This Crittenden County material provided by Brenda J. Jerome, CGRS, bjjerome@wowway.com
We have come to the season of the year when Crittenden County
people begin to plan for our annual Camp Meeting at Old
Hurricane Camp Ground.
Our Hurricane Church has made a great contribution to the
religious life of our county, state and even our nation.
It has sent out a great number of preachers and singers,
one of those was our own beloved Billie Yates, who traveled
the length and breadth of the land.
The Hurricane Sunday School is the oldest Methodist Sunday
School in the county, being organized about 1868.
The history of Hurricane Church dates back to 1843 when
Richard Minner gave the land to build a church. In 1850
Robert H. Haynes sold a tract of land to Andrew Jackson, but
reserved 4 acres which he deeded to the Methodist Church in
1875 for a general burying ground. Some of the oldest graves
in Crittenden County are found in the Hurricane Cemetery. Some
dates are before the Civil War.
It is tradition, but no records to prove it, that Old Hurricane
church was once known as Big Spring Church. The name being
taken from the Big Spring which older people remember at the
foot of the hill. This was about the time the Ford Gang operated
in and around Ford's Ferry, Cave-In-Rock and Hurricane Island.
The first Camp Meeting was held in 1899. Rev. J.J. Smith
attended this first meeting and continued to be the evangelist
or one of the preachers for more than 50 years.
Crittenden Press Friday, 22 Aug 1952
Brenda Joyce Jerome, CGRS