History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 83

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 83

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316

HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

people became interested, repaired the meeting-house, and gave him a fair support. When Rev. Dr. Baird came to assist him, in 1860, the church had ninety-seven members. Sixteen members were added. Rev. Mr. Reed was forced to leave in February, 1862, and the house was occupied as a United States army hospital. In 1864 the late pastor died. At the close of hostilities, Rev. Dr. Andrew J. Baird, then in the service of the American Bible Society, received a call from " the congregation," and, there being no seats in their own church, preached to them in Mckendrec. Y. B. Jones was the only elder left. Judge Caruthers, Dr. Ward, and the ladies signed the call, the learned judge remarking that " the circumstances warranted a little irregularity in the proceedings." For two months Dr. Baird made daily calls upon the quartermaster for means to repair the church, and then appealed to President Andrew Johnson, whose response immediately secured an indemnity of eleven hundred dollars, with which the house was refitted. This church did not divide over politics during the war. On the reorganization a Bap- tist brother led the choir, which contained-as it always has since-men who had worn both the blue and the gray in the opposing armies. An ex-aidc-de-camp of Confederate Gen. Stuart and an officer of the Federal army together took the lead in organizing and sustaining the Sunday- school.

The church, which commenced with thirty-four mem- bers at the close of the war, has now five hundred and fifty-one members, a beautiful house of worship splendidly furnished, and is free from debt. Over one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars have been expended during that time. The Sunday-school has two hundred and forty members, with an average attendance of two hundred and sixteen. The officers of the church are :

A. J. Baird, D.D., pastor.

Elders : James A. Adcock, R. L. Caruthers, Jr. ; R. A. Campbell, W. L. Danley, Dr. R. R. Freeman, John M. Gaut, C. B. Glenn, Y. B. Jones, L. H. Lanier, P. H. Manlove, R. L. Morris, W. C. Smith.

Deacons : L. D. Baker, R. L. Campbell, W. T. Cart- wright, B. F. Cornelius, R. T. Creighton, Nat. F. Dortch, J. D. Dean, C. H. Freeman, William Porter, W. J. Wal- lace, W. H. Wood, W. A. Wray.

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church has for many years past been concentrating its publishing business in Nashville, under the direction of the General Assembly. Their Board of Publication and book-store are at No. 41 Union Street, where are kept all the books of the church, -the initial founding, as described in the " Old Log House" by Rev. Dr. T. C. Blake, and their belief, as established in the Word of God and detailed in a large collection of de- pominational works. This publishing house was organized on its present basis in 1874, and is a union of all the former scattered works of the kind. The officers of the board, who are named below, are but a few of the many able writers and workers in this especial branch of moral instruction, the press of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

Cumberland Board of Publication, 1879-80 .- John Frizzell, President ; John M. Gaut, Corresponding Secre- tary ; Robert L. Caruthers, Recording Secretary ; P. H.

Manlove, Travis Winham, Members of the Board, all of Nashville. President of the Trustees, Rev. J. M. Gill, Elkton, Ky.

Edgefield Cumberland Presbyterian Church .- This is the outgrowth of a Cumberland Presbyterian Church or- ganized in the south part of Nashville in 1857, by members of the First Church in that city, under the leadership of Rev. A. G. Goodlett. A meeting-house was built at the corner of Summer and Elm Streets, but the society were unable to pay the debt incurred in building, and it was traded in 1867 for the Methodist Episcopal South church, at the corner of Mulberry and College Streets, and some securities in addition. April 11, 1872, the pastor in charge, Rev. J. D. Kirkpatrick, called a meeting of his church to consider the financial embarrassment, when it was decided to dissolve the church and regularly establish a church of the same members in Edgefield, who should, when organized, be proprietors of the church property, on condition of paying the entire indebtedness. The Edge- field congregation were to assist in building a house of wor- ship whenever it should be advisable to reorganize the South Nashville Church.

There were then forty-one members, of whom twenty- eight joined in the act of conveyance and dissolution. These all united in organizing the Edgefield Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in a meeting held at the Russell Street school house, on the afternoon of Sunday, May 5, 1872, after the delivery of a sermon by Rev. A. J. Baird, D.D., pastor of the First Church.

