As area churches host their annual Lord’s Acre dinners and sales, I wondered how the tradition began. The idea started in 1922 when Rev. Henry M. Melton asked the farmers in his congregation to donate the proceeds of the harvest from one acre of farmland to the church. Seven farmers agreed. When the farmers reported that the acres were unaffected by boll weevils that first year, many others began to commit to the project. (Wikipedia, Lord’s Acre Movement, last edited Jan 25, 2024). The plan was helpful to farmers by giving them a way to tithe during the Depression years. In 1930, Jim McClure, the head of the Farmer's Federation of Western North Carolina, and Dr. Dumonte Clarke of Asheville, NC developed this idea into the Lord’s Acre Plan as a way for rural churches to raise money and they began spreading the word throughout the country.
The movement came to Harrison County in 1946 when area Methodist churches, all part of the Harrison County Larger Parish, began holding meetings to talk about how it could be implemented locally. The first sales were held in the fall. While an instrumental part of the planning, the Ridgeway ME church didn’t advertise their sale in the local papers and there was only a brief mention in the Ridgeway News column in Harrison County Times that the ladies of the church would serve a “Lord’s Acre turkey dinner at city hall on November 8 at noon. (Harrison County Times, Nov 6, 1947.) The sale garnered $800 for the Ridgeway church and over $14,000 for the Larger Parish from all the sales combined. (Bethany Republican-Clipper, Oct 31, 1947.)
Dr. Dumonte Clarke came to visit Harrison County in October 1948, speaking at both the Ridgeway and Mt. Moriah Methodist churches. He used “pictures showing development of rural church work in many parts of the nation.” (Bethany Republican-Clipper, October 20, 1948). Thus began a church tradition that continues to this day.
