Centennial Notes

Year: 1900
First PH Convention held in Fayetteville, NC; A.B. Crumpler elected president

Crumpler's desire to preach his view of Holiness again outweighed that of wanting to stay with the Methodist church so after a successful evangelistic campaign, he issued a call in the early part of 1900 for a meeting in Fayetteville, North Carolina to organize a new denomination. Some of the Goldsboro 1898 people were involved and the same name, Pentecostal Holiness Church, was chosen.

The first church was organized in Antioch, North Carolina, the second in Magnolia, North Carolina and the third and most important in early years was Goldsboro, North Carolina. It was the center of activity for the first seven years. It had a good size building (60x90) and its pastor was A.B. Crumpler who was also President of the Convention, and editor of the official paper.

The financial strain of the big building sent Crumpler to other churches raising money for Goldsboro. While he travelled, two consecutive preachers at Goldsboro preached hard on tobacco and divorce--at that time PHC restricted matters like these more for ministers than members--and before long the audience had diminished considerably. The outcome was that Quakers bought the building.⁽⁴⁶⁾

Crumpler's new organization steadily grew, forming congregations in the small Piedmont communities south of Raleigh (34 by 1907) and holding yearly conventions. Other Methodist preachers switched their allegiance to the PHC, including prominent future leaders G.B. Cashwell, A.H. Butler, and George F. Taylor, who all joined in 1903. Divisive issues facing the new church were the continual opposition of area Methodists and internal disputes over tobacco and divorce regulations, as it sought to expand while remaining true to holiness ideals.