One man's effort to remember a bygone era

By MIKE McCOY

Statesman Staff Writer

The solid walnut cross features 15 sensor lights that automatically come on at dusk and go off at dawn. The cross stands next to the sign at the entrance to the Mount Pisgah General Baptist Church in Aquilla.

The cross was built and erected by Richard "Dickie" Gaines of Dexter. His motivation was to do something in honor of his late wife, Barbara, and to honor the people who attended the church and have since died. Those people took him in as a teenager and became his friends.

"Those were really good people," says Gaines. "People were a lot closer back then."

Mount Pisgah Baptist Church at one time had a congregation of 150 to 180 people. As the small community of Aquilla has declined, so has attendance at the church. Former leaders of the church such as Marvin Cochran, Everett and Hazel Lawrence, Ed and Mamie Proffer, Paul Lee and Jim Henley have died. Mildred Palmer, who lives just up the road from the church and has attended services there since 1932, says the church is fortunate to have eight to 10 people there on Sunday morning. She began attending church there when she was nine years old.

"People starting going to the bigger towns to shop and to church," says Gaines. "and some moved away."

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Aquilla provided a hub for nearby residents to come for groceries, to eat, visit with their neighbors or to attend church.

D.N. Curtis ran the grocery store on the corner of Highway 25 and Highway M. It was a big two-story wood structure. Next to the store was their house. Further north on Highway 25, Everett Lawrence ran another grocery store. The historic store on the corner burned and was never replaced. The lot there is still vacant, but the house still remains to this day. Palmer can't remember what year the store burned; though it was most likely in the 1960s.

"Lawrence had the best meat and groceries," recalls Gaines. "It was a good place to meet and talk."

Shannon White, also a member of the Mount Pisgah Church, ran a television repair shop in Aquilla, and there were gas stations as well.

Gaines knows Palmer well. She is his mother-in-law. His late wife, Barbara, was the daughter of Mildred and Raleigh "Fuzz" Palmer. Barbara died in April, 2006. Fuzz Palmer died in November, 2009. The Palmers were also a big part of the Mount Pisgah Church through the years. Another of Mildred's daughters, Elsie Fry, lives next to her mother's house. Mildred has two other children, Jim Palmer of Dexter and Kathy Hyslop of Advance, who also grew up going to church there.

Gaines started attending church there in his late teenager years. It was in 1959. Soon after, he started dating Barbara. He was a regular at church after that, though he hasn't been as regular since his wife's death. Through his wife and her family he got to know and love the people in the Aquilla area. At the time he was a typical teenager, sporting a flat top and chasing the girls.

"Everybody knew everybody," Gaines says. "All the people were like family."

One of the people he met was Larry McCoy, who served as pastor of the church. McCoy loved music and played in a country gospel band with Fuzz Palmer and Elmer Cates. Gaines can remember people all gathering at rural churches or at the homes of one of the band members to listen to the music. Often other musicians would be present and add their talents to the gathering. The sound of banjos, mandolins, drums and lots of other instruments could be heard wafting across the countryside. Many times the gathering culminated with a big potluck on a sunny afternoon.

"On the Wings of a Dove," was one of the favorites.

McCoy gave Gaines a job working on a farm he rented near Acorn Ridge. There was an old farmhouse there where he lived in for a while.

"I was going to work for him full time," remembers Gaines. "That summer we had a drought like we're having this year. The corn didn't make because there was no irrigation and he had to let me go."

Mildred credits McCoy with being the one responsible for the Sunday School building that was added at the church. She says he began a fund drive there to get the funds for construction.

Gaines has many fond memories of those days. He and Barbara were married on May 6, 1961. They have one daughter, Tammy Vaughn, and a granddaughter.

Gaines as not born in the Aquilla area. He was born in the Cotton Belt in Dexter. The family bought a 40-acre place on Seven Sisters Road south of Dexter in 1944. He paid $800 for the land and the house. They had a milk cow and a horse and buggy.

'Back then it was just a narrow little gravel road," says Gaines of Seven Sisters Road, now County Road 624.

He spent 11 years working at Stites Concrete, but put a body shop behind his residence on the Highway 25 Frontage Road and made that his full time job. He fixed up cars and later opened Richard Gaines Auto Sales in 1990 along with Harold Hood. The business was located on what is now the corner of Business 60 and Mulberry Street.

The short stint Gaines worked on the farm at Acorn Ridge marked the only time he has lived away from Dexter.

The loss of his wife, his father-in-law and many of his friends in recent years led him to think about a way of remembering and honoring them.

"I was sitting in the chair one day and thought about my wife belonging to that church," Gaines says. "I thought about how much things have changed, and I thought about the cross."

He contacted the church and Pastor Ken White, and the people were enthused about the project. Inside the church there is a plaque with a list of former members in whose honor the cross was built.

Gaines contacted Donald Tucker who works at a mill in Lutesville, but lives in Dexter.

"I told him what I wanted," says Gaines. "He brought it the next day. It was heavier than I thought it would be."

He used the tools he had in the body shop to put the cross together. He sanded, stained and put some thought into how he wanted the cross lit at night.

"I put 12 lights on the face of it, one on each end and one at the top," he says. "I wanted to make it shine like it had a a big flashlight pointed at the top."

It took Gaines about a month and a half to build the cross. He attached the lights using copper tubing, so no rain could get into them. He had to have help to transport and erect the cross. Carl Graham of Dexter helped him.

"I've had quite a few people call me to tell me they liked it a lot," says Gaines. "I want to build another one if I find a church that wants it."

The cross was his way to remember the people who were his true friends. It reminds him of old times at Aquilla. It also is a tribute to his late wife.

'You need to bless this cross," Gaines says, in remembrance of the good times and the people who were such an important part of his life.