J. M. Bruce, John Frizzell, Oliver H. Hight, Hugh C. Thompson, and S. B. Hogan were elected ruling elders, W. R. Cornelius and John E. Gilbert deacons, O. H. Hight clerk, and John E. Gilbert treasurer. May 12th, a Sunday-school of eight persons was organized. Twenty-one new members were admitted during the first year. In January, 1874, a lot was purchased on Russell Street, near Sixth, from Dr. Morrow, who donated two hundred and twenty-eight dollars towards its purchase. The old house in South Nashville was sold for two thousand six hundred dollars, and a beautiful house was built of wood, with cut stone basement, by John Frizzell, W. R. Cornelius, and James J. Pryor, committee. This was dedicated, free from debt, April 4, 1875, in the presence of a large congregation of visiting brothers, by Rev. Dr. Beard, in a sermon from Isaiah vi. 7, and prayer by Rev. M. B. De Witt. The sacrament was then administered by Rev. Mr. Kirk patrick, the pastor. Rev. Mr. De Witt became stated supply Jan. 1, 1876, and remained until May 13, 1877. He was suc- ceeded by Rev. Robert M. Tinnon, the present pastor, July 1, 1877. The church has now one hundred and fourteen members and a Sunday-school numbering one hundred and twenty-five. There is also a summer mission Sunday-school sustained in North Edgefield. There has been no change in the church officers since the first election.

The Moore Memorial Presbyterian Church of West Nash- ville is the outgrowth of a mission Sunday-school held for several years in a cabin on McNairy Street, under the man- agement of Mr. George B. O'Bryan, superintendent, and several members of the First Presbyterian Church of Nash- ville, among the most prominent and active of whom were

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Photo. by Armstrong, Nashville.

a.B. Shankland

ALEXANDER BEATY SHANKLAND is descended in a direct line from the Shanklins of Scotland, the present orthography of the name being & corruption. His ancestors emigrated from Scotland to the north of Ireland. The name still prevails extensively in Aberdeenshire. At the battle of the Boyne, July, 1690, one of the Shanklins was in com- mand of a regiment of dragoons, and by his gallant conduct so dis- tinguished himself that he received in acknowledgment of his services an estate called Butler's Hill, near Inniskillen, in Ireland. About the year 1740 his grandson, Robert Shanklin, then a young man, went to Dublin to attend the university ; but, the study of the sciences not being exactly compatible with his impetuous nature, he boarded a vessel bound for America, and, after landing in New York, proceeded up the Hudson to Orange County, where he found the Clin- tons and other settlers, who were formerly from his father's neighbor- hood in Ireland. Here he married a Miss Beaty, a relative of Gen. James Clinton, of Revolutionary fame. Upon his arrival in the United States, Robert Shanklin, for some reason not at present known, changed his name to Shankland. Three of his brothers subsequently came to America, and one of them also adopted Robert's orthography of the family name, while the other two refused to corrupt the original ; hence there arose two different names of the same family. Robert Shankland performed gallant service during the war of the Revolu- tion, and died in 1794, leaving six children,-four sons and two daughters. One of the sons, Alexander, is the grandfather of A. B. Shankland. His father, Jesse Shankland, was born in New York, Sept. 7, 1789, and after his marriage resided at Pompey, N. Y., where A. B. Shankland was born, Sept. 17, 1816. About nine months later his father died, and his mother removed to Homer, N. Y., where Mr. Shankland grew up to manhood. He was educated at Homer Academy. In 1839 he went to Albany, N. Y., to live, and there, in 1842, he mar- ried Miss Sarah E. Scovel, eldest daughter of Col. Hezekiah Scovel, a prominent merchant of that place, and whose family have for many generations been noted for their literary tastes and culture, and many of whom have figured prominently in the learned professions. Soon after his marriage Mr. Shankland came to Nashville, Tenn., where he resided till the time of his death. Soon after his arrival in Nashville he be- carne associated with J. R. Graves in the proprietorship and as as- sociate editor of The Tennessee Baptist, then a small sheet called The Baptist, and it is in a great degree owing to his financial skill and untiring energy that the paper subsequently acquired the circulation and high character which it eventually attained. In 1852 he disposed

of his interest in the paper to Marks, a brother-in-law of Graves, and began operations as a real-estate broker, in which occupation he continued to the time of his death. There has probably never been a man in Nashville more thoroughly conversant with the value of lands and property in and about the city than Mr. Shankland.

In politics he was always an old-line Whig, and at the outbreak of the civil war both his education and political principles led him to warmly espouse the cause of the Union. While he had no political aspi- rations or desire to figure in the turmoil of party strife, yet being a man of positive character, and entertaining as he did decided opinions, the result of earnest and honest convictions, he always, when called upon, expressed them; yet, notwithstanding his pronounced Union proeliv- ities, he acted the part of the Good Samaritan to many a poor Southern soldier, and many a Southern mother's heart has poured forth its vol- ume of thanks to the generous Christian spirit that prompted Mr. Shankland to secure the release of her son from some Northern prison.

