About Us

Ministers

Laws Rushing

Garry Gooch

Elders

Tommy Darling

Lee McCoy

Garry Gooch

Leon Quillen

Deacons

Billy Dickson

Kerry Gist

William Huggins

Will McCormack

Tommy Sayers

Doug Watkins

Location

Jacksonburg Church of Christ is located at 414 County Road 28, Florence AL 35634. This is about 4/10 of a mile off of Highway 17, and about 3.5 miles (by road) northwest of St. Florian.

The History of Jacksonburg

The Church of Christ that meets at Jacksonburg can trace its roots back to the summer of 1901. Mr. John Allen, Mr. C. D. Griffith, and Mr. S. P. Clemmons organized the Union Sunday School, which met in the then train depot at Jacksonburg. A good number attended this worship service including several who were members of denominational groups. At some point, Mr. Clemmons retained Brother E. C. Fuqua to hold a meeting. During that meeting Mr. John Zahnd was baptized. He was the father of Sister John Abston and Brother Walter Zahnd. Also baptized during the meeting was Mrs. Segretain who had moved to the United States from France and had been a member of the Catholic church. During the meeting, Brother Fuqua realized that the church had not been observing the Lord’s Supper, so he talked to Mr. Clemmons about it, who began providing the communion for members. Soon after this meeting was held, the ticket agent at the Florence Depot sent for the key and began locking the building. He was a member of a denomination and apparently not too happy that the Church of Christ was using the depot to meet. The new church had no place to meet until the county bought a piece of ground for a county school at Jacksonburg about 4 years later. This land contained a house that had been built by a man who owned a sawmill. For a time, it was large enough for a one room school house and the church at Jacksonburg used it to hold their services. Brother Will Behel was possibly the first to preach in the one room school house. He held a meeting in August in 1907 and Sister John Abston, the former Eula Zahnd was baptized. The community built a new school house sometime between 1908 and 1912. Soon after the new building was erected, Brother E. C. Holt began preaching once a month and first elders of Jacksonburg were appointed. The first elders were John Zahnd, A. C. Delano, and T. F. Blackburn. In 1916, Brother Isaac C. Hoskins held a meeting that lasted nearly a month, during which thirty men and women were baptized into Christ. Others who preached during these early years were L. T. Farris, Thorton Crews, Gilbert Schaffer, and E. O. Coffman, who traveled by train from Lawrenceburg once a month to preach. Brother Columbus Miles began leading singing in 1925 and continued doing so faithfully until his health no longer permitted. The one room school house burned down resulting in a new one being built in 1927. The church bought the school house and land and in 1941 built a new building. Franklin Puckett held the first meeting in the first meeting in the new building. Brother James Elliott was the first regular preacher in the new Jacksonburg church building. Over the years, improvements were slowly made to the building including adding classrooms, heating, and air conditioning, a well drilled, and a baptistry Installed. Brother Garry Gooch followed Brother Fred Winslett in becoming the pulpit preacher. He has preached for the congregation since 1968 except for a one year period in which he attended school in Montevallo. In 1996 major renovations began which resulted in the modern, comfortable building we now enjoy. In the early summer of 2006, a 3200 square foot annex building was completed for church related functions. The Jacksonburg congregation is indebted to many who so ably served in their roles as deacons, elders, and preachers and the wives who supported them over the years and a complete listing would be impossible to give in this limited space.

(Most of this history was condensed from notes written by Brother Cultice Quillen who was assisted by Eula Abston. The notes were provided to us by Sister Adine Butler.)