CARTHAGE — Harvey Brooks was 5 years old thought he was going to the beach. But he was going to “the Beech,” the annual Beech Homecoming.
Years later, as a grandfather, he told his grandchildren they were going to “the Beech” and let them also imagine what that might mean.
Brooks was among descendants and friends of the Beech Settlement who gathered Sunday for a homecoming church service.
The annual service remembers a community of free Black pioneers who came to the area in the 1820s from North Carolina. It’s believed they settled in the area because they knew people of the nearby Quaker congregation would welcome them as neighbors; Walnut Ridge Friends Church is nearby.
The Beech Settlement — named for beech trees in the area — developed a school, a library and a church. A log structure was the early meeting place for worship, with a cemetery stretching up the hill to the north. Among those buried is the father of William Keemer, who was lynched in 1875; some Beech descendants had the day before attended the dedication of a historical marker about that.
Later, services took place in a white wooden church built at a different site about a mile away. Decades later, even after the settlement population left, that landmark became the focal point of an annual Beech Homecoming with a church service and outdoor meal.
That tradition carries on but has been more complicated in recent years. Beech descendants and the Indiana Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church are in an ongoing court case over ownership of the property; the latest hearing in the case took place Wednesday in Richmond.
AME had a homecoming service Aug. 24 inside the church, site of the Indiana Conference’s founding. The Revs. Frank Steans and Tonikia Steans of Bethel AME Church in Marion delivered the sermon, and the AME’s Indiana Conference Male Chorus sang.
On Sunday, Beech descendants and others gathered for a homecoming service under a tent at nearby Hannon Farm. Beech descendant Immanuel-Keston Jones delivered the sermon, and Walnut Ridge pastor Jake Brown played the guitar and led singing of familiar hymns.
A little emotion crept into Beech Settlement descendant Priscilla Phelps’ voice as she spoke of “everybody that’s gone before us.” She said she’s missed being part of only one homecoming over the last 84 years, decades ago when she was out of state. Even in 2020, board members of Beech Settlement Inc. had a small outdoor service themselves.
“The homecomings have been going on since 1918,” Phelps said. “We have never missed a year so far.”
On the other hand, Robin Leslie was attending her first Homecoming after researching her family history and discovering she’s a Beech Settlement descendant.
‘This was just exciting,” she said under the tent after the service. “Just the history and the legacy that you’re just not even aware of and to discover it — our story. We didn’t know our story before. … You just always assume that everybody in your family were slaves, and to find out … that they were free in North Carolina and then moved here is just quite a shock. Who knew we had this history?”
She had introduced herself during a portion of the service when people shared their connection to Beech Settlement.
“We are descendants of Turner Newsom,” she said, drawing knowing “oh!”s and a few claps from those gathered. Newsom was a Beech settler.
Brooks, no longer a 5-year-old boy who thinks he’s going to the beach, said many are brought to the Homecoming as children and return later as adults.
“It’s something that’s rooted in us,” he said. ” … Now we’re a little bit older, and we really appreciate it a little bit more. I’m glad to be here.”
