Cherokee Creek Meeting House
Baptist Church of Christ at Cherokee
Cherokee Baptist Church
Cherokee Baptist Church is in Jonesborough, Washington County, Tennessee. On April 2, 1783, the church met to install the Reverend William Murphy as pastor.
On the fourth Sunday in October, 1786, the Holston Baptist Association was organized at Cherokee Church, with Tidence Lane, moderator and William Murphy, clerk.
The church was built on land owned by Samuel Bayless. His daughter, Hannah Bayless Hoss inherited the land in 1825 when he died.
. . . a certain tract of land out of which is excepted one and one-fourth acres more or less for the (Cherokee) meeting house and burial ground.
In 1840, Hannah deeded this land to the church.
The Cherokee were indigenous people who lived in the southern Appalachian mountains. European Americans called their towns in eastern Tennessee, the Overhill Towns. The towns included Chota, Tellico and Tanasi.
In 1776, the Cherokee planned to drive settlers out of the Washington District. The settlers were warned and stopped the first attack at Heaton's Station. The second attack was stopped at Fort Watauga. In response to these attacks, the militia burned Tuskegee and Citico.
East Tennessee is part of Appalachia. At the end of the French and Indian War, colonists began drifting into the area. In 1769, they first settled along the Watauga River. During the Revolution, the Overmountain Men defeated British loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain. The State of Franklin was formed in the 1780s, but never admitted to the Union.
Cherokee spotlight in stories
Another contribution to local lore has reached my desk. Billy Hugh Campbell Jr has written a collection of stories from the forgotten town of Garbers and the settlement of Cherokee Creek. These stories are in a book Rich Without a Cent. I hasten to point out that Garbers which was a new name for me is identified by Billy as being just a few miles south of Jonesborough and as a once thriving town simply called Garbers located in the historic settlement of Cherokee Creek.
He says his earliest memories of Garbers come from his grandmother Arnold Agnes Jones Campbell. Her tales tempted me to linger near and hear the words that came as natural as breathing. I saw people centuries old and long vanished places through her .
Jacob Brown negotiated purchases of land from the Cherokee Indians in 1775. It covered most of the present counties of Washington and Greene including the Cherokee Creek area. In the next decade other settlers began moving to land along Cherokee Creek. Early landowners included
William Nodding
Moses Brooks
William Cannon
John Hunter Sr
John Hunter Jr John Bayless
Williams Murphy
Aaron Lewis
Ambrose Hodges
Robert Rogers
James Wray
William Thornton
Micajah Mayfield
Frederick Anderson
and a lot of others
They began to meet for worship services and they formed the Cherokee Creek Meeting House about 1780 This became Cherokee Baptist Church oldest continuously operating Baptist church in the Tennessee Baptist Convention. In 1786 this church and some others formed the Holston Baptist Association oldest in the state at Cherokee Meeting House Just a short distance away a gathering of store buildings and houses known as Hossville was formed.
Several folks named Hoss were among our early settlers But let's get back to Garbers. The communitys beginnings went back to the 1820s with the establishment of a grist mill. Some years later Isaac Garber bought the mill. I presume that's where the name came from.
After he gets all the history dealt with, Billy gets into the stories like the one about the Jackarhinus. The old folks apparentlybelieved that the Jackarhinus was some sort of creature like the one which attacked Shirley Blaire during the depression years as he neared the graveyard An unearthly cry and the Jackarhinus was upon him grasping its claws around his neck Shirley in terror broke into a wild run. Through briars thorns and bushes he fled jumping fences and stumps in his escape. Then as he left the woods that surrounded-the cemetery it leaped from his back disappearing back into its dark lair. Shucks I don't know if the Jarkrrhinus is still out there, but I wouldn't want to bump into it on a dark night even away from the cemetery And what is the creature? Billy details other encounters, but no one could ever really say what it was.
Billy has added to his book with several pictures of community scenes and people. He also has worked in a couple of maps with various key spots and houses identified through numbers. The book is well-written and adds some additional history about a section of our county Even today you hear someone talk about down on Cherokee. (from Johnson City Press, July 10 1997)
A grist mill is a building where a miller grinds gain into flour.
from Sketches of Tennessee's Pioneer Baptist Preachers by J. J. Burnett
Here in the shadow of the old Cherokee church, on Cherokee Creek, Washington County, I am standing on historic ground, listening to the silence that broods over the cemetery where I meditate. The church has been in existence since 1783; has outlived two meeting houses, and for years has been worshiping in a third. The old church book (preserved from the beginning) and tombstones show some interesting records.
from Goodspeed's History of Washington County
The first Baptist Church organized in the county was the Cherokee Creek Church, constituted in 1783 by Tidence Lane. Among its first members were James Keels, John Broyles, John Layman, William Murphy, Owen Owens, William Calvert, Reuben, John and Thomas Bayless, Thomas and Francis Baxter. . .
At Cherokee Creek Metting-house, on the fourth Saturday in October, 1786 [Minutes of Holston Association. Other authorities put it as early as 1779] was organized the Holston Baptist Associations, at which time six churches were represented as follows: Cherokee Creek- James Keel, John Broyles, John Layman and William Murphy; Bent Creek- Tidence Lane, Isaac Barton and Francis Hamilton; Greasy Cave- Richard Deakins and James Acton; North Fork of Holston- John Frost; Lower French Broad- James Randolph and Charles Gentry. Tidence Lane was chosen moderator, and William Murphy, clerk.
