DEWAYNE'S CORNER | STARTED BY FEW, NOW MANY: History of Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Before there was a Marlow, in 1894, a dozen eager Christians met a need for religion here. No full-time minister but a dozen believers in Christ started meeting at first in homes and later in the auditorium of the school. First part-time pastor was hired in 1895. By 1896,27 we had grown to 27. Then the Methodist offered part of their building for our services.

By 1923, a full-time pastor Rev, R.E. Matlock came to Marlow. He suggested we have a place of worship. Property at the corner of Kiowa and Sixth Street was purchased and a people called Cumberland Presbyterian built a long-time future in Marlow. By 1955, membership was well over one hundred and was believed and prayed over for a new

building to serve the growing church. In May 1957, the old building was torn down and the new was building dedicated in December 1957. In the '1970s the name was changed to The First Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Marlow.

We were instrumental in keeping The Owens Prairie Congregation in the 1950s active as we accepted it as a mission church supplying our minster Rev. Loyce Estes there every other Sunday. Some Sunday evenings we joined together and had service and fellowship. Rev. LaRoyce Brown saw a need in Duncan in 1970 to start a mission church. By 1974 it was organized. Then it grew as Rev. Dale Nease was the pastor in the 1980s and '90s. In 2010, Duncan merged with Marlow and that property was sold to Duncan Regional Hospital. Rock Creek was another C. P. Church in this area with Marlow the only one to survive.

This month we are finishing up a remodel of the sanctuary. I didn't like seeing the stage change as I was baptized there, a lot of Christmas programs and Easter Cantata's were sung there. Five years ago, my great grandson's infant baptism took place, but it was time as age had started to show wear and the stage floor getting weak. A new look but always a place to worship our Lord.

I studied the records books of our church and found where my great-grandmother Fannie (Flurry) Barker joined the church in 1920. I have had aunts and uncles join. Mother and Dad moved back to Marlow and joined in 1955. My sister Annetta and her husband Gerald, my son Steven and I are members now.

We have the first woman minister to fill our pulpit now, Rev. Terra Sisco. After seven years she has no thought of leaving. She wrote " And people think that small, older churches cannot do anything. Well, Marlow CP has proven that wrong! "As she would say "W.O.W. God."

I could go on and on about these people called Cumberland Presbyterians, I love God, I love my Church and I love what we call home, My Marlow, Oklahoma, U.S.A.