EARLY KNOX COUNTY CHURCHES

Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee (1887)

PRESBYTERIAN:

To the Presbyterians is due the honor of having established the first regularly organized congregation of which there is any record.  The following account of the first religious service, and subsequent organization of a church, is condensed from a manuscript prepared by the late Dr. J.G.M. RAMSEY in 1875.  Tradition says that in the early autumn of 1789 or 1790 a surveying party composed of land explorers, adventurers, hunters and farmers had met at the junction of the French Broad and Holston, and that while thus assembled, they were approached by a clerical looking individual on horseback, who informed them that he was on his way to Houston’s station beyond Little River, where some of his old acquaintances from Virginia had settled, and that his mission was to organize the Presbyterians of his region into congregations.  In the party whom he addressed were many who had belonged to Presbyterian congregations in their native States, and he was eagerly besought to make an appointment to preach upon his return, at William’s Station.  To this he consented, and upon the appointed day an immense crowd assembled, including nearly all the settlers for miles around.  They came from Baker’s Creek, Pistol Creek, Little River, Elijah Creek, Stock Creek, all the country south of the French Broad, and in the north from house Mountain to Grassy Valley.  The place chosen for the meeting was a large Indian mound, which, until recently, stood at the fork of the French Broad and Holston, immediately back of were afterward was erected the home of the late Dr. RAMSEY.  From this mound the canebrake was removed and seats were arranged upon it.  The text, chosen by the speaker was 2 Corinthians v, 20, from which he preached an eloquent sermon.  At its conclusion he announced that any parents who wished to offer their children in holy baptism to the Lord, would be allowed that privilege.  Many embraced the opportunity, and some of nearly adult age, who had been born in the wilderness, were admitted to the ordinance.  While these services were going on another minister came upon the ground, and having been introduced, was invited to preach a second sermon.  He stated that he had been circulating among the forts and stations, and that, hearing of the appointment, he had come to the meeting.  He commended the sermon, which he had heard, but said that the subject had not been exhausted, and preceded to preach from the same text.  He was Rev. Hezekiah BALCH, and the first speaker Rev. Samuel CARRICK.   It was arranged that there should be a second service at an early date, which was accordingly held, and resulted in the organization of a Presbyterian Church near Gilliam’s Station.  It was named ‘Lebanon-in-the-Fork,’ afterward abbreviated to Lebanon.  Among the first members of this church were the families of:
James WHITE, James COZBY, John ADAIR, James ARMSTRONG, Deveraux GILLIAM, Archibald RHEA, Sr., Archibald RHEA, Jr., James and Alexander CAMPBELL, Jeremiah JACK, George McNUTT, Col. Francis A. RAMSEY, Thomas GILLESPIE, Robert CRAIGHEAD, Robert BROOKS, Joseph LOVE, Jacob PATTON, Robert HOUSTON. 

Rev. Samuel CARRICK was installed as minister, and located with his family near what has since been known as Carrick’s or BOYD’s Ford on the Holston.  Mr. CARRICK was very popular, and Lebanon soon became the center of a very large congregation.  A church about eighteen feet square without windows or floor was erected.  It was not large enough to contain the worshipers, and in good weather and always on communion days the services were held in a grove of cedars near by.  In 1793 it became necessary to build a house on a large scale and of a more imposing appearance.  Col. RAMSEY donated nine acres as a site, and upon an eminence in the center of a grove of cedars, a house 40x60 foot, of logs, straight and well hewed, was erected.  The ground around had long been used as a cemetery by trappers, traders, and later by the soldiery and settlers within reach, and was consequently the first burial ground in this region.  Among the first Christian interments was that of Mr. CARRICK’s wife. It occurred on the day of the expected Indian attack upon Knoxville in 1793, when all the male inhabitants had gone out for the protection of the town.  The burial of Mrs. CARRICK’s body, therefore, devolved upon the women, and by them alone, it was brought in a canoe and deposited in the churchyard.  About 1803 Mr. CARRICK was succeeded by Rev. Isaac ANDERSON, who divided his time between Lebanon and the Washington congregation, which had been organized on Roseberry Creek.  He continued in charge of these churches until 1813, when he removed to Maryville.  During his pastorate in 1810, a new church of stone was erected upon the site of the old church at Lebanon.  This was used until some time in the forties, when the present frame house was erected.