As an evidence of the confidence and esteem in which he was held by his fellow-citizens, we will mention a few of the many positions of trust which they conferred upon him.

He was for over thirty years a deacon in the Baptist Church, and most of the time chairman of the board of deacons; was for many years treasurer of the General Association of Middle Tennessee and Northern Alabama, and was always placed at the head of building committees, etc. He was at one time a member of the County Court, and president of the city council, city revenue collector, and for one term director of the penitentiary; an active member of the State Historical Society, and for many years a member of the educational board of Union University, at Murfreesboro', to the establishment and maintenance of which institution he contributed largely.

Owing to heavy investments in real estate and the subsequent rapid depreciation of values, Mr. Shankland lost very heavily ; yet with all his financial embarrassments he never abused a trust or deserted = friend, as is evidenced by the fact that since the war he has paid many thousand dollars securities, denying himself and family all of the luxuries and many of the comforts of life to meet these liabilities.

A marked trait in his character was his persistence of purpose and wonderful executive ability. He died Jan. 8, 1877, leaving behind him his wife and two children,-a son and daughter,-the former of whom, James H. Shankland, is now a prominent lawyer in San Fran- cisco, Cal.

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317

CITY OF NASHVILLE.

some lady members. The church was organized Nov. 23, 1873, in the First Church building, by members of that church who were transferred by letter. Rev. Frank B. Moore, of Covington, Ky., then a young man just entering the ministry, was active in forming the church, was its first minister, and was complimented by the society giving to their house of worship the name of " Moore Memorial." This house, which is a fine brick structure, was erected in 1873, at a cost of twenty thousand dollars. The lot on Broad Street cost four thousand dollars more. Rev. Mr. Moore remained until November, 1878. During the en- suing year Rev. J. H. Boyson was temporary supply. The church then called Rev. J. H. McNeilly, of Houston, Texas, who had formerly been pastor of the First Church in Edgefield. There has been no change in the organization. The officers are C. A. R. Thompson, J. P. McGuire, Wil- liam Henry Smith, and C. F. Ordway, Ruling Elders ; Rob- ert J. Gordon, Ruling Elder and Clerk; Edgar Jones, George B. O'Bryan, William D. Kline, James T. Grigsby, James H. Bryan, Alexander McKay, and William B. Lawrence, Deacons. Mr. O'Bryan still remains superintendent of the large and flourishing Sunday-school from which the church took its rise.

Second Presbyterian Church of Edgefield .- In response to a petition of citizens of Edgfield to the committee of the Presbyterial missions of the Presbytery of Nashville, asking that a second church be organized in Edgefield, a meeting was held in Sharp's Hall, Jan. 24, 1875, over which pre- sided Rev. James H. McNeilly, chairman of the committee of missions of this Presbytery, and Elders J. B. White, R. S. Hollins, and D. P. Rankin, of the Edgefield Presbyterian Church. They at once proceeded to organize the Second Presbyterian Church of Edgefield by accepting as members fourteen persons who presented certificates of good and regular standing in evangelical churches, and eight who were examined and admitted on profession of faith.

Nelson I'. Powers and George R. Brooks were elected ruling elders, and Samuel A. Fletcher and Johnson P. Hutchison deacons and trustees. Among the first mem- bers were Dr. Joseph A. Bowman, who united as elder from the First Church, S. M. Ware and wife, Mrs. J. P. Hutchison, Mrs. N. P. Powers, William Coltart, Mrs. Grace Cameron, Mrs. A. A. Cowan, and Mrs. Eliza McGill.

The elders and deacons were installed Jan. 31, 1875. Rev. Mr. McNeilly at once entered upon the duties of pastor, and remained nearly three years. Rev. Alexander Cowan succeeded him for about sixteen months. Rev. H. S. Yerger, the present pastor, became stated supply in No- vember, 1879. At this time the church, which had held worship in Sharp's Hall, were offered and accepted the use of the Edgefield meeting-house of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. A house of worship was commenced on the corner of North Second and Wetmore Streets in 1878, and first occupied for worship Jan. 1, 1880. This is a fine brick building forty by sixty feet in the main, with a beautiful spire one hundred feet in height, the whole cost- ing about four thousand five hundred dollars. It was named McNeilly Chapel, in honor of Rev. James H. Mc- Neilly, the founder and first pastor of the Second Church. There are now about forty members and a Sunday-school

with seventy scholars. The present officers are Rev. H. S. Yerger, Pastor ; N. P. Powers, Clerk and Elder ; R. G. Brooks, Elder; S. N. Fletcher, J. P. Hutchison, O. A. Kellum, and F. H. Ross, Deacons, the last two of whom were ordained Sept. 25, 1879.

