Welcome to the Swifton church of Christ

History of the Church of Christ in Swifton

(This was written in 1976 by Marvin Smith and Anna Ruth, James's mother)

Somewhere around the year 1890, C.C. Nicholson donated the ground for the old Church of Christ building. He was the brother of Dan Nicholson, who was the father of Mrs. Ida Thomas, Sid Nicholson and the late Mrs. J.W. O'Banion. Dan Nicholson owned the farm now owned by Mrs. Mildred Shiveley and Ben Brann. Mr. Nicholson cut the logs from his farm, hauled them to the mill, and had lumber cut to build the Church of Christ building on its old location. The Woodmen of the World and the Odd Fellows Organization helped build the upstairs part of the building for their meeting place until both organizations ceased to exist in Swifton. After the meetings upstairs stopped, the Church cut off the upstairs and removed the posts from the downstairs part and reworked the entire building over.

At that time the congregation was very small, but they struggled along over the years. There was one time there was not a male member, and the church work was carried on by a few godly women, most of whom have long passed on to their reward. Among them was Aunt Kate Foster and Mrs. Alice Toler and many others. But in process of time Bro. Lee Rousey moved into the community and began working with them. Later the Otho Hulett family and others moved in and began working with the church and they began to grow in number and somewhere around 1936, two class rooms were built on the front of the building. Elders and Deacons were installed, a preacher's home was bought and Bro. Bob Roland was hired. At the time that Bro. Roland was working with us, he lived in Tuckerman. It wasn't long till more room was needed, so three more class rooms and a rest room was added.

Most of the work of the building was done by the men. This was somewhere around 1940 or 1945. The congregation had grown to about 50 in number and was still growing. It was but a few years later the church was too small for the congregation. Plans were begun for a new building, which would be much larger. Then Bro. Ted Knight was working with us as a full time preacher. Ground for the new building and the preacher's home was donated by Mrs. Sadie Nicholson in memory of C.C. Nicholson and son of Dan Nicholson, Mrs. Sadie Nicholson is our oldest surviving member.

Work begun on the new building in the spring of 1966 and was finished in early summer of that same year. At time, the membership had just reached the 200 mark and is still growing. It has not been easy. It has been an uphill climb most of the way. We have had our problems along the way but have kept our Faith and trusted in the Heavenly Father to lead us onward and upward to the goal. It is stated in Rev. 2:10, "Be thou faithful until death and I will give you a crown of Life."

Above information collected and written by

Vena Smith