Church History

The memories of Cecil Fortner

The History of the Hopkinsville Seventh Day Adventist Church

Cecil Fortner remembers:

We moved from Fulton, K. Y. to Princeton, K. Y. in February of 1957.  My father went to work with his brothers at the Fortner L. P. Gas Company at Princeton, K. Y.  We started coming to the Hopkinsville Seventh Day Adventist Group, meeting in the Chester Maddox’s basement, in his house. 

The first church was built on the corner of Woodridge Street and Canton Pike in 1960. They had a church school in the back of the church.

I remember Doctor Rose and his wife Helen, and their children. I remember Raymond and Betty Harold and their children real well.

The church would have a get together at the Harold’s Farm often. I remember going to Mr. and Mrs. Gray’s home for Sabbath Dinner.

I remember Mr. and Mrs. Hutchens. After Mr. Hutchens’s died she moved away, and became a secretary of Jack Darnell’s office for the Wilderness Survival Club.  I still have the Bible Tapes that she gave me.

I remember Dr. Long and his wife Beverly.  She was real sweet to my dad and mother. She played the piano at the Hopkinsville Church.

My dad and mom brought Fred and Ethel Walker into the Hopkinsville S. D. A. church.

I Gave bible studies to Al Hen, and he joined the church. Sometimes the Hopkinsville Church would go out to his place, at Cadiz, K. Y., to have a picnic dinner.

I remember Johnny Ellis and her Daughter.

After mom died in January 1981, dad married a lady of the Hopkinsville church named Mary. She was the Community Service Director of the area.

I remember L. A. Watson, the pastor there.  I still have his set of books he gave me.

I remember Pastor Henry A. Fowler real well back in 1970.  He is the one that baptized Al Hen, at Cadiz, in the lake behind his house. 1970 was the year that the Clarksville Treasurer was murdered. That church money was taken away by a robber.

 I think that the Hopkinsville Church was built in 1985, the same year that my dad died.  They had a church school in the basement of the new church at one time.  A fire took place in the basement of the new church.