Various Notes about the Life of Laura Turpin

Over the years I have collected various notes about the life of Laura Turpin:

Laura was among the first to receive the Pentecostal blessing in the Hardin Valley region.  To this day many remember her as one of the godliest women they have ever known.  Everybody knew her affectionately as "Aunt Laura."

Reverend Bobby Scott recalls his association with Aunt Laura during the 1960's when he served as the minister of youth at Solway Church of God:

You won't find a more godly woman on the earth. When she stood to testify, she would speak no more than ten words, and the Spirit of God would fall on the congregation.

She was very supportive of the youth ministry. She was always praying for me.

Many times when the Holy Ghost would come upon her, she would start walking the church floor swinging her hands.  Her experience with God affected every facet of her worship as well as her daily life.

Charolette Hinshaw adds, "She was a blessed Saint of God. I can see her walking up and down the aisle of the church clapping her hands ever so gently and just saying, 'Wooo wooo wooo.' As she would pass by you, the power of God could be felt coming from her."

She and her brother, Frank, attended the Church of God at Solway, about four miles from their home.  She would visit the sick and go from house to house inviting people to church.  For years to come long-time residents of the valley would recall seeing the light of Laura's lantern at night, knowing that she was about doing the work of the Lord.

Wherever one found Laura, Frank was usually there as well.

Laura and Frank would leave home for the Sunday evening service at about 4:00 p.m.; the service started at 7:00 p.m.  They would cross the field from their house there on the edge of Hardin Valley, walk about a mile down Steele Road, ford Beaver Creek or take a boat across when the water was up (later a swinging foot
bridge was added), walk about a mile down Swafford Road, take a turn onto Guinn Road and finally end up on Solway Road where the church is located.  It was a total distance of about four miles.

One of the early preachers for the Church of God, George Britt, recalls Laura letting him ride her mule to church along this route when he had come to do some special revival services there at Solway.  She and Frank still walked, but they insisted that Brother Britt ride the mule because he had been feeling ill.

In the late 1930s the doors of the church closed.  Laura and Frank came anyway.  They came to the empty church to pray.  One time while they were praying, the Holy Ghost came upon one of them and a message came forth in tongues.  The interpretation followed:  "This church will grow, and it will become greater than it has ever been before.  Great and mighty things will become of this church."  In 1942 a pastor finally came, and from that point onward the church began to progress.  [These dates need to be verified.]

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Aunt Laura "Robbed" of Her Childhood Home

It probably happened in the 1890s--at some point after King Christenberry's death.  Serelda Turpin and her children (King, Frank, Laura and perhaps others) experienced what Laura Turpin has described as "the worst robbin' case I've ever heard tell of."

Serelda and her children lived in several different places, and it seems that for awhile King Christenberry (and perhaps one or two other wealthy men) supplied Serelda and her children with whatever they needed. "We had money as far as that went," Laura recalls. However, in one single day their situation drastically changed.

The two boys, King and Frank, had begun to work, and Serelda had helped them get their jobs which paid $5 per week for both of them combined. Times were hard. It was difficult for a white man to get a job that would pay much because the freed slaves would work for so little pay.

Serelda and her children were able to move into a house owned by a wealthy man near the place where the boys were working. One day after King and Frank had only worked a week or two, they went to pick up their pay. A man named "Avery Crabapples" [the name has not yet been verified] saw them getting paid, and he followed them home. When he reached the house, he told their mother that she would have to give him the money that her boys had brought home. He took their money and said, "You'ns will have to move from here! You'll have to leave the house and leave everything, and go right now!" In Laura's words, "He broke a hickory, and the children that couldn't walk much way, he whooped them and made them move."

Avery Crabapples drove the Turpins away from the house and deep into the woods. They spent the whole night in the woods, and the next morning they ventured back toward the house. When they arrived back at the house, everything had been taken, and Avery Crabapples had taken over the house. Serelda and her children were left homeless.

When Laura Turpin provided me with this account, she closed by saying, "Avery Crabapples was his name. That was the worst robbin' case I've ever heard tell of. I've heard tell of them robbin' people to get their money, but they ain't ever taken the house with them.... Well, I hope he's in heaven. I tell you, people have got to do awful good to get there. You really have to do good."

