Tennessee Presbyterian Church

Duane's take

The official marker for Tennessee Presbyterian Church in Shelby County tells it like this, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Now, if you want to talk about staying power, let's talk about a congregation that got its start in 1857, back when the name on the door wasn't Tennessee Presbyterian at all. It was Mount Carmel.

And right from the beginning, it had something to prove, because this was the first Presbyterian congregation ever established in Shelby County. First. In the whole county.

They didn't have a grand building to show for it, not yet. What they had was a one-room log cabin, which served as their meeting place while the community found its footing. Then 1877 rolled around, and something considerably more ambitious went up: a large two-story frame building.

Now here's where it gets interesting. That building didn't belong just to the Presbyterians. The Methodist church used it.

The Baptist church used it. It served as the public schoolhouse for the Tennessee community. And on top of all that, the Woodmen of the World held their lodge meetings there too.

One building, carrying the weight of an entire community's spiritual, civic, and educational life. That's not a church hall. That's the whole town under one roof.

For a good while, the congregation made do with circuit riders coming through, preachers who covered wide territory and showed up when they could. But in 1866, that changed. The Reverend Mitchell Smith arrived and became the church's first full-time pastor.

Somebody was finally staying. The congregation kept growing, kept holding on to its roots. In 1914, Tennessee Presbyterian Church built its own sanctuary, right here at this site.

That building served the congregation faithfully until a new structure was built and dedicated in 1957, a hundred years after that original gathering in 1857. And the names. The marker holds onto the names, which is the right thing to do.

The earliest church roll dates from 1858, and it lists E. T. Corley, Charley H.

Corley, Mary Pitman, Mary Watts, R. R. Johnson, Martha Ann Johnson, and John F.

Ramsey. Some of the earliest settlers of the community were among them. They showed up, signed their names, and built something.

More than a century and a half later, Tennessee Presbyterian Church is still described as one of the oldest organizations in Shelby County, still upholding the ideals and traditions of the people who first put their names on that 1858 roll. That log cabin is long gone. The two-story frame building that held half a county together is gone too.

But the congregation? Still here. Some things, it turns out, are harder to let go of than a building.

What the marker says

Organized in 1857, this church was originally known as Mount Carmel. It was the first Presbyterian congregation established in Shelby County. A one-room log cabin served as a meeting place until a large two-story frame building was constructed in 1877. It was used by the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist churches in the Tennessee community. The building also served as the public schoolhouse and as the lodge hall for the Woodmen of the World. Tennessee Presbyterian Church built its own sanctuary at this site in 1914, and it served the congregation until a new structure was built and dedicated in 1957. The earliest church roll dates from 1858 and lists E. T. Corley, Charley H. Corley, Mary Pitman, Mary Watts, R. R. Johnson, Martha Ann Johnson, and John F. Ramsey as members. Some of the early settlers of the community attended church here. The congregation first was served by circuit riders, but in 1866 the Rev. Mitchell Smith became its first full-time pastor. Over the years, Tennessee Presbyterian Church has continued to uphold the ideals and traditions of its founders. As one of the oldest organizations in Shelby County, it is an important part of the heritage of the area. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986