The Greenlee Pentecostal Holiness Church was organized
May, 1919 by the Rev. G. W. Stanley. He was born on
November 12, 1876, near Siler City, North Carolina.
He died on May 20, 1965, at the age of 89, while a
resident of Maple Grove Rest home in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina.
The Greenlee Pentecostal Holiness Church was organized
May, 1919 by the Rev. G. W. Stanley. He was born on
November 12, 1876, near Siler City, North Carolina.
He died on May 20, 1965, at the age of 89, while a
resident of Maple Grove Rest home in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina.
At the age of 18, when G. W. Stanley was stricken with
double pneumonia, the doctor gave no hope for the young
man to live. However, as described ill his book,
My Life's
Experiences With God, G. W. Stanley realized then that
God was dealing with his heart. The experience was one
of his spirit leaving his body, going down, a long tunnel,
and viewing a great lake of fire with two being coming
to receive him into the horrible pace. As he began praying
they stopped and returned to the fire. From pages 11 and
12 of his book, G. W. Stanley describes this happening:
"I promised the Lord if He would let me go back to the
earth and keep me out of that horrible place, I would
serve Him the rest of my life, and do whatever He wanted
me to too. When my spirit came back to me, the room was
full of people. They had clothes there ready to shroud me.
For several days I knew everything but couldn't speak or
move hand or foot. In about two months I was able to walk
again. God had healed me. How could I ever repay him
for it?"
Deprived of an education, he worked from sunrise to sunset
for 25 cents a day; therefore at the age of 20 he left
home to make a living on Ms own. After marrying Ida
Laura Pickett in May, 1896, G. W. Stanley and his young
wife were saved in the Baptist Church they attended.
After two years' membership in this church the Stanleys heard
'Holiness' preached for the first time in a tent meeting.
His hunger for more of God increased as he began to fast,
to pray, and to 'die out' according to Romans 6. When Mr.
Stanley received the experience of sanctification they
turned him out of the church for nonattendance.
(The nonattendance was resultant m the fact that he had
been holding prayer meetings the homes of families who did
not attend church.) Soon after he received the experience
of sanctification G W. Stanley was called to preach.
He preached his first sermon in May, 1902.
In 1906 he heard of the experience of Pentecost. After
fasting and praying for 48 hours he received the
Baptism, which was not understood by the Wesleyan
Methodist Church in which he was then licensed to
preach. Therefore G. W. Stanley bought a tent and in
1911 went to Mt. Olive, North Carolina, to conduct a
revival in a Pentecostal Holiness Church.
In 1916, he took his tent to Dry Fork, Virginia, where
Holiness had never been preached. Later he organized
a Pentecostal Holiness Church there and at Danville,
Virginia.
In 1919, G W. Stanley came to Greenlee, Virginia.
Mr. H A. Williams secured the Glenwood Union Church
in Arnold's Valley for revival services. The following
is taken from page 36 of Mr. Stanley's book...
"The first night the pianist got under conviction.
She went to the trustees and got them to fight me.
On Sunday morning they met me saying that they were
going to sue me for breaking into their church.
I preached that morning and night anyway. The morning
service was one on holiness. Two of the trustees got
under conviction. One of them asked me to go home with
him and spend the night. To keep down a fuss I got my
tent and put at up for the revival.
At the close of the meeting, I organized with about
thirty-five or forty members."
Thus, in May of 1919 G. W. Stanley organized the
Greenlee Church on the south side of the James River.
Mr. H. A. Lewis was then living on Senator Poindexter's
property, so from May until September the congregation
met under the trees on his spacious lawn or in brush
arbors near the building site of the church. One of
the charter members Mrs. W. G. Fainter, would proudly
recall that at no time during these four months did
service have to be cancelled because of inclement
weather.
A one-room frame structure was erected in September
1919, and since the community was named “Greenlee",
the church was thus called Greenlee Pentecostal Holiness
Church. Land for this church was donated by Mrs. Laura
Rapp with the stipulation that if ever the property
was used for anything other than a church the gift
would be rescinded.
The place of worship was heated by a wood stove and
lighted by lamps along the wall and by two
chandelier-like fixtures which held about six kerosene
lamps each. (Later when the new church was built,
Glenwood Union Church bought these two lamps, wired
them for electric lighting, and has continued to use
them.)
First mention of the Greenlee Church in the Virginia
Conference Minutes was at the 11th annual session held
at Bluefield, West Virginia on September 22-25, 1920
In miscellaneous business...
"By motion and according to request adopted by Conference,
the churches of Greenlee, Virginia and Buena Vista,
Virginia, were transferred from Western North Carolina
Conference to Virginia Conference."
At the close of 1920 the Greenlee' Church membership
had risen to 81.
The first church business and financial data are found
in a book which, until just before her death in June,
1965, was in the possession of Mrs. M. L. Puckett.
Although there is a church roll in the front of this
book, there was no record kept of the charter members.
October 22, 1921, is the earliest recorded date of a
church business meeting. Positions filled at this meeting
were the following . . . .
Deacons:
L. H. Goff
W. G. Fainter
J. N. Watts
L. H. Firebaugh
M. L. Puckett
F. C. Campbell
Secretary-Treasurer and assistant:
G. C. Thompson
Mrs. G. C. Thompson
Church Trustees:
L. H. Firebaugh
H. A. Williams
M. L. Puckett
Finance Committees:
H. A. Williams
L. H. Goff