HISTORY OF 79-YEAR-OLD CHURCH CHRONICLED

Rev. W.E. Hicks, of Red Star Baptist Church, celebrates his fourth year as pastor by baptizing four people in Juden Creek in 1931. The girl closest to him is Hollis Swendel Smith, who is still a member of the church.

Anita Williams holds a chalk drawing of the Red Star Baptist Tabernacle as it appeared in 1949. On the wall is the first Red Star Baptist Church, which was built in 1918. The drawings are by church member Katie Crawford. Williams is researching the history of the church. (Photo by Jim Obert)

Anita Williams joined the congregation of Red Star Baptist Church about one day after she and her husband moved to Cape Girardeau County from St. Louis in 1959.

She never thought that one day she would become the church's historian -- especially since she hated history in school.

"History was the most boring subject I ever took," said Williams. "Now I really enjoy it, and I'm also doing my family genealogy. I've surprised myself."

Located on North Main Street in Cape Girardeau, the church was once part of the thriving Red Star District of the county. The famed International Shoe Factory was located there, and red stars were imprinted on the heels of the shoes.

Williams was reluctant to join the church's history committee. Besides disliking history, she had been doing volunteer work as a cook since 1972. She also worked in the Bible School and was a substitute teacher. She continues to substitute in local schools.

She didn't think she had time "to research history, which I didn't like."

Williams, who was born in Leeper in Wayne County, nevertheless joined the history committee about five years ago and found the work was not at all demanding.

"For the first couple of years on the committee nobody did anything, and nobody asked me to do anything. We didn't have meetings or anything," said Williams.

"But I knew that history is something you have to keep after if you're going to study it. I got to talking to some church members like Katie Crawford and Dorothy Beard and other long-timers, and I said, 'Let's get something going.'"

They did. It took about two years of sifting through old papers, documents, notes on baptisms and minutes of various meetings before the history of the Red Star Baptist Church began to unfold.

"It was pretty hard in the beginning," said Williams, who used to own the old Sunset Motel where she became experienced in keeping ledgers. "We dug around in the basement and in back offices.

"It was very haphazard how the old papers were piled ... stored all over the place. First we compiled lists of who was baptized what year and with what preacher."

Williams said she and her helpers didn't find any old photographs in the church "archives," but plenty would become available once other church members became aware of their persistence in the matter.

Williams has compiled 35 albums of church history and history of Cape Girardeau. She says the two subjects often overlap.

The Red Star albums contain old newspaper clippings, church programs and announcements, a listing of the church's 17 pastors and the years they served, biographies of the pastors, photographs of congregations, individuals and multiple creek baptisms, photographs of church sports teams and of the different buildings that have been home to the church since it was first organized as a Baptist mission in 1916.

The church really began as an open air assembly, says Williams. The first services were held under a shade tree on land owned by the Diebold family.

When the weather was inclement, the nearby Peterson family would open the doors of their house to the worshipers.

In 1917 construction began of a 30-by-40-foot meeting room. It was completed the next year, but an ever-growing congregation made additions to the structure necessary.

"But it was always too small," said Williams of the building, turning pages in an album, looking at faded black-and-white photos of early pastors. "So in 1932 when W.E. Hicks was pastor, material was ordered for the tabernacle."

The tabernacle served the congregation well, until the present church, a large brick structure, was built in 1951.

Williams says the first pastor of Red Star Baptist Church was Rev. John Rose. He served from 1920 to 1921, and preached only once every two weeks.

Church documents show Rose was paid $30 a month plus expenses. Born in Johnson County, Ill., Rose moved to Morehouse, Mo., then moved to Cape Girardeau where, while a student at Cape State Teachers College, he became a Baptist minister.

"We've got a lot of interesting information on the old pastors," said Williams, happily.

Compiling the history of the church is an on-going project, says Williams. Information on church officials and members is continually sought.

"I use anything anyone will give me," Williams said, emphatically.

Not every church has a historian and, therefore, not every church has a written and pictorial history. But Williams' endeavors seem to be rubbing off on people who attend churches other than Red Star Baptist.

"They see what I've done and they'll often say that's what needs to be done at their church."