135 Tonique Williams-Darling Highway 1(242) 341-4021

Heritage Room

29-04-2019

10 min read

Heritage Room

Photos from the past

Note: This web page is still developing. More information on each photo and more photos will be added.

This is the South Bahamas Conference of Seventh-day Adventist HERITAGE ROOM. This is a webpage with photos from the past to let you know about the Adventist heritage in The Bahamas (Including North and South Bahamas Conferences). If you have any photos that will be of interest, kindly send them to us.

THE FIRST ADVENTIST CHURCH STRUCTURE ON SHIRLEY STREET, NEW PROVIDENCE. A WOODEN BUILDING WAS FIRST CONSTRUCTED BEFORE THIS CONCRETE ONE WHICH STILL STANDS TODAY, BUT IT IS NO LONGER OWNED BY THE ADVENTIST CHURCH.

Note that the first worship services by Adventists were held in the home of the first family baptized as Adventists in The Bahamas--William Charles and Mary Catherine Antonio. The location of the Antonio's home where the first worship services were held is on Hospital Lane, one block West of Government House, off West Hill Street. This went on for a few years until 1909 when Pastor W. A. Sweaney, the first Adventist ordained minister in The Bahamas came to The Bahamas. He conducted a series in the Old Fellows Building on Meeting Street where they also worship for a short while.

Note that the first family to be baptized in The Bahamas, William Charles Antonio, a shoemaker and his wife, Mary Catherine Antonio, had four children. One of whom became and outstanding Bible Worker who was instrumental in raising up several Adventist Churches. She married Elijah Wood and they had four children: Helen Wood, Floy Rollins, Madge Guillaume, and Masie Grant. Study the history below.

The First Couple William Charles and Mary Catherine Antonio They started keeping the Sabbath in 1895 in their home and was baptized around 1909 FOUR CHILDREN Evangeline Wood Reginald Antonio Helen Antonio William Whilshere Antonio	The First Child Evangeline Louse Antonio Wood 1879 to 1957 Married to Elijah C. Wood The first Bahamian Bible Worker who established several churches on the family of Islands. She was the first child of the first family Baptized. She was married to Elijah C. Wood, an educator and music teacher from Gregory Town, Eleuthera. FOUR CHILDREN Helen Wood Floy Rollins Madge Guillaume Maisie Grant	The Fourth Child William Whilshere Antonio 1886 to 1984 Married to Olive Blanch Fountain Antonio The only son and last child to the first family baptized in The Bahamas. THREE CHILDREN Elizabeth Fountain Antonio "Betty" Moses Philip Glen Antonio Tessie Mae Antonio Black
List of first families include: The Antonios, Someillians, Halls, Weeks, Woods, Johnsons, Varence
The Second Child Reginald Antonio Was married and had a daughter named Carmeta Thomas. She had a son named names Robert. Reginald played the flute		The Third Child Helen Antonio Never married. No children. More info to come

Pastor Silas McKinney He and Pastor Scavella were the first Bahamian Adventist pastors in The Bahamas. Pastor McKinney was also the first Bahamian president of the Bahamas Mission in 1964 He was first employed in 1955		Pastor Neville Scavella Pastor Neville Scavella and Pastor Silas McKinney were the first Bahamians to be employed as pastors of the Bahamas Mission in 1955

Paul Ward Pioneering Bible Worker and literature Evangelist. He was responsible for building churches in the 1920s on Long Island, San Salvador, etc.	Evangeline Louse Antonio Wood was one of the first Bible Workers and lay evangelists in The Bahamas. She founded churches in Eleuthera and other islands	Leonard Reginald Rahming outstanding Bahamian literature evangelist
The Fountains Lay preachers		H. D. Colburn and his wife Former principal of Bahamas Academy

Sylvia Barns Former teacher from Jamaica		Pastor and Mrs Gibson and Children

Pastor Melvin and Hazel Nembhard *Around the 1940s/1952s* Pastor Nembhard, a Jamaican, married Hazel, a Bahamian from Long Island. The boy of the left is Dr. Leslie Nembhard.		Pastor Melvin George Nembhard

Pastor Neville and Mrs. Alwyne Scavella		Pastor Silas Neopoleon and Mrs. Ruth McKinney in 1956. Pastor McKinney was the first Bahamian president of the Bahamas Mission of Seventh-day Adventists

Daniel and Pearl McMillan Outstanding lay leaders and parents to Pastors Leslie and Wendall, Cyril, and Dr. McMillan		Cyril and Gwendolyn Tennent Cyril was the treasurer for the Bahamas Mission


William Whilshere Antonio Married to Olive Blanch Fountain Antonio