Gretna Christian Church newspaper articles Danville Bee

Gretna Christian Church 100th Anniversary

Minister:  Dwight Mays

111 Leftwich Street
Gretna, Virginia
Mailing Address: Post Office Box 644 Gretna, Virginia 24557

I have been searching the Danville Register Bee newspaper for any mention of Gretna Christian Church.  Danville  is a city approximately 40 miles from Gretna.  It is the closest major city to Gretna.  So I began my search at Ancestry.com in 1922 and so far these are the articles that I found.

Danville Bee  March 21, 1929
Gretna News
Revival Services will begin at the Christian church here either Thursday or Friday before the Fifth Sunday in this month and will continue thru the First Sunday in April when the new church will on that day will be dedicated.

(I am typing these articles verbatim.  It looks like there were a few typographical errors.)

Danville Bee June 29, 1929
Gretna News
Dr. A. F. Ramsey will preach at Gretna Christian Church on Sunday at 11:00 a.m.

Danville Bee August 21, 1933
Gretna News
The revival services which began Monday at the Christian church are being well attended.  The Reverend Mr. Hasselvander, of Danville, is doing the preaching.

Ancestry.com says they have the Danville Bee from 1922 to 1977, but when I logged on to search there was a gap between 1933 to 1950.  That was a major disappointment.  I checked the Danville Register and they only have 1961 to 1977.   However, I did find that Dr. A. F. Ramsey was still preaching at the church in the late twenty's.  If you will remember Dr. Ramsey was mentioned in one of Reverend Coffey's articles about building a church in a day.

P. P. Hasselvander was the minister of the Jefferson Avenue Christian Church in Danville, Virginia when he preached at the revival services for Gretna Christian Church in 1933.  He was formerly a preacher at the First Christian Church in Bristol, Virginia and the Christian Church at Bluefield, West Virginia.

I have also found the exact date of the dedication of the new church by the article of March 21, 1929.  They said that the dedication of the new church would be the first Sunday in April.  I looked up the 1929 calendar and that would have been April 7, 1929.

Thank you

Mark E. Poole  photos

Disciples of Christ Historical Society 

Gretna Christian Church

Atha Bailey

Linda Dalton

Ancestry.com and The Danville Bee