A History fit for Hollywood

Hollywood, take note: the founding story of Ebenezer Baptist Church and Lewis Henry Bailey is a movie waiting to be made.

The story of the church, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this weekend, begins with Lewis Henry Bailey's tale.

To hear church historian Joyce Webster, 68, tell what is known, there are some gaps just begging to be filled in by Hollywood

license.

Bailey was born in Dranesville, and was sold as a slave, alongside his brother, on an Alexandria auction block, when he was 9. His new master took Bailey to Texas.

"He never saw his brother again," said Webster, who has been a member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church since she was 10.

She said that his brother also went to Texas, but was probably killed.

Bailey's master treated him poorly, but he was later sold to another Texan, who treated him better. He was the personal servant to his master's young daughter.

"She taught him his ABCs, because he couldn't read or write," Webster said. "To teach him his ABCs, she taught him in song and they used a game."

Teaching slaves was illegal, and Webster said the girl's father didn't know she was doing it.

Bailey was freed after the Civil War.

"He walked from Texas to Alexandria, through all of that destruction of the Civil War, through all of that unrest," Webster said. "He walked during the night and he slept during the day."

What Bailey did for food or how he knew how to get back to Virginia, Webster said no one knows. He worked as a house slave, so he probably did not know how to hunt, but he was probably ex-tremely resourceful, as he eventually made it back to his mother, Ella.

"We don't know how he knew where to go, which way to go, that's why we say it was God's plan," Webster said.

Once back in Virginia and reunited with his mother, Bailey, then 19, took a railroad job. He met a young white man who taught him to read using newspapers.

"From there he started to read everything -- medicine bottles, dictionaries, canned food bottles,"Webster said. "Whatever had words on it, he would read it."

He attended Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C., and later joined the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Alexandria as a supply minister. He would go to other communities to preach or help start congregations, until, Webster said, he was told of a community in Occoquan that needed "moral and Christian guidance."

Coming from the city to the country, Bailey didn't know anyone, but had help from Jennie Scott. With her efforts, they founded Ebenezer Baptist Church. The property was purchased in 1881 and the corner stone was laid two years later. There was a dedication in 1885, but any more information was lost when the original church burned in 1923.

Inmates from the Lorton prison formed a bucket brigade to help fight the fire, but the effort was futile.

Webster said the cause of the fire is still unknown.

Bailey died in 1936 at the age of 96. His only descendent, daughter Annie B. Rose, died in 1996.

At least eight of its more than 800 current members still have roots in its founding.

The Ebenezer Baptist Church has other historical moments to commemorate this weekend.

» In 1914 the church had its largest baptism, with 40 converts baptized in the Occoquan River on the first Sunday in May.

» In the late 1970s Jesse Jackson performed a wedding at Ebenezer Baptist Church, said Web-ster.

»Television anchor Jim Vance was the emcee for the church's 89th anniversary in 1972.

"It was always something exciting going on," said Gladys Bushrod, 92, who has been with the church for almost 75 years. Her grandfather, Augustus White, was a deacon.

"All my life, we'd make different trips around the state and everything, but nothing has ever been as interesting as old Ebenezer," Bushrod said.

Staff Writer Josh Eiserike can be reached at 703-878-8072 or jeiserike@potomacnews.com.