The Westminster Presbyterian Church was organized in the Associate Reform church building, at the corner of Col- lege and Ash Streets, on the 6th of April, 1879. The building, a small wooden structure, had been erected by the Reform Society in 1859 and abandoned to the use of the United States government, who turned it into a stable during the war. Although they renewed their occupation and worship with the return of peace, they were unable to keep up an organization, and as such soon ceased to exist. In 1874 a mission Sunday-school was opened under the auspices of the First Presbyterian Church of Nashville, and mainly through the exertions of Mrs. James H. Wilkes. Mr. Wilkes was made superintendent of the Sunday-school, and remained so for the four years previous to the organi- zation of Westminster Church, contributing liberally to the enterprise. Rev. T. A. Hoyt, D.D., of the First Church, effected the organization, with forty-six original members, representing thirteen different churches in their former membership. From these, Dr. A. S. Duval and James H. Wilkes were selected as ruling elders, and C. F. Gray, J. L. Elder, and J. McG. Lindsley deacons. Mr. Wilkes was made clerk. Rev. Thomas M. McConnell was imme- diately installed pastor. March 15, 1880, R. G. Roth- rock was also made an elder, and G. W. Gifford and R. B. McLean deacons. The present membership is seventy- five. There is also a flourishing Sunday-school, under the superintendence of Dr. A. S. Duval. Their library numbers four hundred volumes. The house of worship, with the lot, one hundred and eight by one hundred and thirty-five feet, became the property of Westminster Church in March, 1880, and the work of improving and beautify- ing the house and grounds was at once commenced.

BAPTIST CHURCHES.

The first Baptist organization in Middle Tennessee was gathered by Rev. John Grammar, on Sulphur Fork of Red River, in 1786. The pastor removed soon after, and the organization became extinct. The present Red River Church was organized in 1792. Some families from North Carolina are said by Rev. Mr. Bond, in his " History of the Concord Association," to have come across the moun- tains with their minister in 1795-96, ready organized, and to have planted their church at the head of Sulphur Fork. John Dorris was their minister. The church on White's Creck was organized early enough to be one of the original members of the Mero Association, which was organized by five churches,-one at the mouth of Sulphur Fork, one at White's Creek, one six miles east of the city, one on Middle Fork, and one on the west fork of Station Camp Creek, in Sumner County. The church at the mouth of Sulphur Fork was organized in 1791. Mill Creek, or Gethsemane Church, was organized in 1797, and was represented at the second annual meeting of the Association. This church was some three miles from Nashville. It was long the centre of the Baptist organizations in the surrounding country.

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318

HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

Rev. James Whitsitt was pastor from 1797 to 1846. He helped to build three brick meeting-houses on Mill Creek previous to 1810. The one of which he continued pastor had three galleries ; they were all three forty by sixty feet in size and well finished. This organization is still in existence.

The association was reorganized in 1803, under the name of the Cumberland Association, with fifteen churches. The church of which Mr. Dorris is pastor and three other small churches remained separate.

That territory lying east of a line beginning at Red River Ridge, at the crossing of the Lexington and Nashville Railroad, and thence by Haysboro' to Nashville and Harpeth Lick and south to the Tennessee River, was or- ganized into the Concord Association at the annual meet- ing held in 1809. This association divided in 1827, and formed two Concord Associations, one Calvinistic and the other Armenian in its doctrines. Still another difference of opinion arising in one of these divisions in 1836, Stone's River Primitive Baptist Association was formed of one part, while the remainder reunited with the old Concord Associ- ation in 1842.

The name of Cumberland was again revived in 1870, and assumed by a new Association containing most of the Nash- ville Baptist churches, and several also in the counties of Sumner, Robertson, Cheatham, and Montgomery. White's Creek Baptist Church was constituted in the year 1794. It is two miles south of Goodlettsville and nine and a half miles by road from Nashville. The name has been changed to New Bethel, and the old name long since become forgotten by those not familiar with its history. The church records, containing much valuable and interesting historical matter extending through a third of a century, have been lost. The second volume begins with the year 1827, when Elder James Whitsitt, long settled over the Mill Creek Church, was their preacher.

