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












First Presidents of the Bahamas Mission of Seventh-day Adventist
1908 to 1964
The Mission included the entire Bahamas

The Missionary Presidents. These presidents were sent to The Bahamas from the General Conference to serve in The Bahamas.

  • W. A. Sweaney, 1908 to 1913
  • James H. Smith, 1913 to 1921
  • G. W. Kneeland, 1921 to 1924
  • M A. Altermna, 1924 to 1925
  • W. E. Bidwell, 1925 to 1928
  • R. J. Sype, 1928 to 1934
  • L. L. Hutchison, 1934 to 1936
  • No President, 1936 to 1937
  • L. L. Dun, 1937 to 1939
  • B. A. Meeker, 1939 to 1943
  • Harrold D. Colburn, 1944 to 1948
  • Roy E. Gibson, 1948 to 19??
  • Roy M. Mott, ??
  • Ed H. Snyder, 1963


See Bahamian presidents