Almost from its organization the Lebanon congregation maintained a school in connection with the church.   The first school was taught in 1791, in a shanty standing near the church. It had been a hunter’s lodge for years before.  The teacher’s name was THOMPSON, an Englishman, who continued to enlighten the youth of the neighborhood for many years.  A new house was soon built on the Dandridge road.  It was somewhat more comfortable than the first but still rude in the extreme.  It had neither floor nor windows, and the seats were made from rough puncheons, supported upon round pins driven into them.  The teacher was a strict disciplinarian, and brought with him the old English customs of using the dunce block and fool’s cap.  The former was improvised from the stump of a small sapling, which had been left standing about two feet in the middle of the room.  The fool’s cap was made fro an old copy-book twisted into the proper shape.  The chief text book was Dilworth’s spelling book.  The Bible and the catechism were also taught, and the deacons of the church were regular in their visits to the school to see that the latter subjects were not neglected.

Other houses and teachers followed, and about 1828 a building was erected on the line between the farms of Dr. RAMSEY and James JACK.   This became quite a high school, in which the classics were taught.  In 1835 an association was formed for the purpose of establishing an academy.  The trustees were Maj. Aaron ARMSTRONG, Dr. J.G.M. RAMSEY, James JACK, John NAILL, Isaac PATTON.  A building, 18x36 feet was erected, and Noble A. PENLAND, then pastor of the Lebanon church was installed as teacher.  This institution was known as Mecklenburg Academy.

Meanwhile other congregations had been organized and other schools established.  The church at Knoxville was organized by Mr. CARRICK, soon after he became pastor of the Lebanon Church, but nearly all of its members had previously been enrolled with the latter congregation.  Its first ruling elders were James WHITE, George McNUTT, John ADAIR, Archibald RHEA, Sr., Dr. James COZBY and Thomas GILLESPIE, the first three making the original bench.  In September, 1794, the Territorial Legislature incorporated Blount College, with Mr. CARRICK as president and he was continued in that capacity and also as pastor of the church until his death in 1809.  The church was then without a regular pastor until 1812, when Rev. Thomas H. NELSON was installed.  Up to this time no house of worship had been erected, religious services having been held in the courthouse and at the barracks.  During the year precious, however, under the inspiration of a sermon preached by Rev. Samuel G. RAMSEY, three commissioners:  John CROZIER, Joseph C. STRONG and James PARK, had been appointed to contract for the building of a house.  This duty they accordingly performed, and late in the autumn of 1812 the work upon the brick meeting-house had sufficiently advanced to allow of its occupancy, although it was not entirely completed and furnished until 1816.

At this time there was a debt of $529.17, which was assumed by the three commissioners mentioned above. The sight consisting of one acre was donated by James WHITE.

Soon after the completion of this house, a portion of the members became disaffected, and in 1818 sent up a petition to Union Presbytery for permission to organize a new congregation, alleging as a reason, the insufficient accommodation of the old church.  This was considered, however, by the other members as but the pretext of the “Hopkinsian” party for withdrawing from the old organization, and when the petition, having been refused by the presbytery, went upon appeal to the synod of Tennessee, a remonstrance was set up.  The synod nevertheless, disregarded the remonstrance, overruled the decision of the presbytery, and ordered the petitioners to organize the Second Presbyterian Church of Knoxville (Historical Discourse by James Park, D.D.) 

An appeal was then taken by the session of the First Church to the General Assembly of 1820, but the decision was allowed to stand.

Mr. NELSON continued in charge of the church until his death in September 1838, and under his pastorate 204 names were added to this communion roll.  During this time also the following elders had been elected:

After the death of Mr. NELSON, the pulpit of First church was supplied successively by Samuel Y. WYLEY, Joseph I. FOOT, Charles D. PIGEON and Rev. Reese HAPPERSETT, none of whom continued more than a few months.  In 1841 Robert B. McMULLEN, then a professor in the East Tennessee University, was installed as pastor, and continued as such until the latter part of 1858, when he became president of Stewart College at Clarksville.  The following year W.A. GALLATIN was elected pastor.  He continued until February 1864, when he was sent South by the Federal military authorities.  In March 1855, a new house of worship, which had been begun in 1852 upon the site of the old house, was dedicated.  This building, from November, 1863 to May 1, 1866, was used by the United States authorities, first as a hospital, then as barracks, afterward as quarters for refugees from upper East Tennessee, and finally was turned over to the Freedman’s Bureau, and was used by them as a colored schoolhouse.

