By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Kirk Memorial Baptist Church is engaged in a program to preserve the history not only of the church itself, but of the Grahn area of Carter County. Brandon LaVoie said his part in the program began with a malfunctioning transmission. Left stranded, Lavoie called upon a friend for help, and that friend not only helped him, but also loaned him a car and invited him to church at Kirk Memorial.
“I have always been involved in church,” LaVoie said. “I grew up in church and went to a private Christian school. And I was actually training to be a youth pastor and missionary.”
Unfortunately for LaVoie, however, problems with a compromised immune system had prevented him from attending church. It was after a surgery to correct this that his transmission further derailed his plans. Or so he thought.
LaVoie said that once he began attending his friend’s church, he was quickly invited to become its pastor.
“I preached for a couple of Sundays,” he remembered. “Then they had a vote and voted me in as pastor. And immediately I fell in love with the history of the place.”
He quickly found out that both his and his wife Emily’s families had a history with the church.
“The church was built as a memorial to Kirk (Grahn), who died at two years and five months old from Scarlet Fever,” LaVoie said. “What I found to be the oddest thing about that was that (Kirk’s father) Carl Grahn’s dad died when he was two and a half year’s old.”
LaVoie said the initial loss of Grahn’s father was most likely what led him to immigrate from Germany and start his own way in the United States.
“The City of Hanover, Germany he came from was known for its busy squares and industry set up with towns around them. So, I think he brought his love of that with him to Kentucky and started that here.”
The rich history of the church itself also appealed to Lavoie from the beginning. Kirk Memorial is one of the oldest churches with a continuously running congregation in Carter County, he said. There are churches whose buildings are physically older, Lavoie said, but unfortunately the COVID Pandemic marked the end of some of these other congregations continuing to meet.
“Lyndsey Chapel was the oldest church,” he gave as an example. “ But there is no longer a congregation there.”
“So, we started to gather information to put up on our website,” LaVoie said of gathering the church history together. “Then we saw how deep it went, and it was just incredible.”
Grahn, he said, had its own currency and company stores, and of course a church for its workers. Then he began asking Kirk Memorial members about their own histories and put out a few posts on social media.
“We just stated that we were interested in history and keeping it alive. We got just a flood of messages,” LaVoie said of the response to those initial posts. “People were telling me how much Grahn meant to them. And how much the church and Grahn school meant to them.”
LaVoie said one group in particular responded in large numbers. That group was made up of people who had worked at the brick yard, or who had family members that had been employed there. “There were comments from people who worked there or whose parents had worked there,” he said. “People from all over the area including State Senator Robin Webb and State Representative Patrick Flannery all had history there. Robin Webb’s mom and dad were married at our church.”
“So, we saw a huge job that needed to take place,” LaVoie said. “The oral history needs to be preserved before people forget.”
In order to assist in that preservation, he said they decided to make an event that would encourage the preservation of those memories before they were lost to subsequent generations. And it is a good way, he said, to capture the glory of God as he has moved through the community. A good example of that, he said, was how Karl Grahn turned the heartbreaking loss of a child into a memorial that has served the community for over one hundred years.
“I think these are all things that need to be captured so that when people come to this church, they realize that it is a church with so much community history,” LaVoie said.
LaVoie said the ultimate goal is to create a community record. LaVoie, his wife Emily, and Kayla Carrol will be available at an upcoming event on Saturday, October 24. The event is called the Calling Grahn Home Harvest Festival (7430 Aden Road in Grahn, Kentucky) and will run from 2 until 9 pm. LaVoie, wife Emily, and Carrol will be at the church and available to speak with people and record oral histories, as well as receive photographs, documents, and family stories. There will also be games and events throughout the day.
LaVoie said the festival is open to anyone who would like to attend, and not just members of Kirk Memorial or current residents of Grahn.
“We especially hope to welcome former residents, descendants of Grahn families, families of former brickyard workers, and anyone who carries a memory or connection to this community,” LaVoie said.
The event will be a day filled with activities such as the Brickyard Memorial Race (no entry fee), hayrides, apple cider, food, and fellowship. Participants will compete in timed runs using the same four-wheel pedal car. The youth divisions are ages 7 to 9, 10 to 12, and 13 to 17, with prizes recognizing the fastest times. After dark, the adults will have their turn and race for bragging rights, LaVoie said.
“We are grateful that the Grayson RECC board has approved a donation to support the Brickyard Memorial Race youth prize fund,” LaVoie said. “The church has provided the requested payment details so Grayson RECC’s accounting department can issue the check. Their support is helping us make the race something special for the children who participate.”
LaVoie said there is a plan to create a community history book titled “We Are Grahn.” He said all the information collected will be used to make this project a reality. Volunteer authors will include himself, Emily LaVoie, and Kayla Carroll with project support from Restoring What Was Lost, Inc.
This year’s gathering also has a larger purpose. Calling Grahn Home is an effort to collect and preserve photographs, family stories, oral histories, letters, documents, and names connected to Grahn, the brickyard, Kirk Memorial, and the families who built and sustained this community. People are invited to share their memories even if they do not have photographs or documents. Sometimes one remembered name or story can restore an important piece of history.
“Our hope is that this becomes more than a one-day festival. We want photographs to find their names, memories to find a permanent home, and the stories of Grahn’s families to be carried forward for generations to come.”
“Grahn’s history does not belong only to those who remember it firsthand. It also belongs to the children and grandchildren who have not yet heard it. We want this festival to give those memories a home, and we want ‘We Are Grahn’ to carry them forward through Kirk Memorial Baptist Church for generations.”
Festival information is also available at kirkmemorialbaptist.org.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
