Friendship Church was started by a family and has always been typically a family oriented church.  If you were not blood related to the family you were married to someone who was and even today with new people coming into the church and community, those who are not family soon feel as if they are.

Of the twelve charter members ten were directly related to each other and the other two we have no information on whether they were related or not.

Austin Gentry married Mahalie Crouse on September 17, 1847.  They had four children:  Anna Jane born in 1849, Woodsome Alexander born in 1855, Thursa Caroline born in 1857, and James Morgan born in 1860.  Anna Jane married Fredrick Norman in 1869 and settled in the State Road area; Thursa Caroline married Wilson J. Koontz in 1873 and moved to Mocksville.  Neither of these daughters were ever members of Friendship Church.  Alexander married Jurandy Marshall in 1877, and Morgan married Louisa Eldridge.  Alexander and Jurandy had a daughter Coetta born in 1878 and another daughter Verlie born in 1881.  A son Roscoe born in 1882 died two years later, then a son Risdon Decator was born in 1884, and then Sallie was born in 1896.  Morgan and Louisa “Lue” had four children, Laura Emiline born in 1881, Hattie born in 1891, Coetta born (?) and Birdette born in 1897.

Before moving to the fertile farm land east of Elkin that is now called Friendship Community, this family had lived somewhere north of Elkin.  Austin Gentry, his wife Mahalie, Alexander Gentry, his wife Jurandy, their daughters Coetta and Verlie, Morgan Gentry and his wife Lue, and their daughter Laura were all members of White Oak Primitive Baptist Church which stood right behind where the White Rock United Methodist Church stands today in Thurmond, North Carolina.  Jeff Gentry, brother to Austin Gentry, who was a crippled man with no other family lived with Austin, and was also a member of the White Oak Church.

These ten people with two other men, Gideon Woodruff and David Woodruff, who were also members of White Oak Church, saw the need for a place to worship in their own community.  So, on July 13, 1895 they met in the kitchen at the home of Morgan and Lue Gentry.  With the help of three ministers, Elder A. McKnight form Cherry Lane, North Carolina, Elder Braxton Woodruff of Elkin and Elder R. K. Johnson, these twelve people were questioned in the faith of the Primitive Baptist Doctrine and were found sound in the faith.  Upon presenting letters of dismissal from White Oak Church, these twelve were granted a charter to organize Friendship Church. 

On this same day Alexander, Morgan and their father Austin were named deacons of the church.  Alexander and Morgan may have already been ordained deacons from White Oak, but Austin, their father, was ordained a month later as a deacon.

Here were the ages of the charter members when Friendship Church was started:  Austin Gentry (68), Alexander (40), Morgan (35), Mahalie (68), Lue (34), Jurandy (35), Coetta (17), Verlie (14), and Laura (14).  The ages of Jeff Gentry, Gideon Woodruff, and David Woodruff could not be determined because records could not be found. 

The church placed Morgan in charge of keeping the records of the church and he became the first church clerk.  Also, they asked Elder Braxton Woodruff who was an ordained Primitive Baptist Minister to become their first pastor.  There are no sure facts to back it up, but there is a possibility that Gideon and David Woodruff were related to the Reverend Woodruff. 

After the death of Morgan’s first wife, Lue, in 1899, he married Jannie Sebastian on January 10, 1901 and their children were Gertha (Harmon), Issac “Ike”, Charlie, Hessie, and Annie Pearl (Greenwood). 

They would meet the second Saturday night of each month with worship service and then church conference, and then on Sunday morning they would have worship service again.  This was customary in those days for churches to have worship services on Saturday night and again on Sunday morning once a month.  In the early years at each church conference roll was also called.