And a HIGHWAY shall be there...
"And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Isaiah 35:8
Pioneer families began establishing homesteads around the Clinton County area in the 1790s and Clinton County was founded in 1835. About the year 1890, John S. Keen and his wife Anna came from nearby Cumberland County seeking a building site for a bible mission school. He stopped his buggy and said, “Wife, this is where God wants the school. I feel the fire falling.” Mr. Keen bought a large tract of land, paying fifty cents an acre. Mr. Keen built his home there on the Albany Burkesville Road, the road passing by the north side of the church. First he had school in his home while building the two and one half story school, with a wing on the back which provided space for a kitchen and dining area.
Mr. Keen also opened a store and on July 28, 1892 a United States post office was opened there. The name Highway was given to the post office. By 1892 Keen had built and founded the Bible Mission School. The school’s location would have been a few hundred feet south on Groce Gibson Road. From the memory of the late Mrs. Eula Mackey, she said Highway at that time was a good sized village. It had a dormitory for boys and one for girls. The girls dormitory still stands at the end of Abston Lane. It had a post office, two stores, two blacksmith shops, one livery stable, and one printing press. In the fall and spring they would have camp meetings with some four or five thousand attending. After about ten years into the school, Keen transferred the property and management of the school to a Mr. Evans. The school rapidly declined along with an orphanage which he operated in connection with the school, and it also closed.
By 1905, Mr. Evans had taken the building apart piece by piece and sold the lumber. All that remained was the kitchen and dining room. It was sold for a dwelling and one night it burned to the ground. During the last few years of the Bible Mission School, J.A. Willingham came to Highway to work at the school. He began conducting Sunday School in an old store building or in people’s homes.
His group, known as the Holiness Band began to grow. Not long afterward, this little group of Christians, which was not affiliated with any denomination, heard about an organization called the Church of the Nazarene. In 1909, the Highway Church of the Nazarene was organized. After two years as pastor, Rev. Willingham had built the original church and sold the church and property to the trustees of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene for the sum of $428.98, $212.08 down and balance to be paid later.
In 1932-35, Pastor M.L. Bayes added three Sunday School rooms. In 1952-57, while Bob Hoots was pastor, a basement was dug from underneath the church, adding five additional Sunday School rooms. In 1973, under the leadership of Robert Carter, the old church building was torn down to make way for a new one. The new church was completed and ready for the mortgage burning and dedication service on August 31, 1975. In 2004-05, under the leadership of Bro. Bobby Grant, the church was remodeled into the beautiful church you see today.
There have been 27 pastors of the church from the time organized. It was a relatively new denomination. It was the first Nazarene church building east of the Mississippi. To list the outstanding people from the Highway community would perhaps overlook some quite noble, Godly person, whose influence is known only by the Divine. The influence of Highway can’t be estimated, but no doubt the Christian principles taught here have reached around the world.
Pastors of Highway Church of the Nazarene
