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A Cumberland Presbyterian Church
was organized at Ooltewah,
September 6th, 1841, by Rev. Hiram
Douglas.
The minutes of the first meetings
have survived and the first entry
gives the following information
concerning the organization
meeting: “A society of
thirty members having associated
themselves together for religious
purposes, mutually agreed and
petitioned the Hiwassee Presbytery
of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church, met at Pond Creek Camp
Ground, Monroe County, to be
received under their care and
organized as a church, which was
granted by the Presbytery, the
Church to be known as Union
Church.” Hiram Douglas was elected
Moderator.
The thirty members included:
Nehemiah Evatt
Rebecca Evatt
Martha Evatt
Malinda Evatt,
William Rogers
Elizabeth Rogers
Allen B. Rogers
Sarah Rogers
Martha Rogers
G. W. Arnett
Lorinda Arnett
Amanda Elder
Lorinda Witt
Jane Cannon
Mary Cannon
Jane Cox,
Sarah Cox
Mary Cox
Martha Rolston
William Arnett
L. E. C. Carr
James Heaslett
Mary Moore
Hetta Turner
Hiram Douglas
Mary C. Douglas
Mary Hixson
Irvin Igou
Thomas Wilson
Others joined the church in the
following few weeks and months,
and some of the names are
interesting because they are well
known in County history:
Rhoda Ramsey
Michael Rawlings Allen
Allison Puckett
several Igous and Hixsons
Mary A. Rawlings and Jane
Rawlings.
Hiram Douglas exercised a wide
influence in the section
surrounding Chattanooga. He
organized a number of churches in
addition to the Ooltewah Church,
including the Cumberland Church,
in Chattanooga.
He built a home near Ooltewah in
1853 which is standing now (1940)
and occupied.
He moved
to Charleston, South Carolina,
where he organized a church, built
a home, and died.
Meanwhile he had married
scores of couples in the area and
the little settlement of
Chattanooga, in
the 1840’s.
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