HISTORY OF THE LIBERTY BAPTIST CHURCH

This church history is made available through the generosity and research of historian Robert H. Wallace and the willingness of a very special Stewart County list subscriber who transcribed it. Thanks to both of you!

TAKEN FROM WALLACE FAMILY RECORD, by ROBERT H. (BOB) WALLACE

HISTORY OF THE LIBERTY CHURCH

Parent church of Pleasant Hill and Brandon's Chapel Free Will Baptist Churches.

INTRODUCTION

This is not a complete history of the Liberty Church.  Records were taken from the old Liberty Church book which was in very bad condition.  It had some of the pages missing and after 100 to 140 years, the hand written pages were very hard to read.  From 1843 until 1859 the records were torn out of the book.  The list of members was missing.  The list of members in this report was taken from some of the business meetings held beginning in October, 1859 running to January, 1880.  The names mentioned in their business meetings allowed us to get a fairly good record of the ones that belonged to the church.

Liberty Church was established in 1843 when Elisha Williams donated two acres of land on Hayes Fork Creek near Bumpus Mills to build the log church building on.  From reading the minutes, it seems there was some repair work done on the building in 1867 and in 1874 a new church building was built. Even though it said nothing of building a new building directly, in the minutes it stated that John Morgan was in charge of disposing of the old lumber that belonged to the old meeting house and that Riley Wallace took part of it for hauling lumber to the new one and that M. Jacobs got the rest of the lumber in exchange for window lights.  The old meeting logs were sold to Mr. Woodson for $5.00.  A new stove was also purchased. Liberty Church served Bumpus Mills, Antioch, Potneck and surrounding areas for about 50 years.  Because of traveling distance, the church was divided. One was established in Bumpus Mills and the other in the Pleasant Hill community. The old church property was sold to James M. Link for $10.00.

The minutes of the period of time are very interesting to read.  It tells of men and women whose names were erased from the church book for their dancing, drinking, playing cards, swearing or trading horses on Sunday.  If one felt he was not 'fittin' to be a church member, he would ask his name be erased from the church book.  Only by reading the original minutes, can one get the picture of the clerk's writing and spelling.  Example:  read was spelled red;  erased-rasd or door-dore.

EARLY FREE WILL BAPTIST PREACHERS

Ephrain Gattlin  (1785-8/23/1837)

LIST OF PREACHERS SERVING THE LIBERTY BAPTIST CHURCH

• Yeatmond Cherry  b. 1836

• Robert George

• John Morgan  b. 1794

• Albert G. Cherry

• E. E. Colison

• William Ward

• William Free

• S. H. Lancaster

• Emlis Cherry

• Hardy C. Pace

• M. Gram Wall

• G. H. Gower

• Taylor Wallis

• Samuel Griffin

Some of the members before 1859.  This is not a complete list of the churches members.  This list was compiled from the church minutes.  Other members are not known.

Members admitted to the church beginning 1859

Minutes of the Liberty Baptist Church: 1859-1879

Records of Mr. Wallace transcribed by Sandy Shackleford; July 1998

Note:  As of 2018, the original church register is in the care of Welch College (formerly Free Will Baptist Bible College), Gallatin, TN

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