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Churches of Madison County TN  Jackson, Madison Co. TN 
The first Methodist Church in Jackson was organized at the court house in the fall of 1826, with eight members. Among them were Joseph Douglas and wife, Wyatt Epps and wife, and Robert Brown. The society was organized by Rev. Thomas Neeley. Services were either held at private houses or at the court house till the building of Temperance Hall about 1831. In 1851 this old church was sold by A. W. Jones, J. C. Sharp and Milton Brown, trustees of the church, to Jackson Sons of Temperance, for $1,900, and the lot where the present church stands was purchased. On this a new church was erected by the Brown brothers and Newells. Recent additions have been made to the church to the amount of $10,000. It is furnished with a pipe organ and seated with chairs, and is one of the most elegantly furnished in the city. The membership of the church is 352. It also maintains a flourishing Sunday school. There are Methodist Churches in both East and West Jackson, the membership of the two aggregating about 250. The church property of the two is valued at $2,000.
(Goodspeed History of TN 1887 transcribed by David Donahue) Soon after West Tennessee was opened for settlement following the Chickasaw Treaty of 1818, the Methodist Conference in 1820 sent two missionaries to what they called the "Jackson Purchase" " to labor and report in the ensuing spring the situation of that country." A year later they reported one hundred and forty-six whites and twelve colored Methodists living in the area. In 1826 just three years after the village of Jackson was incorporated, a Methodist church was organized under the leadership of Rev. Thomas Neely with nine members. This organization took place in the log courthouse on the northeast corner of the square. Early candlenight services were held here and in private homes until 1831 when a house of worship was built on the southwest corner of Chester and Church streets. The growth of he church in 1851 inspired trustees Amos Jones, Joseph Sharp and Milton Brown to sell the building to the "Sons of Temperance" for $1,000 and to buy the lot across the street. During the Civil War the church was used as a hospital and as a stable. Later B.A. Enloe, a member of the United States House of Representatives from Jackson, engineered a bill through Congress which reimbursed the congregation for damages to the church and the parsonage. The church of 1851 was remodeled in 1886 at a cost of $10,000. The building with twin towers and stone entrance was considered one of the outstanding churches in the south. It burned in 1912. A new building was soon completed and on September 6, 1914, Bishop William Murrah conducted the dedication services. This building has been added to and remodeled several times. |
