Thursday, November 25, 2004
A THANKSGIVING FOR LOUIS NEWTON: 11-25-04
TINNEY CHAPEL PATRIARCH, Henry Louis Newton (right), came home again after a long career in southern Texas to re-join this church in 2001, just 73 years after he first became a member as a teenager in 1928. At left is Tinney Chapel Senior Pastor Duncan Graham, who conducted the historic service in 2001. Photo by Angela Wylie.
On this Thanksgiving Day, nothing seems quite so appropriate as does the opportunity to reprint the following column from Tinney Chapel UMC's venerable print newsletter, edited and produced by the one and only Zonnie Griffin. At this writing, it is also wonderful to report that Louis Newton is home from the hospital and doing well again. Among the Living Legends of our 104-year-old quintessential country church, Louis Newton stands first, as suggested below!
TINNEY TALK:
Observations by Joe Dan Boyd
Henry Louis Newton, our 90-year-old patriarch of Tinney Chapel UMC, was born in these parts, not far from what is now 449 County Road 4620, where we sing praises and offer our worship to the Lord each Sunday morning. We don’t know exactly when Louis first worshiped here, but we do know exactly when he first joined Tinney Chapel: August 10, 1928, the day he was baptized after professing his faith.
“After I was baptized at that revival service, I ran all the way home,” recalls Louis, who was just nine days into his fourteenth year of life. It was not a long run, less than a mile, most of which Louis actually ran through the pasture rather than down the road. Teen-age boys in the Tinney Chapel farming community of the late 1920s understood that travel to any destination was usually accomplished while running or walking.
That his memorable conversion experience sent Louis running for home 76 years ago, during a pre-quintessential era at Tinney Chapel, is perhaps best regarded as a metaphor for his Christian journey toward Home! That journey began even earlier, says his niece, Arvinell Newton McClaren, who has heard Louis describe his distant memories of Papaw Tinney, for whom this church is named. “He read the Bible aloud as I sat on his knee,” recalls Louis, who thought Papaw Tinney must have looked a lot like Moses!
His mother, Mary Francis Tinney Newton, was Louis’ first Sunday School teacher. Mary Francis taught Bible Study for Tinney Chapel’s youngest kids. It was dubbed the Card Class, thanks to postcard-size handouts of lavishly illustrated Biblical stories. Louis remembers that his Card Class met “in the corner” of the original 1900 sanctuary.
Louis also remembers a fund-raising drive at Tinney Chapel, when the ladies were selling homemade Kool-Ade, probably for a nickel a cup. Arvinell says that Louis and his childhood friend, “Goat” Highnote, challenged each other to drink as much as they could, with the loser paying the tab for both. He never revealed who won the Kool-Ade contest, but Tinney Chapel had won his heart: Louis Newton came home again after a long career in southern Texas to re-join this church in 2001, running a tad slower after 73 years, but still knowing the way Home!
