Haynes family collection

Martin Scott Haynes was a pioneer of the Pentecostal movement in the Southeast. We trace his leadership in the movement to the congregation that became the Kimberly Church of God. He was born in Blount County, Alabama on May 26, 1863. He was educated in architecture at Asbury College. While at Asbury, Haynes met Lula Minter and they were married in 1900. Haynes would receive Christ while working in New Orleans, Louisiana. Haynes had relocated to Birmingham, Alabama in the late 1800s to build a factory for Don Drennen for the production of surreys, buggies, and stagecoaches. His artisanship and design capabilities caught the attention of the leadership of the Methodist Church and they hired Haynes to design and build the Birmingham-Southern College campus. The Roman Catholic Church took notice, as well, and they hired him to design and build St. Vincent Hospital. It was during the construction of these facilities that Haynes would become familiar with the community of Kimberly. The local mines supplied Haynes with the coal he needed to run his construction steam engines. In the summer of 1902, Haynes’s assistant invited Haynes to hear a young Methodist college student preach about the “Holy Ghost” and “Tongues of Fire.” This was the first time Haynes had ever heard a Pentecostal message. M.S. Haynes, his wife Lula, and his brother Efford heard this message about the Holy Ghost and all were baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

It was after this Pentecostal experience that Haynes answered the call to the ministry and his wife, his brothers Efford and Will, and his sister-in-law Clyde Cotton Haynes joined him. This family became Pentecostal pioneers that evangelized, established churches, and became some of the early leaders in the Church of God. In the late summer to early fall of 1902 Martin Haynes went to Kimberly, Alabama to preach the message of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and “tongues of fire.” William Martin Doss who was a leader in the town of Kimberly requested Haynes to come and set up a revival meeting on Doss’s property. The revival meeting that week featured the Haynes family providing the music and preaching. M.S. Haynes preached the first message on Holy Ghost baptism in the first tent revival meeting in Kimberly. The congregation was founded on that land and it continues there today. In 1905, Haynes suggested the congregation call themselves “The Church of God at Kimberly” as he referred to 2 Corinthians 1:1.

Between the years 1905 and 1910, Haynes and the Church of God at Kimberly became familiar with the ministries of G.B. Cashwell, M.M. Pinson, H.G. Rodgers, M.S. Lemons, and A.J. Tomlinson. After a time of founding churches out of the Kimberly congregation, Pinson and Rodgers would go on to be instrumental in the founding of the Church of God in Christ and the Assemblies of God. In 1907, Haynes invited Cashwell to preach in Louisburg [Fultondale-North Birmingham]. Church of God leaders A.J. Tomlinson and M.S Lemons attended this tent meeting and heard the Pentecostal message preached by Cashwell and Pinson. It was also at this time that M.S. Haynes would form a lasting friendship with Tomlinson and Lemons. By January 1910, records show that Haynes was a bishop in the Church of God and the Church of God at Kimberly was an organized church in the denomination. Later that year, September 20, A.J. Tomlinson performed the wedding of Efford Haynes and Clyde Cotton at a meeting in Gintown [now Graysville], Alabama.

M.S. Haynes served the Church of God as a bishop, pastor, evangelist, church planter, state overseer, board member, and a member of the first Council of Twelve. Efford Haynes would also serve as a bishop, pastor, evangelist, church planter, state overseer, and board member. Efford also worked as a professional photographer. Clyde Cotton Haynes was the first female evangelist in the Church of God and a highly sought-after preacher and regular ministry assistant to A.J. Tomlinson. Members of the Haynes family would be among the first employees of the Church of God Publishing Company.