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A Directory to Articles about Laura Turpin

The following are a few of the articles posted about Laura Turpin, daughter of Serelda Turpin:

• "Aunt Laura" Turpin
• Laura Turpin's Walk to Church
• Randy Tinch Recalls the Days of Laura Turpin
• A Visit to Solway Church of God
• Return to Hardin Valley
• Aunt Laura "Robbed" of Her Childhood Home
• Various Notes about the Life of Laura Turpin

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Randy Tinch Recalls the Days of Laura Turpin

Over the past several days I have received three Facebook messages from a gentleman I have never met in person.  His name is Randy Tinch, and he knew my great-great-aunt, Laura Turpin, personally.  Here is a compilation of the stories that he tells:

My wife Sharon and I were saved in Solway Church of God [located in Solway, Knox County, Tennessee] in March 1971 and knew Aunt Laura Turpin quite well. I would spend time at Aunt Laura's tiny home when she lived on Dogwood Road just a short distance from Solway Church of God.  I would go there several times a week just to talk with her about the Lord, about sanctification and the Holy Ghost.

Sometimes the presence of God would become so strong in her house that it was overwhelming. She shared a lot of stories about things the Lord did for her and Frank.  [Frank was Laura's brother.]

One story was about a light that came to them one night as they were returning home from church, when they lived at the old home place on the other side of Beaver Creek. They had walked across the old mill dam without a light.  Once they reached the other side, because of the woods it became so dark they couldn't see how to go on. So Laura and Frank knelt down and prayed for the Lord to help them. When they finished praying, she said a light came to them.

She said it wasn't a bright light, but it was bright enough for them to see how to go on up the creek, cross a fence, and then it went with them until  they reached an old wagon road that went from the creek up to the old home place. The light remained at the bottom of the hill  as they walked on up the hill. When they reached the top, the light vanished.

Laura said she knew the Lord sent that light to help them.  I asked her to tell me that story over and over.  I never got tired of hearing about it.

A few weeks before she died as I visited her in the nursing home, she laid her hand on me and prayed for me. Over the years, I have known, been around, and been prayed for by people such as Rod Parsley, Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Billye Brim, T. L. Lowery and a few others, but when Aunt Laura laid her hand on me--just skin and bone--that probably had the greatest impact on my life.

I asked Randy Tinch if he knew when Laura came to faith in Christ.  Here was his response:

I don't remember when she was saved, but she received the baptism of the Holy Ghost at home.

A revival had broken out at Chandlers View Baptist Church which was located in what is now the Solway Methodist Church cemetery.  A sister by the name of Anna Cagley had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit which caused quite a stir in the church.

[Anne Cagley was born August 25, 1893 and died December 13, 1961.  She is buried at Solway Methodist Church cemetery.  Source: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/knox/cemeteries/solway.txt]

Others, including Laura, began praying and asking the Lord to do the same for them. Laura said they began to pray and ask the Lord to send someone to the church that knew something about this experience.

In a short period of time after they began to pray, Sam C. Perry, who had just received the baptism at the Azusa Street revival, got off the train there at the Solway depot.  Without anyone knowing him and without him knowing them, he walked into the Chandler View Church and began to preach about the infilling of the Holy Ghost.

Laura said she was so hungry for the Lord but did not receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit at church.

She had gone home after one of the services and had gotten behind the front door to pray.  As she was praying, she was filled with the Holy Spirit.

She said the Lord led her to either a piano or organ they had in the home, and she played and sang in tongues.

Aunt Laura's testimony was always, "I thank the Lord I am saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost with the Bible evidence of speaking in tongues."  I heard that many many times during Wednesday night testimony services.

When I asked Randy Tinch when this encounter with the Holy Spirit took place, he responded with this note:

The year was probably around 1906 or 1907.  [Note that the Azusa Street Revival began in April of 1906.]  Sam C. Perry had returned from Azusa Street back to his home in Fort Myers, Florida and started preaching the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  He had preached his way up into Tennessee when he came to the church Laura and Frank Turpin attended.

Sam C. Perry became a Church of God minister.  I understand that he came back to that church many times. There is a lot of information about him in the history of the Church of God--Like A Mighty Army.  He had apparently gone to Azusa Street in 1906, came back and was preaching about the experience. I would assume that he came to where Laura was in the latter part of 1906 or first part of 1907.  So, it was during that time frame that she received the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

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