Tennessee Trails
Churches of Madison County TN

First Methodist Church
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)