A Band of Sisters: The Early Years of the Cumberland District Ladies Aid Society
The Women Nationally Active for Christ serves as the national organization for women’s ministry among Free Will Baptists. The organization was formed in 1935 in conjunction with the founding of the National Association of Free Will Baptists (NAFWB). The diligent work of many women from states like North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas culminated in the formation of this organization. But no group had a larger influence than the women of the Cumberland District Ladies Aid Society (CDLAS; now the Cumberland District Women Active for Christ) in Middle Tennessee.
Led by such luminaries as Fannie Polston (1881-1964), Mary Ann Welch (1890-1969), and Agnes Frazier (1897-1993), the CDLAS was one of the earliest organizations for women’s work among modern Free Will Baptists. These women developed much of what would eventually become the mission and purpose of the national women’s organization. Their concern for spiritual development, stewardship, missions, and education would spread far beyond their local district. For these reasons, the story of their founding and early development is important for understanding women’s work among Free Will Baptists after the nineteenth century.
Early Women’s Ministry in the Cumberland Association
The earliest efforts toward developing a women’s organization within churches now associated with the NAFWB began around 1900. A West Virginia pastor in the Randall Movement named Dell Upton came to Nashville in 1907 to serve as the pastor of Cofer’s Chapel Free Will Baptist Church. Even though he remained in Nashville for only two years, Upton introduced the idea of an independent women’s ministry that would support the church’s mission. On December 17, 1907, he welcomed both married and single women to the first meeting of the Cofer’s Chapel Ladies Aid Society in his home.[1] He wanted to include women in building the Kingdom by providing new opportunities for them to use their talents.
Two of the founding members of the Cofer’s Chapel society were especially important for the later development of women’s work throughout the denomination: Fannie Polston and Mary Ann Weaver (later Mary Ann Welch). Polston was from Cheatham County, Tennessee, but she moved to Nashville and began attending Cofer’s Chapel after she married Fred Polston in 1902. In Sparks into Flame, Mary Ruth Wisehart notes Polston’s good business sense, intelligence, and courage.[2] These three qualities gave Polston an entrepreneurial character that uniquely suited her for leadership.
Nine years younger than Polston, Weaver and her future husband John L. Welch (1889-1983) best grasped and communicated the broader vision of Upton. After the Welches married in 1912, they worked as a team to encourage the formation of a national denomination and a centrally located denominational college. Their diligent promotion of these causes was instrumental in the eventual development of the NAFWB and Free Will Baptist Bible College (now Welch College). However, they were also committed to growing women’s organizations in local churches.
The Founding of the Cumberland Ladies Aid Societies
Through the encouragement of Upton in 1908, the Cofer’s Chapel society began publishing a newspaper, The Free Will Baptist Record. Polston and Weaver would eventually serve as the editors of the paper. The Record related the goals and activities of their society, hoping to encourage other churches to begin similar organizations.
Through The Record and the work of the Welches, the societies expanded into area Free Will Baptist churches in the Cumberland Association. Heads Free Will Baptist Church in Turnersville and Rock Springs Free Will Baptist Church in Neptune both formed Ladies Aid Societies in 1916.[3] Oaklawn Free Will Baptist Church in Thomasville and an unknown number of other churches also had active Ladies Aid Societies by the next year.
Until 1920, these societies remained individual entities, connected solely to the local church. They often sent reports to the annual meeting of the Cumberland Association but otherwise carried out their activities independent of one another. That year they formed the Ladies Aid Societies of the Freewill Baptists of Tennessee. Despite their self-description as a state organization, this group did not include any societies outside of the Cumberland Association.
Soon thereafter more Tennessee Free Will Baptist churches developed women’s organizations, leading to the formation of multiple district associations. Thus in 1929, the women of the Cumberland Association renamed their organization the Cumberland District Ladies Aid Societies (CDLAS). That year the association could boast twenty-five societies in its membership.[4] The faithful work of those first women in Upton’s home was paying dividends.
The Mission of the Cumberland Ladies Aid Societies
In the early years of women’s work among Free Will Baptists, little cohesion existed as to their mission or goals. As late as the early 1920s, many of these organizations thought of themselves as “little group[s] banded together to carry out [their] own separate programs.”[5] Most focused on needs in the local church, such as providing new furnishings or paying the minister. But this attitude soon changed. According to Polston, by the early 1930s, women’s societies had become active participants in the broader mission of the church through encouraging spiritual development, stewardship, missions, and education.[6]
The societies promoted spiritual development through study and prayer. Each meeting of the societies was supposed to include a Bible lesson that was meant to encourage further study. Polston also wanted to emphasize prayer, so in 1930 she developed an annual week of prayer for the Cumberland societies to observe in November.[7] The societies also studied books on Christian discipline.[8]
Stewardship became a special emphasis of the Cumberland societies through the work of another early leader, Agnes Frazier. Frazier attended Bethlehem Free Will Baptist Church in Ashland City during her childhood. After marrying in 1917, Frazier moved to Alabama before ending up in Nashville around 1925. She and her husband James joined East Nashville Free Will Baptist Church, which had recently been gathered through the work of Polston and the Welches.
