BIG SANDY

Worldwide Church of God

During the 1950s, Big Sandy became linked to a religious movement that would greatly influence the community for four decades. Local resident Buck Hammer was a member of the Radio Church of God (which later became known as the Worldwide Church of God), a California-based, Sabbatarian movement headed by radio evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong. Hammer donated a small parcel of land (less than 10 acres) to the church, which built a meeting hall and began holding annual church conventions there by the middle 1950s.

The church in subsequent years bought hundreds more acres adjacent to the original site. Thousands of church members converged on Big Sandy and surrounding communities for the week-long Feast of Tabernacles each year, creating a significant economic impact. In the mid-1960s, Armstrong developed more of the property and established a second campus of Ambassador College, the original campus of which continued to operate at the church's headquarters facility in Pasadena, California. The presence of the college, along with the annual convention operation, influenced hundreds of church members to relocate to Big Sandy and the surrounding area over the years. Although Ambassador ceased operations in 1997 (roughly a decade after Armstrong's death and after his successor repudiated much of Armstrong's original teachings), many families once affiliated with it and the church chose to remain in the Big Sandy area.

In March 2000, the campus was sold to the Green Family Trust (owner of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.), which leased it to the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP). It was then developed as the International ALERT Academy, the home of the Air Land Emergency Resource Team (ALERT), a Christian program training young men in disaster relief and emergency services. The academy also serves as a camp and conference center and holds four-week summer programs for boys and girls. It now serves as the official headquarters of IBLP after it relocated from the Chicago area, where it was founded (this took place after Bill Gothard, IBLP's founder and president, resigned amidst controversy over allegations of sexual misconduct).

Needlecraft businesses

In the late 1970s, local residents Jerry Gentry and Annie Potter began a mail-order business from their home in Big Sandy and called it Annie's Attic. The business grew rapidly into a multimillion-dollar enterprise, publishing magazines and catalogs for needlecraft enthusiasts. After the couple divorced in the early 1980s, Annie continued to preside over Annie's Attic, while Jerry launched a near-replicate business called the Needlecraft Shop, also in Big Sandy. By the 1990s, both businesses had been purchased in separate transactions by Dynamic Resource Group (DRG), a publishing company in Berne, Indiana. DRG management moved both companies' operations to Indiana. Before doing so, it established a new company, Strategic Fulfillment Group (SFG), on the southwest edge of Big Sandy. SFG, which handles mailing and subscription fulfillment for DRG and other clients, is now Big Sandy and Upshur County's largest employer.

"Texas' Largest Manhunt"

On July 10–11, 1986, more than 1,000 law enforcement officers responded to Big Sandy Chief of Police Richard Lingle's request for assistance after convicted murderer Jerry "The Animal" McFadden escaped from the Upshur County jail. He took jailer Rosalie Williams, the wife of a Department of Public Safety trooper, as hostage. Lingle broadcast his call for help after Upshur County authorities were unable to track down McFadden and his hostage that evening. Responding officers securely cordoned off the city, leaving McFadden little chance of escape, and he was recaptured and returned to jail. Due to severe overcrowding in prisons, he had been paroled, despite a past marked by violence, and committed additional crimes. McFadden was executed in October 1999 for the murder of Suzanne Denise Harrison, a teen from nearby Hawkins.

Sports

The Big Sandy High School football team won three Texas Class B state championships in consecutive years 1973–1975. Although the state finals game in 1974 ended in a 0–0 tie (vs Celina), UIL granted both teams co-championships. In 2005, the Wildcats again reached the state 1-A finals, falling 21–20 to Stratford.