In February 1866, Rev. James PARK, who had recently return to Knoxville from Georgia, was requested by several members to preach.  Having no house he, upon his own responsibility, rented the Baptist Church, which was then vacant, and there continued to hold services until the following May, when the First Church was restored to the congregation.  At this time there were but thirty-nine members, of whom David A. DEADERICK, William S. KENNEDY and George M. WHITE were the elders.  Under the care of Dr. PARK the church prospered, and may accessions were received.  In 1869 the church building was repaired and refurnished, and the lot improved at a cost of more than $5,000.  On May 21, 1876, Dr. PARK was again elected pastor, and has since continued in charge of the church.  During his pastorate, a period of a little more than twenty years, about 600 members have been added to the church which now has a membership of about 300.

At a pro re nata  meeting of the Presbytery of Knoxville, held at Sweetwater, December 18, 1873, the petition of several members of the First Church, and a few more persons to be organized as the Third Presbyterian Church of Knoxville, was granted, and a committee, of whom Dr. PARK was chairman, was appointed to attend at Knoxville on Friday night before the third Sabbath in January, 1874, hold a meeting to embrace the Sabbath, and organize the new congregation.  This duty was discharged, and in January, 1874, the church was constituted, embracing twenty-nine communicants, four ruling elders and four deacons.  Until a house of worship could be erected, services were held in the Caldwell Schoolhouse.  In 1876 the present fine brick structure, situated on Fifth Avenue, was dedicated.

For the first eighteen months this church was served with efficiency by Rev. J.P. GAMMON, during which time the number of communicants was about tripled.  Mr. GAMMON was succeeded by Rev. Dr. W.A. HARRISON, who has since had pastoral charge of the church, and under his care the membership has increased to nearly 500.  The present elders are:

 The deacons are:

Near the close of the last century, and at about the time of the organization of the First Presbyterian Church at Knoxville, two other Presbyterian churches were established in Knox County by Rev. Samuel G. RAMSEY, a brother of Col. Francis A. RAMSEY.  They were Pleasant Forest, situated about two miles north of Concord Station, and Ebenezer, situated upon the site of the present Ebenezer Station, near the latter place. Mr. RAMSEY established a sort of preparatory school for young men, which was known as Ebenezer Academy, and for a few years this was the leading educational institution in the county.  Here attended:

Mr. RAMSEY had for an assistant a portion of the time a young man, John BAIN, who had been educated under Rev. Samuel DOAK, and who was preparing for the ministry.

While Mr. RAMSEY was thus educating the young men, Mrs. RAMSEY conducted a school for girls, and so excellent was the instruction given that she received several pupils from Knoxville. For some time before his death Mr. RAMSEY became enfeebled by disease, and was finally compelled to resign his pastoral charges.  He was succeeded by Richard KING.  Mr. KING was a man of fine intellect, and an excellent speaker.  Physically he was very large and corpulent, so much so that in his later years he sat in a chair while preaching.  About 1825 Mr. KING was succeeded by William HIGGLETON, who continued until 1830, when William A. McCAMPBELL was chosen pastor.

Until 1833 the two churches, Ebenezor and Pleasant Forest, were united in one congregation known as the Grassy Valley congregation.  In that year the members in the vicinity of Pleasant Forest formed a separate organization with seventy-three members, and installed Samuel H. DOAK as pastor, while McCAMPBELL continued at Ebenezer.  Mr. DOAK was succeeded in 1838 by Samuel G. WILLIS, and he in turn the next year by A.A. MATHES.  In 1848 Rev. Dr. James PARK became pastor of both churches, and so continued until 1853.  After the completion of the railroad Pleasant Forest was reorganized as Concord and erected a church at that station, while the congregation at Ebenezer removed two miles north of its old location and organized as Cedar Springs Church.  In 1859 Dr. PARK again became their pastor, and so continued with a short interval during the war until 1866.  He also supplied their pulpit on Sunday afternoons for two years longer.

These churches have always been old school, and now form a part of the presbytery of Knoxville, the origin of which is as follows:  In April, 1839, the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church, by its famous “excision act” having cut off the presbytery of Union, the few members including only about eight ministers still adhering to the old school doctrines, met hear Greenville, Tenn., and organized Holston Presbytery.  In October, 1846, this presbytery was divided by a right line running from Cumberland Gap to the southeast corner of Blount County, and the portion to the west of that line was erected into the presbytery of Knoxville.

