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The New Home Community – Bluhmtown
One of the current correspondents for the Smithville Review is Mrs. Betty Wilson, who writes the New Home column. She often writes about neighbors Clara May Hawkins, Mabel Pack, Mack Ervin and others, as well as the activities and members of the New Home Missionary Baptist Church. Josh Hale, the pastor, is relatively young. Located at the corner of New Home Road and Short Mountain Highway, the church was not organized until 1932. Since it started during the Great Depression, money was very scarce. With much faith and hard work, the church has grown and improved, and has been a great blessing to the community.
Unlike many churches, New Home was never used as a school. The nearest school was the Bluhm School, established by the 1890’s at what was called Bluhmtown. At Bluhmtown, a strong stream of water is used to power a saw mill and a grist mill. The stream then disappears. It is said to go underground to the cave on Dry Creek at Cripps’ Mill. In 1856 Elam Edge bought this saw mill from John Smithson. After the Civil War, Phillip Bluhm moved into DeKalb County from Iowa and bought the mill. He was of German ancestry, but was born in Russia in 1818. His wife, Charlotte Gilburn, was born in Ireland. Their son, Fremont Bluhm, not only ran the sawmill, but was very talented as a maker of furniture, as well as coffins. The sawmill was operated into the 1950’s, and the two-teacher school did not close until buses came into use after 1950. Mr. Bluhm had a general store near the mill, which also housed the Bluhm Post Office from 1892 until 1904.
Today, there are two stores/restaurants a mile or so past the New Home Church, and just beyond them is the Pisgah Freewill Baptist Church, organized in 1896. A very active church, it occupies a brick building and has continued to grow in recent years.
Unlike many churches, New Home was never used as a school. The nearest school was the Bluhm School, established by the 1890’s at what was called Bluhmtown. At Bluhmtown, a strong stream of water is used to power a saw mill and a grist mill. The stream then disappears. It is said to go underground to the cave on Dry Creek at Cripps’ Mill. In 1856 Elam Edge bought this saw mill from John Smithson. After the Civil War, Phillip Bluhm moved into DeKalb County from Iowa and bought the mill. He was of German ancestry, but was born in Russia in 1818. His wife, Charlotte Gilburn, was born in Ireland. Their son, Fremont Bluhm, not only ran the sawmill, but was very talented as a maker of furniture, as well as coffins. The sawmill was operated into the 1950’s, and the two-teacher school did not close until buses came into use after 1950. Mr. Bluhm had a general store near the mill, which also housed the Bluhm Post Office from 1892 until 1904.
Today, there are two stores/restaurants a mile or so past the New Home Church, and just beyond them is the Pisgah Freewill Baptist Church, organized in 1896. A very active church, it occupies a brick building and has continued to grow in recent years.