Shelby County Today

February 23, 2017 - The monthly meeting for the Shelby County Museum was held Tuesday, February 21, 2017. The meeting was held at the Shelbyville Methodist Church. Opening prayer was given by Teddy Hopkins and the pledges to the flags were led by Ann Bowen. Ann then presented the speaker for the program, Merle Howard, who would give a history on the historical Methodist Church.

Merle then introduce Buster Bounds, County Historian, who was videoing the program, and introduced the Methodist Church pastor, Sherry Harding. Merle stated much of the history of the church had been compiled by Juanice Powell. 

The church is in the Eastern District of Texas Conference and all the architectural elements of the building points up to our Heavenly Father, the gothic windows, high pitched room, the steeple, and the pews hand made by architect, J.M. Pigg. The present building was built in 1897 after a storm destroyed the original building. 

The men of the church cut cypress trees in the Sabine River bottom which were then hauled by mule drawn wagons. These trees were cut into 18-inch blocks from which shingles were cut to roof the building by using a drawing knife. The roof and steeple were braced with enough timber, it was said, to build a house.

The finial on the steeple was made from the end of a large timber which extends downward into the steeple, some eight or 10 feet.

Lightning struck the steeple in 1973 and again in 1985. After this the steeple was top with copper to help prevent future strikes.

In the 1970s the rails surrounding the altar and pulpit were redone. Until that time there was only one pulpit and it stood in the center of the floor. A new pulpit was built to match the original by John Doggett. Mr. Doggett and John Howard rearranged the rails as they are now. 

The original flooring was replaced under the direction of James Powell. The flooring was laid from ash, hickory, maple, oak, persimmon, sassafras, and walnut timbers and was left unstained after it was recently refinished. 

In 2009 the foundation of the steeple was found to be in a weakened state. As the bell in the steeple weights nearly 1,000 pounds the bell wasn’t rung for nearly a year. After the steeple foundation was repaired the bell now rings in each Sunday morning service.

In 2013 the painting “Easter Morn” by Fredrick W. Cole of Canterbury, England was cleaned. The painting was presented to the church by N.O. Thomas in the 1970s. It took Beth Crafts over a year to clean the painting.

Ms Howard shared with the group that no church would be complete without the faithful members dedicated to the history and restoration of the building.
 
The Shelbyville Methodist Church of Shelbyville claims that it was organized in 1825. Tradition holds the first church service held in Shelbyville was in 1825 by “Brother” James English. Another early preacher was Henry Stevenson who was there from 1834-1836. William C. Crawford came in 1836 and added 200 souls to the membership of the church.

Teachers had a great part in the formation of the early church. A young lady from New York answered an ad for a teaching position in Melrose, Texas. This was the future wife of W.C. Huntington, Mary. She helped organize the first Sunday school program, the Women’s Society, and the Juvenile Society which was the forerunner to the Methodist Youth Fellowship program. Mr. Huntington died in 1864 leaving Mary with 2 sons. Mary Huntington died in 1911 and her portrait is in the history room of the church.

Click the image above for a larger version

February 21, 2017 - Gibsons Energy held a ribbon cutting event on February 9, 2017 at their location just off Loop 500 in Center, 1524 Shelbyville Street, and helping to celebrate their new membership with the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce were the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors.

Andi Foster, Shelby County Chamber of Commerce Ambassador President, introduced the company and welcomed them as a member. Leonard Dupuis, Gibsons Regional Manager, was introduced and he enlightened everyone he is the Regional Manager for Gibsons of all the Haynesville and North Louisiana area.

"We're actually a reclamation company for oil based cuttings, we're a service company. We service the rigs that run the equipment, frac tanks, pumps," said Dupuis.

In the past, Dupuis says, oil based cuttings would go to landfills and be buried in the ground. What Gibsons does is recycle the diesel from the cuttings, re-sell it and prevent it from going into the ground as used to occur.

Dupuis remarked he has a great staff and he introduced Dawn Ellington, Customer Service Rep; Denise Mathews, Office Manager; Bobby Head, Plant Manager; John Davis, Process Head.

"Gibsons bought CHI in December 2012. Gibsons is about a $6 billion to $8 billion company based out of Canada and the United States, publicly traded," said Dupuis.

According to Dupuis, Doug Wilkins is the president of U.S. Operations and Joey Shaw is the company's vice president based out of Louisiana. The company is hoping to employ 150 by February 2018, which Dupuis says Wilkins has all the intentions of seeing the company grow.

"We do want to participate in like the truck pull and whatever other activities that we can do for the community, we'll be glad to do," said Dupuis.

Gibsons does business with a lot of companies like as XTO and Chesapeake to name a couple. Dupuis said since October 2016, when they serviced around 28 rigs in the area, their service load has increased to closer to 50 rigs at the time of the ribbon cutting with the anticipation of being at around 75 rigs in 90 days from that time judging by the recent increases. They service East Texas and the West Louisiana area.

February 21, 2017 - PVT Samuel Windham graduated Friday, February 17, 2017 from the U.S. Army's Geospatial Engineers Course. PVT Windham, a 2016 Graduate of Shelbyville HS, joined the U.S. Army Reserve after graduation and completed basic training in September.

He is the son of Micah and Claire Windham of Shelbyville and the brother of Tori, Wyatt, and Molly Windham. He plans to attend college, graduate and then go active duty.

February 17, 2017 - The Bailey family has requested in lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made online to the Bailey Family Foundation at www.baileyfamilyfoundation.com.

It has been brought to Shelby County Today's attention of some confusion on Facebook as to the correct link to the foundation. Another website does exist 'The Bailey Family Foundation' out of Tampa, Florida. Their page has a picture of three teenagers. If you search online for "The Bailey Family Foundation" it will most likely be the first link in the search results.

Please be sure to use the following link https://www.baileyfamilyfoundation.com/ to ensure you go to the correct site. The photo above is a screenshot of the website. The link is also included in the Bailey's obituary.