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Haddocks of Wiregrass, the history and images of Florida's pioneering Haddock family from Kings Ferry, Florida. BelleAire Press is a Gainesville, Florida-based independent publisher of hard copy and on-line works of historic fiction, non-fiction and military history. Recent publications—hard copy and on-line book published content—include: Baited Trap, the Ambush of Mission 1890, the Korean War’s deadliest helicopter rescue mission; Love, Midgie; Truckbusters From Dogpatch, the Combat Diary of the 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing in the Korean War, 1950-1953; and Flavors of the Fjords, the Norwegian Holiday Cookbook. BelleAire Press is an American book publishing company whose services include: book publishing, providing book publishing information and book publishing services, children's book publishing, ebook/e-book publishing, internet publishing, and online publishing. Our editorial staff provides help and support for the book publishing industry and authors in such areas as: children's book publishing, cookbook publishing, historic fiction, military history, custom publishing, getting published, on-demand book publishing and printing, publishing a book or “how to publish a book”, getting published, and how to publish a work on-line or on the internet.

"...let it be our pride that we ourselves may put meaning into our lives, and sometimes a significance that transcends death. If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children."
- Will and Ariel Durant


The Haddocks of Wiregrass

 

Ephesus Baptist Church

“In the year of our Lord 1845,” the Ephesus Baptist Church history colorfully records, “during a very turbulent period in American history and in the same year that Florida attained its statehood, in the year that the Southern Baptist Convention was organized in Augusta, Georgia, a small group of people in the grip of a need organized a body to be known as the Ephesus Baptist Church near Kings Ferry, Florida, a small, out-of-the-way community in Nassau County, near the present town of Hilliard.”

Charter members of the church included William Vanzant, Lavinia Vanzant, Joseph Haddock and Elizabeth Haddock.

At the time of the church’s organization, the community of Kings Ferry “was a small saw-mill town destined to bloom into a thriving locality and then again to fade into obscurity when the timber had been cut over...With Florida still in the pioneer stage, and with Ephesus the only church for miles around, a log structure was raised...and for some 26 years this was the sanctuary in which the people gathered for worship. When services were in the process of being held, people traveled from miles around on horseback and in wagons, over rough roads and sometimes almost impassable terrain, some of them making the trip all the way from Georgia to take part in the worship.”

“During the infant years of the church, services were seldom held more than once a month...the favorite time for worship was on Saturday evening and the following Sunday morning and evening.

Since the church was served by men who held other pastorates, and since it was never known just when the circuit riding preacher would arrive, when he did come, messangers were sent out on horseback to announce the services to those of the country-side, and the members and other worshippers would begin to assemble by whatever means of conveyance were available to them. 12 

Deacons who served Ephesus Baptist Church over the years included Joseph Haddock, George Haddock, Thomas Haddock, James A. Vanzant, Harley Jones, Rufus G. Haddock, Paul Haddock, Sherman Campbell, J.J. Vanzant, Henry Haddock, James Haddock, Willie Vanzant, Eugene Haddock, Allen McKendree, Ernest Vanzant, Elwood Sapp, D. T. Haddock, Maurice Haddock, Louis Haddock, Bailey Haddock, Stanley Vanzant, Bennie C. Lewis, W.A. Haddock, Harry Vanzant, Hubert Vanzant and Josie Vanzant.

[Source: A Brief History of the Ephesus Baptist Church (Kings Ferry, Florida, May 14, 1961), p. 1.]

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