History of Brushy Fork Church by Elder T. Leo Dodd
The Brushy Fork Primitive Baptist Church and "Old Brushy" Cemetery, 1820-1970, by Elder T. Leo Dodd
Brushy Fork Church House, one-half mile west of Harco, Illinois. One hundred fifty years of continuous service. Commemorative Services, October 2, 3, and 4, 1970. Held at the Meeting House."The Brushy Fork Primitive Baptist Church House is now located one-half mile west of Harco, Saline County, Illinois. The church at one time was known as the Bankston Fork Church. The name was changed because another building site was chosen. Events which brought about the changes of name will be delineated farther along in this condensed history.
The only discipline ever exercised by the Muddy River Association was and is the insistence that all member churches be received upon and adhere to the doctrines and practices as set forth (and remain unchanged) in the Articles of Faith of the Association in 1820. Upon such tenets, the Bankston Fork (now Brushy Fork) Church became a charter member, and continues to be a member of the Association.
The first sign of what was to become a major dissension and later a division within churches and among churches is reflected by the record of the Associational meeting in 1833. Item 21: "Is it good order for any church belonging to this Association within herself to alter the Abstract of Principles on which she was constituted and received into this Association? We are of the opinion that it is not. As it appears that Bankston's Fork Church has altered the 5th Article of the Abstract of Principles on wich she was constituted and received into this Association, we consider her in error with regard to her power to alter or amend any article which would be inimical to the constitution of the Association, and would sincerely recommend that she adopt the former 5th Article in the room of the present one."
An advisory committee of seven was appointed "to sit with her at her next June meeting . . . and that this delegation report to our next Association. At the meeting of the Association in 1834, the report was given: "that they met with the church agreeable to appointment and after due labor with the church on the matter in question, the church gave the committee to understand that they had held a conference meeting on the day previous and pre-disposed of the matter in question by declaring an unfellowship with the Association."
This action by Bankston Church, of course, was not unanimous. Four members were excluded because of their failure to agree to the declaration of unfellowship. (The source of information for the two statements above is History of the Regular Baptists by Elder Achilles Coffey.)
Testimony of older members of Brushy Fork Church, which the writer (Elder T. Leo Dod) has served as assistant pastor or pator since 1922, is that the four members which Bankston Church excluded, immediately continued to meet to worship in homes, and after a few years, constructed a church house some three miles north west, renamed it Brushy Fork, and at the present continues to meet regularly, having retained their original Abstract of Principles.
Elder Wilson Henderson was pastor of Bankston, Wolf Creek, Bethel Creek, and Middle Fork in 1833. Elder Coffey wrote that it was never the intention of Elder Henderson to "go off with the missionaries." He later transferred his membership to Bethel's Creek where he remained in fellowship as long as he lived.
In the minute book of the Brushy Fork Church, Andrew Carson, who was clerk from 1906 to 1950, wrote: "I have been informed that the Brushy Fork Church was organized (under that name) soon after the Bankston Fork Church renounced her original Articles of Faith upon which she was founded. Sister Nora Carson (nee Stone) claims that the early meetings were held at the homes of some of the members and that they kept no record of their meetings. She claims to have heard her grandmother Stone, who was an early member, make this statement at different times. Nora Stone Carson was the wife of Andrew Carson.
