Page 193 - lake-city-florida-a-sesquicentennial-tribute-(h-morris-williams-kevin-mccarthy)-2009

Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy

Chapter Fourteen: 1940 - 1949

Churches of Lake City in the 1940s

In 1940, Catholic officials made the Lake City parish inde-
pendent with a priest of its own after decades of being serviced by
priests stationed in Tallahassee. The first resident priests after that
were Father Michael Kelly, then Father James Keogh, Father Paul
Couming, and Father Patrick Malone (who began serving there in
1955).
During the 1940s ministry of Methodist pastor Rev. Paul
Redfern, plans were begun to build a new sanctuary on the corner of
Orange and Alachua streets, but in 1946, while Rev. A.A. Koestline
was pastor, a fire destroyed part of the church, and parishioners in-
creased their building fund to $24,000 to build a new church.

Lake City’s First
United Methodist
Church in recent
times

The Baptists established the Pine Grove Baptist Church in
1946 in the Five Points area just north of the city limits. Since 1939
some of the pastors who served in local Baptist churches were C.R.
Roberts, W.T. Halstead, James T. Mashburn, James A.
McKeithin, Hubert W. Barnes, Allen J. Freeman, E.L. Mixon,
Carson Brittain, Joe Lee Wood, Wilbur Bates, Waldo Wood,
Clarence Clements, Ivan Clements, and John Dicks.
In 1946, local Lutherans, many of whom transferred from the
Bethlehem Congregation, established St. Luke’s Lutheran Church at
925 E. Duval Street. The first pastor was Rev. F.I. Fesperman, who
remained until 1950 and was followed by Rev. E.B. Heidt.

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