Memories of Wallace Heritage - Official website of Rev. JO Wallace

Onell, Naomi, & Cleatus
About 1940
Glenn, Onell, ????, J.W., Cleatus
Steps of Bemis home about 1940
Meanwhile J. W. Wallace prayed about his call to middle and east Tennessee: "Lord, if this is
Your will, let me know definitely." He lay two fleeces before the Lord. "Lord, I'll need help.
Move on Onell to go with me. Also I have a brother in Nashville who needs you." The brother's
wife, Jewell, had received the Holy Ghost earlier but Lester and Jewell did not attend church.
With a call in his heart, J. W. Wallace packed his bag and drove to Jackson to catch the bus to
Nashville. What a surprise at the bus station! "Onell, what are you doing home?"
"Dad, where are you going?"
Like ships in the night the father and son met. "I am going to Nashville to start a church, Son.
Why don't you go with me?" So the two Wallace men caught the Nashville bus. In the city they
contacted others of like precious faith. The C. H. Phifer family, the T. W. Goolsbys, the A. L.
Binkleys, Mr. Leo Mitchell, Esther Turnbow and Daisy Turner. Later the I. A. Dugans, and the
Noble Carson family moved to Nashville from Mississippi. The Tom Scotts and E. H. Woods
families were attending the First Assembly of God church in East Nashville.
"But we do believe the one-God message, Brother Wallace. We will be interested in what you
can do here." So the work began in the Nashville area. First there were just cottage prayer
meetings. Later they met in a small storefront on 51st street on the west side of town. Brother
Wallace and Onell both got jobs, Brother Wallace in the Werthan Bag Company and Onell as
bookkeeper in the Spur Oil Company. They rented a house for the family on 1816 Pearl Street.