History of Jolly Bethel Church & Cemetery

Bracketed citations such as [S3, p. 285] refer to the Sources page. Statements described as family tradition come from descendants' recollections. No deed, church record or other contemporary document confirming them has been located yet.

Settlement on Capps Creek

Goodspeed's 1888 county history gives an account of Frederick Hisaw [S3, p. 1029]:

• He was born in Cumberland County, Kentucky, on August 13, 1807.
• He lived nine years in West Tennessee, and about 1830 he married Elizabeth Rochelle in Gibson County, Tennessee.
• In 1836 he "settled on Capps' Creek, in Barry County, near what is now the Newton County line." His son William still lived on that same tract in 1888.
• Elizabeth Hisaw "died in Barry County in July 1840." She was "a consistent member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church."

The 1980 National Register nomination for Jolly Mill calls Frederick Hisaw "undoubtedly" one of the first settlers in the Capps Creek area [S1, PDF p. 8].

How the cemetery began

Rachel Cummins Nipp, a Hisaw descendant, wrote down her family's account in 1980 [S9]. It is family tradition:

• Elizabeth Rochelle Hisaw "was the first person to be buried in what is now known as the Jolly Bethel Cemetery."
• Later, "Frederick Hisaw gave 5 acres off the corner of his land for a cemetery. Finally, a Methodist Church was built here."

A volunteer research note on MOGenWeb likewise says that Frederick and Elizabeth "donated the land that the church and Jolly Cemetery are now located on" [S6].

Some of this can be checked against other sources. Goodspeed confirms that Elizabeth died in July 1840 [S3, p. 1029]. Volunteer transcriptions record a marker for her, dated July 1840, shared with Frederick, along with markers for two of their children: Louise Patience (July 1840) and George N. (1852) [S6; S19]. Nobody has yet established when those markers were set. The land gift, its acreage and its date are not yet confirmed by a recorded deed. So "first burial" and "five acres" should be read as family tradition.

The church

Denomination

Goodspeed's 1888 history of Newton County discusses the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in a section that begins on page 282 [S3, p. 282]. That section reports:

"Bethel Church, of fifty-five members, is one-fourth mile across the line in Barry County, on Capp's Creek. There a substantial church building has been completed. All these churches belong to the Newtonia charge, of which Rev. Leslie H. Davis is the zealous pastor." [S3, p. 285]

The same book says that William Hisaw's wife, Nancy, and "several of her children are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South" [S3, p. 1029].

A 1915 obituary, as transcribed by volunteers, describes a funeral held at "Bethel M. E. Church" with burial "in the Bethel Cemetery" [S7, entry for Malda Kelly].

Founding

A 1990 genealogy column reports that a Kelly descendant "knows that JOLLY (Bethel) Methodist Church was organized by a Reverend Jeptha KELLY in 1846" [S10]. This is family tradition. No conference record, church register or deed has been found that confirms the 1846 date or Rev. Kelly's role.

The building

By 1888 "a substantial church building has been completed" [S3, p. 285]. The construction date of the building standing today, and whether it is the 1888 building, have not been established from the sources reviewed.

Not to be confused with earlier churches at the mill village

Two church buildings at the mill village are not Bethel Church:

• Thomas Wright, born enslaved in the valley, remembered that in 1861 Jollification had "eight homes, a church, postoffice, three general stores, a drug store, a blacksmith shop… a saloon and Isbell's Mill" [S1, PDF p. 10]. That village stood at the mill, on the Newton County side.
• The National Register nomination also mentions "a vacant church/schoolhouse east of the destroyed store building" at the mill about 1911–12 [S1, PDF p. 22, note 69].

None of the sources reviewed identifies either building with Bethel Church.

The Civil War era

Jollification lay about two-thirds of a mile west of the church site. The National Register nomination records two skirmishes there. In each, a Confederate soldier was killed: William Walker on May 11, 1862, and John Riley on October 3, 1862 [S1, PDF p. 13, note 2; see also S3, p. 310]. The village was burned and only the mill survived. The sources differ on when:

• The nomination places the burning after the 1862 skirmishes [S1, PDF p. 3].
• The State Historical Society's Missouri Encyclopedia, drawing on an 1867 lawsuit, dates it to about September 1863 [S2].

William Hisaw (1835–1913) served "two years and ten months" in the Confederate army, in Company G, Eighth Missouri Infantry, according to Goodspeed [S3, p. 1029]. His 1913 obituary, as transcribed on MOGenWeb, adds that "in the eighties he served two years as a member of the county court from the western district" [S6].

Into the twentieth century and today

Newspaper items transcribed by volunteers mention a funeral "at Jolly" in 1912 [S8, entry for John Benjamin Cummins] and the 1915 funeral at "Bethel M. E. Church" [S7]. Burials continue. A 2026 obituary records burial "at Jolly Bethel Cemetery" and asks that memorials be made "to Jolly Bethel Church in care of the funeral home" [S12].

If you have deeds, church minutes, cemetery records, letters or photographs that add to or correct this history, the site's editors would be glad to hear from you.