Coleman Hill Easter sunrise service marks 100 years

John and Sarah Inzetta have been going over Easter music, readying their performance.

The Rev. Creede Hinshaw has prepared a message he hopes will remind people of what they already know about a story he said “you can’t really improve on.”

Along with them, handfuls of others have worked at tasks large and small to bring together the Coleman Hill Easter Sunrise Service, begin held Sunday in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ — just as Maconites have done for 100 years.

This year is the centennial anniversary of the service at the Macon landmark begun by three Macon brothers in 1917.

Easter fell on April 8 that first year. Nostalgically, it may have seemed a simpler, easier time. In reality, two days prior to Easter, President Woodrow Wilson received Congressional approval and declared war on Germany, bringing the U.S. into World War I. Combat troops were already entering France.

But Macon’s Williams brothers — musically inclined Francis, Robert and Howard, sons of former Macon Mayor Luther B. Williams — had already put their hands to creating the Easter event. The idea sprang from well-attended afternoon song-services they sponsored, some drawing as many as 4,000 people to worship.

With no citywide, interdenominational sunrise Easter service for area residents to attend, the brothers decided creating one would be a worthy project. The high point near downtown, Coleman Hill, was the perfect spot.

The three completed arrangements and, according to records, about 10,000 people attended.

The brothers continued their efforts year by year from then on with others joining in to lead, including the Macon Ministerial Association, and in more recent years members of Mulberry Street United Methodist Church Bible classes.

Carolyn Kennedy Dominy is historian at Mulberry Street UMC and curates an extensive library of documents, including records of Coleman Hill services.

She said despite a number of groups spearheading the Easter celebrations, it has maintained its early focus of being citywide, interdenominational and interracial.

Dominy said that Howard Williams led music at the first sunrise service, Francis Williams arranged for a speaker to bring the message, and Robert Williams, who owned a music store, provided a pump organ that was carried up the hill.

She said the Williams brothers had a sister named Marian who played the organ.

Howard Williams, the youngest, was a member of Christ Episcopal Church and steered the annual celebration the longest. His obituary in 1993 at age 95 highlighted his founding of the event and that he not only led music on that first year but for most others throughout his lifetime. In fact, it said he attended all 76 sunrise services until his death.

From her research, Dominy has a quote of Howard Williams’ view of the first sunrise service’s purpose: “There was no sunrise service in Macon then, and we decided to have a time to pray for the servicemen and their families and a thanksgiving service for what our Savior had done for us.”

Dominy said Howard Williams was always clear about what being on Coleman Hill early on Easter mornings meant to him.

“When the sun comes up over those Twiggs County hills, it is a beautiful sight to behold,” he said. “I’ve had lots of people say it’s silly to get up at that time, but I remember the man who cared enough to climb a hill and die for me. I think of that and say, ‘Yes, I’ll get up and go.’ ”

Sam Lamback, 74, grew up on Orange Street near Coleman Hill and remembers rising early during his childhood to walk up the hill to greet Easter sunrises. Lamback later became a Methodist minister and Army chaplain, now retired. He served churches in Macon and is now part of Mulberry Street’s Catherine Daughtery Parlor Class, which provides organizers for current Easter services.

“It’s a memory I’ve carried all through life,” he said. “Of course Coleman Hill is such a wonderful place. It was my boyhood playground. Those early Easter mornings were some of the most memorable I’ve had in all my travels. There weren’t a lot of other sunrise services in those days like there are now, so it was truly a focal point for Easter. It was and still is delightful to see people come from all different churches and parts of town with their chairs and blankets and gather to worship.”

Lamback said before the Daughtery class it was Mulberry’s W.G. Solomon Men’s Bible Class that kept sunrise services going. Dominy said the Solomon class was so large at one point that it had its own orchestra that brought instruments up Coleman Hill to provide music.

She recalled other musical providers that helped show the interdenominational and community aspect of the services, such as the Heart of Georgia Barbershop Chorus, Mabel White Baptist Church Chorus, Wings of Harmony Sweet Adeline Chorus, Macon Hospital School of Nursing Choir and, of course, the Solomon Bible Class orchestra.

She said ministers bringing messages reflected a cross-section of denominations and races.

Hinshaw is a retired United Methodist minister who has served in Middle Georgia. He will bring this year’s sermon.

“Most people who come already know the story of Christ’s life, death, burial and resurrection,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot new for a preacher to say about it, but it is important we come together and be reminded. Plus, there’s something about stumbling through the early morning darkness, sometimes in cold, dreary weather, that for many of us captures far more about Easter than singing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ in the grandest of sanctuaries. Don’t get me wrong, I love that, too, but whether alone or as part of a family, a sunrise service can be very special.”

Hinshaw said there’s a weightiness to being part of something that’s been done in Macon for 100 years. But he said there’s a great greater significance at work.

“I think there will be people attending who were there with their grandparents years ago as well as grandparents who are there with their grandkids now,” he said. “I’ll certainly give a tip-of-the-hat to those who were faithful to start the sunrise services on Coleman Hill and those who’ve kept them going, but I think they’d agree there’s a much more important anniversary being celebrated. The reason those early founders did what they did is the same reason we gather 100 years later. It’s to commemorate and celebrate Jesus Christ — risen from the grave — and that we’re offered that same glorious life.”

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 6:43 AM with the headline "Coleman Hill Easter sunrise service marks 100 years."