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Portrait donated to First Baptist

After a donation last week of a formal portrait of the late Isaac Martin Gordon, First Baptist Church of Pilot Mountain will be able to prominently display a remembrance of the man who had served a significant role in the church’s history as well as that of the town.

The donation was made by Isaac Martin (I.M.) Gordon’s grandson, Gordon M. Thomas. Thomas is one of several family members who grew up in Pilot Mountain, with some relatives still residing in the area.

Isaac Martin Gordon (1870-1963) was a native of Stokes County as was his wife, Mary Rebecca Oliver Gordon (1880-1958). The couple was married in 1904 and in 1914 moved to Pilot Mountain.

Isaac Martin Gordon co-founded the Bank of Pilot Mountain and continued to work there until his passing, almost 50 years later. Beginning in January of 1942, he served as the bank’s president.

The original First Baptist Church building was burned to the ground in a 1919 fire, after which Isaac Martin Gordon, who served as a church trustee, recorded that the only items salvaged were a small table, a Bible and offering plates. Later that year, land was purchased for the church to be rebuilt at the Main Street location where it now resides. The new church building was constructed in 1922, with Gordon serving as chairman of the building committee. Stained glass windows were dedicated in memory of family members.

In 1914, Gordon began a 30-year stint of service as Sunday School Superintendent. In 1944, a plaque recognizing that service was placed on the back wall of the church sanctuary. Gordon also served for years as a deacon of the church.

As his home was only three doors from the church, Gordon often rang the church bell on Sunday mornings, built fires in the coal furnace and shoveled snow from the walks. He donated the first organ to the church in 1948 and, in 1961, he and his daughters donated a new organ.

Throughout the years, Mary Oliver Gordon served the church at her husband’s side. The daughter of a Missionary Baptist minister, she and her husband regularly hosted visiting ministers for meals and overnight stays in their home. On Mother’s Day, 1956, the adult women’s Sunday School class named their class the Mary Oliver Gordon Sunday School Class in her honor. She was presented with a portrait of herself which today hangs in the Sunday School classroom.

According to Gordon M. Thomas, the couple was frequently heard to note that “the hope of the church is in its young people.”

The late Robert Walter (Bob) Thomas was another of Isaac Martin Gordon’s grandsons and Gordon M. Thomas’s brother. He was baptized at First Baptist Church and went on to be an active member. He later became a Baptist minister, pastoring other churches in the area.

Bob Thomas’s wife, Marilyn Thomas, never met Isaac Martin Gordon but the couple later resided in Gordon’s homeplace near the church. In going through saved papers and memorabilia long stored in the home, she now feels she has come to know her husband’s grandfather.

“He was a witness,” she described. “He didn’t hold back but let everyone know that Jesus Christ was in his life. His house was always open to visiting ministers. He was a man with a big heart.”

The donated portrait was commissioned in 1942 by Isaac Martin Gordon’s aunt, Nell Gordon Isenhour of Salisbury and her husband, John H. Isenhour. Painted by a Salisbury artist, the painting hung above the fireplace in the Isenhour home.

Gordon M. Thomas is a 1969 East Surry High School graduate who grew up in First Baptist Church where both of his parents served In active roles. A longtime resident of Arlington, Virginia, he was given the painting by a cousin, Kay Isenhour Kyle, in 2014. He recently contacted First Baptist through another cousin, Pilot Mountain resident Carolyn Boyles, who is a member of the church. Boyles reached out with the offer to the church deacons’ Chairman Charlie Brown.

“On behalf of our church, we are welcoming a part of our legacy to come back home,” Brown said.

“I know that my grandparents, parents, brother and other Gordon family members would wholeheartedly approve the donation of the Isaac Martin Gordon portrait to the church,” Gordon M. Thomas said in a letter accompanying the donation. “I hope that it will be displayed for a long time in a prominent location as a testament to the Christian values and service of my grandfather and other members of the Gordon family.”

At the presentation, Gordon M. Thomas added a thought. “I decided it was time to bring it back home.”

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