ABOUT

This building of Yadkin Church is all that remains of a once populated town of Yadkin, Arkansas.

The community at one time boasted a general store, post office, two blacksmith shops, grist mill, cotton gin, sawmill, church, several dwelling and outbuildings. This area were the church stands is located in the northwest corner of Randolph County, near Ravenden Springs.

At one time the lands here were located inside the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. Then it was in Missouri Territory, Arkansas Territory, Arkansas County, Lawrence County and now in Randolph County, Arkansas. Yadkin was once in the Union Township and is now in the Janes Creek Township, located about 10 miles from the Missouri line.

The Yadkin Church is a one room church building. These churches use to be plentiful in the Arkansas and Missouri countryside but are becoming fewer and fewer in number. Recently members of the Yadkin Restoration Team have submitted an application to the Arkansas Heritage in Little Rock and were successful in getting the church listed on the National Register of Historical Places. (The National Register of Historical Places is the official list of the Nations Historical Places worthy of preservation.} Thanks to Mr. Scott Kaufman for his assistance with the application.

Before Yadkin's establishment, the church was associated with the Bethany Missionary Church located hereby, Bethany Baptist was organized in 1874 and was established with members of the Yadkin

community.

In approximately 1894 Solomon Davis, the land owner contracted his brother in law, William Bynum Mariott to build a church on the present location. Native stone and logs from the forests were hauled in by

wagons and horses to the church site for piers and foundation materials. Many of the older settlers children remembered and retold stories of helping to haul the lumber and stone with their fathers.

The circa date of the Yadkin church being built was formulated by the history of Arthur Cleveland Mariott, who said he helped his father William Bynum haul the stone at the age of sixteen.

Restoration Project

For the last several years Yadkin Church has been undergoing a restoration. This due to the generousity of the community and a very dedicated team of locals. The following video shows the condition of the church, then and now.