary and fellowship hall.
On Easter 2008 we moved into a Brand New Sanctuary. It was fully paid for. The last remodeling was done in the Spring of 2009 to the kitchen and fellowship hall. We are so blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor J. Chris Franklin has been serving as our Pastor since 2013.
A LITTLE HISTORY
Written by Mose Braxton
Back in the late 1939 of my life, I was always at the home of my little sweetheart, Joyce Shouppe, therefore when Mr. Shouppe cranked up his old stripped down Chevrolet to go the way off trip to Cottondale to the Brush Arbor Meeting, I was usually going along.
One Sunday afternoon we or he was asked by some of the ladies of the congregation if we could locate some property in Cottondale to build a church on. The ladies being – Sis. Ethel Merchant, Sis. Margie Merchant (Sis. Ethel’s Mother), Sis. Kreel, Doris Kreel, Sis. Tharp, Sis. Willie Yon, Sis. Betty Fisher, Sis. Ora Braxton, and many others along with a few husbands. Not many of them were in favor of building a church since there were several in Cottondale already. Mr. Shouppe asked me to go along with him, because I know some of the family that we were going to ask about the property.
We asked Mr. Sapp if he would sell this property the church is built on and he agreed to sell to us in behalf of the church congregation for $200 (if my thinking is correct), which at that time in history was a lot of money for two lots. Everyone agreed and started saving to purchase the lots. Once paid for, the building began of the old frame building that the church was organized in. The year was 1940 or 1941.
The old building sat across from the cemetery from the location it was built on. It was just last year (2013) that the building was torn down.