The Welches strongly encouraged Frazier, a schoolteacher, to begin writing material for Ladies Aid societies to use in their monthly meetings. In 1929 Frazier responded by writing her first pamphlet entitled Stewardship and Missions. Before meeting the Welches, Frazier did not remember ever hearing about tithing or stewardship.[9] However, through their ministry she became convinced that Christ has dominion over more than ten percent of a person’s income.
Through the work of Frazier and before her Welch, most Cumberland District societies started practicing regular financial giving above their tithe. Beyond this regular giving, they continued to raise funds through quilt sales, bake sales, and other public events. As a result, the societies began raising a significant amount of money.
Much of the money raised by these societies went to missions. The women of the Cumberland began to advocate for foreign missions work well before any modern Free Will Baptist missionary had actually entered the field. Mrs. Miles Gower from Heads Church, who served as the chairwoman of missions in 1928, reported that nine churches had held missions services in the previous year.[10] Welch, in her 1929 report as the superintendent of stewardship and missions, called the women of the Cumberland to pray for people to understand that stewardship was essential for supporting missions.[11] Making clear the import of her argument, Welch then argued that without missions Christianity was a “hollow mockery.”[12]
The other important emphasis for financial support was education. One of the goals of the monthly meetings was to provide Bible education for women who would otherwise have no access to it. Beyond this, the women of the Cumberland District were interested in a Free Will Baptist college. One of the utmost goals for The Record all the way back in 1908 had been to raise support for a Free Will Baptist institution in Nashville. Polston’s interest in education eventually earned her a seat on the board of Eureka College, a Free Will Baptist institution in Ayden, North Carolina.[13] Before her death, Polston sold her home and donated to proceeds to Free Will Baptist Bible College. When the college constructed a new women’s dormitory in 1971, they named it Polston Hall in her honor.
Frazier and the Welches’ daughter Jean both spoke persuasively about the cause of a Free Will Baptist college at the 1938 annual session of the Cumberland Association. These speeches led to Frazier publishing an article on behalf of the Board of Education for the National Association of Free Will Baptists to raise support for a denominational college and Jean Welch making her plea before the 1939 annual session of the National Association. The women of the CDLAS also gave financial support for Eureka College, Zion Bible School in Blakely, Georgia, and eventually Free Will Baptist Bible College (now Welch College).[14]
Conclusion
Through the work of these faithful women, a strong women’s work was developed in the Cumberland Association. When the WNAC was formed, much of the structure, purpose, and mission came from the CDLAS. Their emphases on spiritual development, stewardship, missions, and education were appealing to other women’s organizations. For these reasons, Polston, Welch, and Frazier all served in important leadership roles during the early years of the WNAC, giving it structure and direction for the future. Without their influence, Free Will Baptist women’s ministry would look much different today.
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[1]Mary Ruth Wisehart, Sparks into Flame: A History of the Woman’s National Auxiliary Convention of the National Association of Free Will Baptists, 1935-1985 (Nashville: Woman’s National Auxiliary Convention, 1985), 18.
[2]Ibid., 61. Due to the nature of this article, when a last name is used to refer to an individual whose spouse is also mentioned in this piece, that name will always refer to the wife. Husbands will be referred to by their first and last names. Dell Upton is the exception because his wife is not mentioned.
[3]Minutes of the Cumberland Association of Freewill Christian Baptists, 1919 ([Nashville, TN] : Executive Committee of the Cumberland Association, 1919), 9-10.
[4]Minutes of the General Conference of the Original Free Will Baptist of the United States, 1929 (Ayden, NC: Executive Committee of the General Conference, 1929), 8.
[5]Minutes of the General Conference of the Original Free Will Baptist of the United States, 1931 (Ayden, NC: Executive Committee of the General Conference, 1931), 15.
[6]Ibid.
[7]Minutes of the General Conference of the Original Free Will Baptist of the United States, 1930 (Ayden, NC: Executive Committee of the General Conference, 1930), 6.
[8]In 1929 Polston reported that the CDLAS had studied Charles A. Cook’s book on “Stewardship and Missions” [Minutes of the General Conference of the Original Free Will Baptist of the United States, 1929 (Ayden, NC: Executive Committee of the General Conference, 1929), 8]. Later she recommended Cook’s The Larger Stewardship and Helen Barrett’s Prayer and Mission [Minutes of the General Conference of the Original Free Will Baptist of the United States, 1933 (Ayden, NC: Executive Committee of the General Conference, 1933), 20].
[9]Wisehart, Sparks into Flame, 74.
[10]Ibid., 51.
[11]Minutes of the Convention of Ladies Aid Societies of Free Will Baptists of Cumberland Association, of Tennessee, 1929 ([Nashville]: Executive Committee of the Cumberland District Ladies Aid, 1929), 4.
[12]Ibid.
[13]Obituary in Tennesseean (April 25, 1964), 16.
[14]Minutes of the General Conference of the Original Free Will Baptist of the United States, 1931 (Ayden, NC: Executive Committee of the General Conference, 1931), 16; and Minutes of the General Conference of the Original Free Will Baptist of the United States, 1934 (Ayden, NC: Executive Committee of the General Conference, 1934), 17.
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