Among the first names on the oldest existing roll are those of Edward C. and Martha S. Butler, Deacon Martin Pierce, Polly Pierce, Drewry and Edward Scruggs, Enoch Cunningham, Sr. and Jr., Eppy, John, Robert, and Harriet Cunningham, Andrew Hoover, Robert, Preston, Eliza, and Penina Dorris, William and Mary Kirk, George G. Brown, Lancelot Foster, Henry Cole, Thompson Dickinson, Alfred Ray, James Rayner, James Hitt, and fourteen others, female members. Of all these, Robert Cunningham and Penina Dorris are the only survivors.

Among the pastors are names sacred in the memory of many of the members of other churches in Middle Tennes- see. Rev. William Herring was pastor from March, 1828, to 1830; Rev. William Kirk, 1830-34; Rev. Mr. Phil- lips, 1834-39; Rev. Peter Fuqua, 1839-42; Rev. W. D. Baldwin, 1842 to December, 1858. During his pastorate a new house of worship was built, and given the present name of New Bethel on its completion, in 1854.

Rev. E. D. Stephenson was pastor from December, 1858, to 1859 ; Rev. A. C. Dayton, 1859-60; Rev. W. D. Bald- win, from December, 1860, to his death, which occurred Aug. 23, 1863. The church was then without a pastor until February, 1866, when Rev. D. B. Haile became pas- tor and remained until September, 1867. Rev. W. G. In-

man, the next pastor, remained from February, 1868, to December, 1869. Rev. Eugene Strode succeeded for a short time in 1871, when his death left the pulpit again vacant. Rev. R. S. Blankenship was pastor from February, 1872, to December, 1873, and Lewis Lindsay to September, 1875. Rev. W. S. Adams, the present pastor, was called to the charge in December, 1875.

Among the deacons have been Martin Pierce, who was ordained many years previous to the earliest record made in 1827; John Cunningham, ordained 1836; James S. Hilt and William Berry, ordained July, 1838; W. B. Trenary, ordained 1846; S. T. Fryer and Robert Cunningham, ordained 1855; Eppy Cunningham and G. C. Kemper, ordained July, 1859; G. W. Kemper and A. W. Hilt, ordained March, 1869; D. II. Hall and W. F. Lassiter, ordained November, 1876; G. E. Cunningham, ordained April 11, 1880.

Clerks: Edward Butler, to 1830, Eppy and Robert Can- ningham, R. S. Hilt, and on his death, Dec. 5, 1855, G. W. Kemper, the present clerk.

The following members have become ministers : William Kirk, W. N. Chandoin, W. B. Trenary, G. W. Trenary, W. H. Baylis, L. A. Woolfork, R. H. Jones, J. J. James, James Guy.

There have been four hundred and forty-one persons members of this church since 1827. Present membership, one hundred and ten.

First Baptist Church of Nashville .- Jeremiah Varde- man, of Kentucky, a man of marked ability, learning, and power, came to Nashville during the month of May, 1820, and opened a series of protracted meetings, assisted by Rev. James Whitsitt. These continued several weeks and made many converts, who became members of the Mill Creek Church, three miles south of the city. On June 22d letters were given to those who desired to form themselves into the Baptist Church of Nashville, and that body was then organized. Richard Dabbs, a Virginian, of thirty years' .

experience in the ministry, became the first settled pastor, in December, 1822. Mr. Dabbs is mentioned in Taylor's " Lives of Virginia Ministers" as a man of great energy and remarkably successful in his ministry. He died May 21, 1825.

In May, 1826, Philip S. Fall became pastor. It soon became manifest that he sympathized with the doctrines taught by Rev. Alexander Campbell, and the church found themselves hopelessly involved in controversy. A meeting was called in July, and the Mill Creek Church, as senior, was requested to take action in the matter. The Nashville Church declined to appear before their bar, and were, in turn, refused fellowship. They then assumed the ordinance of weekly communion. The minority, who adhered to the old fuith, were powerless. In January, 1828, the church adopted the full form of the Disciples' worship. In May ensuing the whole creed was repealed. The church at this time numbered between three hundred and four hundred souls. The minority met for worship at the court-house, Oct. 10, 1830, and there, after denouncing " Campbellism," organized the First Baptist Church of Nashville, and aban- doned their handsome church to the " Reformers."

Meetings were regularly held at the court-house, then at

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EL Prol

DR. E. F. P'POOL, was born Nov. 12, 1814, in Meck- lenburg Co., Va. His ancestors were from Wales, and the original orthography of the family name was Petty Pool. This has been abbreviated in the course of years to P'Pool.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 83

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013