Marrable Hill
Celebrating 75 years of praise and worship
Early on in the 75 years of Marrable Hill Chapel its doors remained unlocked. That changed after the Sunday of the slippery pews, which happened because a helpful - if a bit confusedattendee decided all the wood needed polishing. Using paste wax they shined up all the pews plus the organist’s bench.
On Sunday, then organist Carolyn Thomas could not stay centered on the bench.
“I would play and slide until I got to the edge of the bench. Then I would reach over and pull myself back,” she said.
All morning she played, slid and pulled herself back to center.
Folks on the benches did not fair much better. The slightest move and they slid against each other.
“After that they locked the church,” Thomas said. “Brother Sam said, ‘We can’t have that happen again.’”
It didn’t. Still many other events have happened since 1949 when 76 people signed the church’s charter. To commemorate those years, Marrable Hill Chapel at 110 Chapel will celebrate their 75th anniversary on April 21 during the 10:40 a.m. worship service with musical specials and guest speaker Scott Taylor. Taylor, a former youth pastor, is now the minister at Sunny Gap Baptist Church in Conway. A fellowship dinner will follow the service with musical specials by past and present members along with testimonials.
Marrable Hill Chapel began in the late 1940s as a neighborhood Bible Study composed of people from various denominational backgrounds. Brother Sam Shepperson, the first pastor, helped organize the Bible Study group into a non-denominational church. Members wanted a community church without a denominational affiliation.
Very few of the charter members remain. They include Carolyn Thomas, then eight, the youngest signer.
“I was in the meeting, I could write my name in cursive, so I signed the charter,” she said.
Teenagers Peggy Head and Billie Ruth Brown also signed and both have continued as members ever since.
Initially, the church moved a military barracks to the property for services. In 1951 it was replaced with “The Little Chapel” which seated 300. In 1973, the church built a larger auditorium with double the seating. In 1951, they purchased property and began building Victory Bible Camp in Carthage.
Charter members, their families and others put in many hours building the church and camp. One of those involved in leadership since the early 1950s is Joe Williams.
He admits that at first, “I hung around the church - looking for the piano player. Not only was I awarded with a great church where I learned what I needed to know to live the Christian life, but I also got a Christian wife.”
After the Williams married they continued at the church from that time forward except when his job took him out of state. The late Nadine Williams played the piano from the 1950s until illness prohibited her doing so a couple of years ago.
Williams involvement has included serving as an Awana listener and on the board for Victory Bible Camp.
“Everybody that knows me knows that my middle name is VBC,” Williams said. He has been involved with camp since the beginning.
In the 1950s he served on what was then termed The Official Board Members.
“We had six of them and then we became deacons. Then we became deacons and elders. I have been on all of those as long as I can remember. I rotated three year terms between them since I began in the 1950s,” Williams said.
As the church’s elder statesman, Williams counts it a privilege that he had the opportunity to be on every pastoral search committee following Brother Sam Shepperson’s retirement after 46 years. As a member of those committees, he helped select Donny Hargett, Ben Wasson and the current pastor Blake Dailey. Williams served on boards with all four of the church’s pastors.
“Sam Shepperson was a different type of person. Not only did he know the Lord and His word, he knew how to communicate. He was an outstanding pastor,” he said.
Hargett returned to El Dorado in 1996 to be the second pastor.
“Donny was a kid that grew up in the church. He knew what he wanted to do at Victory Bible Camp. He was a hard working pastor.” Williams said.
Wasson served from 2006 until his retirement in 2019.
Williams said, “Ben Wasson was a studious, teaching pastor. He certainly did study a lot.”
“Blake Dailey is a beginner. Choosing him is a story in itself. After looking at 135 resumes and meeting for months, we were coming up blank until one day, we kicked a rock in the parking lot and up popped Blake Dailey,” he recalled.
Dailey became the pastor in 2020. He preached his first sermon to the small group of members who ventured out after the lifting of the Covid-19 Quarantine.
Williams said, “He brings a lot of new life. He has a lot of characteristics that Sam Shepperson had. You see that guy circulating around the church on Sunday morning. He remembers names. You see him at the front door of the church as you leave. He realizes that the lifeblood of the church comes from the youth.”
Williams has seen the faith and persistence of the church members financially. “We will
pay our bills. We went into debt one time. When we were building the big church, we ran out of money and the pews were ready to be delivered. We went to First National Bank for the money. Everything else had been contributed through the Lord by giving. Maybe we don’t talk enough about money, but it has always been secondary at Marrable Hill Chapel. If you make a need known, the money will always come forth.”
The church finances include helping support 16 missionary couples or individuals. Williams currently serves on the mission board. “I really believe in the ministry the way that we have with our missionaries,” he said. About half of the missionaries attended MHC at one time. Others have a connection with church members.
Billie Ruth Brown who served on the mission committee for many years often told folks that she learned God always gave back more than anything extra that she gave to missions.
At MHC, Peggy Head met her first missionaries: Mary Beam and Betty Cridland, missionaries to Africa. “I had never heard about missionaries. The church promised to give them $250 a month to be missionaries.”
Head was 13 when she signed the charter. Except nursing school, MHC has been her church. “Brother Sam moved to El Dorado about the time my folks did. We were almost neighbors on the hill. He didn’t have a place to live to begin with so he rented a room from a neighbor.”
Head laughed as she recalled the unmarried Shepperson’s habit of showing up at church members’ homes just in time for lunch or supper.
“He would go through the kitchen, pick up a plate, a fork and knife and food and come to the table,” Thomas said.
At one point, the late Gordon Jones, Sr. said he should claim Shepperson as a household member on his taxes because he ate with them so often.
The first decade of the church, Shepperson was single. His life and energy went into the church. “He wasn’t only our pastor, he was also our youth pastor. He made sure that all the teenagers attended. He would take us places all the time in his car. He would take us to Camden to go swimming. He would take us to the high school football games and afterwards we would get a hamburger or ice cream. He kept us all busy. He did not have any children at the time,” Head said.
“All the men on Marrable Hill helped do the work. Bro. Sam did not know anything about carpentry or plumbing but he got the men to do it. He just said, ‘if you know how, you go do it.’ You just couldn’t hardly say no to him.” Head said. Her father helped with the plumbing.
Jac Shepperson, the second of Sam’s three sons, grew up on The Hill, across the street from the church.
“My parents gave out so much, but we got back so much more from people from their gardens and things they had sewn or made. We were always being invited out for fish fries or dinner. Dad just had to mention something that needed to be done and an electrician or plumber would be there doing it. We were constantly involved in people’s lives and activities. It was a busy life,” Jac said
As the preacher’s kid, Jac helped mow the church lawn, picked up candles after the candlelight service and helped with Vacation Bible School and church camp. “We were there (at camp) every summer for five weeks. Coming up through the youth group, I played guitar and was involved in all the activities,” Jac said.
Head recalled that during the building of the chapel one man got permission from his boss for a few days off to build the baptistry. It took longer than expected. His boss asked, “Why are you taking so long? All you have to do is poke a few holes.”
“I have to put a tub differently at this church.” the worker said.
Baptism had to be different with members coming from various church backgrounds. At MHC, baptism could be by immersion or sprinkling.
“Brother Sam said baptism did not save us,” Head explained.
Beginning in the 1950s, the church has seen more than 50 individuals enter the ministry in one form or another and serve in a mixture of denominations - just like Marrable Hill Chapel. The credit for everything these past 75 years can be summed up, according to Williams, in the words on the cornerstone of the Little Chapel, “It is the Lord’s doing.”
That is the foundation for the church’s past 75 years and its future.