--APPEAL FOR ACADEMY.

"The vineyard which thy right hand hath planted."
"Who hath despised the day of small things?"

As the preaching of the gospel and the organization
of a church preceded the establishment
of the school, the following facts
in regard to the church are first noted.

THE OAK HILL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The Oak Hill Presbyterian church was organized about June 29, 1869, with
six members, namely, Henry Crittenden, who was ordained an elder, Teena
Crittenden, his wife, J. Ross Shoals and his wife Hettie Shoals, Emily
Harris and Reindeer Clark.

The services at first were held in the home and later in an arbor at the
home of Henry Crittenden, one mile east of the present town of Valliant,
and now known as the home of James and Johnson Shoals. After a few years
the place of meeting was transferred to an arbor about two miles
southwest of Crittenden's, and two years later, 1878, to the Oak Hill
schoolhouse, a frame building erected that year on the main east and
west road north of Red river. It was located on the southwest quarter
of section 27, near the site on which Valliant was located in 1902. It
is reported, that Henry Crittenden was the principal contributor towards
the erection of this building. His cash income though meager was greater
than others and he gave freely in order that a suitable place might be
provided both for public worship and a day school for the neighborhood.

Parson Charles W. Stewart of Doaksville, a representative of the last
generation of those who were slaves to the Indians, was the minister in
charge from the time of organization until the spring of 1893, when he
retired from the ministry. He was succeeded at Oak Hill by Rev. Edward
G. Haymaker, the superintendent of the academy, who continued a period
of eleven years. He was succeeded by Rev. R. E. Flickinger, whose
pastorate of nearly eight years was eventfully ended at the dedication
of the new colored Presbyterian church at Garvin, on October 3, 1912.
Rev. William H. Carroll, relinquishing his work on that same day as the
first resident pastor of the Garvin church became the immediate
successor at Oak Hill.

Those who served as elders of the Oak Hill church and are now dead were
Henry Crittenden, J. Ross Shoals, Robert Hall, Jack A. Thomas and Samuel
A. Folsom. The elders in 1912 are James R. Crabtree, Matt Brown and
Solomon H. Buchanan.

In 1912 a site for a new chapel, intended onl