Two periodicals have at different times been published at Knoxville in the interests of the Presbyterian Church.  The first was the Western Monitor, established about 1819, and the other the Presbyterian Witness, established some time in the forties and published by Kinsloe & Rice.

Contemporaneously with the founding of Ebenezer and Mount Pleasant Forest by Mr. RAMSEY, Washington Church situated on Rosebury Creek, was organized by Rev. Dr. Isaac ANDERSON, one of the ablest men who ever occupied the pulpit in East Tennessee.  He also established there a school known as Union Academy.  In 1803 Mr. CARRICK resigned his charge of Lebanon Church, and from that time until 1813 Dr. ANDERSON divided his time and attention between Washington and Lebanon.  He had adopted the peculiar doctrine known as “Hopkinsiansm,” and under his teaching, many not only among his own congregation but among members of neighboring churches had been converted to his belief.  After he removed to Maryville his old admirers did not forget him, and in 1818 he was invited by some of the members of the First Presbyterian Church at Knoxville, to return and preach to them.  This he did, and the result was the organization of the Second Presbyterian Church of Knoxville, which took place on October 24, 1818.  The elders chosen at this time were

An acre lot was purchased from Gideon MORGAN, and the work of erecting a house of worship was immediately begun.  By April 1820, this work had so far advanced, that the building was dedicated by Dr. ANDERSON.  It was not entirely completed, however, and for nearly ten years the walls remained unplastered.

Dr. ANDERSON continued to preach in the church until 1829, during which time 153 members were added.  The next regular pastor was Rev. Jefferson E. MONTGOMERY, who began his labors in 1831, and remained until 1838.  In October, 1840, he was succeeded by Rev. William MACK, who resigned three years later.  Under the ministry of these two men, 225 names were added to the communion roll.  In February 1845, John W. CUNNINGHAM was installed as pastor, but was succeeded in about a year by Rev. J.H. MEYERS, who continued until April 1857.  The sixth minister was J.H. MARTIN, who served the congregation from July 1857, to October 1863.  During his pastorate the present church building was erected, at a cost of $14,236.84.  It was begun in the fall of 1859, and dedicated November 11, 1860.  During the latter year, a chapel for Sunday-school, prayer meetings, etc., was built from the materials of the old church, at a cost of $2,219.

For two years during the war the church was without a pastor, after which Rev. R.P. WELLS preached for a few months.  In October Rev. Nathan BACHMAN began his labors, which continued for several years.  He was succeeded by F.E. STURGIS.  The present pastor is T.S. SCOTT, who was called from Rockford, Ill., in 1885.  The present membership of the church is nearly 500. A Sunday-school has been successfully maintained since, some time prior to 1832, and its pupils now number over 500.  Among those who have served as superintendents may be mentioned

On April 24, 1886, a new congregation was organized in North Knoxville, and known as the Fourth Presbyterian Church; Rev. E. ELMORE is the pastor.

The churches mentioned, together with Spring Place, six miles east of Knoxville, organized several years before the war, and New Prospect in the Fourteenth District, organized in 1871, constitute what was once the new school element, and now belong to a Union Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church.  Shannon Dale, a church recently organized on the Tazewell Pike, is also a member of this body.

This Presbytery in common with the others in the synod withdrew from the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1858, but at a meeting held at New Market in 1863, a resolution not to license or receive a member who sympathized with the Southern Confederacy, was adopted, and at the next meeting which was held at Spring Place Church on September 2, 1864, a resolution was adopted favoring a return to the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church.

On August 23, 1866, the members of Knoxville Presbytery who had remained loyal to the United States met at Baker Creek Church in Blount Countyand organized Holston Presbytery.  This continued as a separate body until the union of the old and new school presbytery was formed, when it was consolidated with other presbyteries in the synod of Tennessee.  The only congregation organized in Knox County was Pleasant Forest, now in Kingston Presbytery.

Note:  for more information, please see:

   Read Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey's   History of Lebanon Presbyterian Church  "In The Fork": Five Miles East of Knoxville, Tenn. (1918) (now enhanced with photographs, compliments of Kenneth Dunlap)

Read about "Mecklenburg" -- a description of the historic residence of Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey, noted historian

University of Tennessee's First Presidents:

History of the Early American Presbyterian Church – Biographies of Early Presbyterians:

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