STOCKTON — Members of the Baldwin County Historic Society filled into the old church on a Sunday afternoon following the conclusion of their meeting.

The smell of years of history and churchgoers permeated the room, with objects from decades past hung up on the walls and on display for people to reflect on the church's history.

When the members settled down, the sounds of "Amazing Grace" echoed from the church's piano, with the members singing in unison to the classic tune. The woman leading the piano and singing was Claudia Campbell, who brought to the gathering vast knowledge and connections to the church and its history.

Campbell was the guest speaker during an October meeting of the Baldwin County Historic Society, where the group met at Montgomery Hill Baptist Church, located in the back forest of Stockton. If she sounds familiar, she was heavily involved in the restoration efforts of Fort Mims, having been awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Alabama Historical Commission for her contributions.

Her roots run deep in Baldwin County, and her connections to Montgomery Hill Baptist Church, the longest active Baptist church in Baldwin County, are no exception. After "Amazing Grace" concluded, Campbell stood at the podium of the church and began to recount the history and her own memories of the events that transpired at the church and in the local area.

Campbell is a descendant of Capt. Jospeh Booth, whose family played a key role in the creation of the church. In 1854, with several women in the area looking for a Baptist church, it was built after the Booths' daughter, Eliza, along with her husband, acquired the land that Campbell and the Baldwin County Historic Society were now standing on.

The church was built by a young builder name John Blake, whose descendant, Mary Blake, happened to discover her connections by chance through her niece during the 100th anniversary of Fort Mims.

"[Mary's niece] wrote me this note, 'My aunt Mary Blake is trying to find where her grandfather ... built a church,' and I went, 'Well, I don't know about this, but John Blake built Montgomery Hill Baptist Church,' and there was an explosion on the computer," Campbell said. "Oh, my goodness. She has looked for this her whole life, and she was 100 years old. Literally 100 years old. She came to the church, and she was amazing, so spry, up and about, looking for the church that her grandfather had built. That made me kind of tearful that she came all this way."

This is one of the many stories she recounted to members of the Baldwin County Historic Society, as she noted that she still meets many people who return to the area to track down their ancestors.

She recounted stories of the area's Native American history, how a sprawling community was formed during the early to mid 1800s, and the creation of the highways and roads that residents drive and travel on today.

She also spoke about the church's cemetery. Several years ago, she helped uncover and mark 39 graves from several different decades and including people such as local citizens to war veterans.

"We marked 15 graves for the [Civil War], two for the Spanish American War," Campbell recalled. "No one knew we had three from World War I, 14 from World War II, three in the Korean War and two who were in the Vietnam War who recently passed away. So we're trying to make sure that in the future, that all our children and grandchildren, great grandchildren, we're trying to get things together so they can look at a book [and see it all]."

Campbell knows a lot about Stockton and the historic Montgomery Hill Baptist Church not just based on her knowledge, but on a personal level that has her rooted in the area's history more than many other people in Baldwin County. It's people like Campbell, as well as the Baldwin County Historic Society, that help keep Alabama's history alive for generations to come.