Stoney Creek Baptist Church
Reporter
Stoney Creek Baptist Church
ELIZABETHTON — This March has been a special one for Stoney Creek Baptist Church.
The church was organized on March 9, 1822, so the church is marking 200 years of existence this month. The church is celebrating the event this Sunday, inviting former members and other friends to come and celebrate with the congregation during morning worship.
Families who have photographs involving church activities and church members from the past have been asked to bring them to the special service so others can see the heirlooms and share the memories the photos unlock.
It should be a memorable day, but the church history has inspired lots of other memories, including the founding of a volunteer fire department.
Much of what follows has been taken from the notes that the event organizers have made of these records and archives.
It all began back around 1820, back before there was a Peters Hollow Egg Fight. Back then, the Stoney Creek community was still being settled. There was only one church in the region, Sinking Creek Baptist Church, the oldest church in Tennessee.
In July 1820, a group of Christians began meeting in the home of Thomas Evans on Stoney Creek, across the creek from where the church would be located. This meeting was part of a mission work of the Sinking Creek Baptist Church. The culmination of this mission work was the organization meeting of Stoney Creek Baptist Church on March 9, 1822.
A Spinnerette article on Stoney Creek Baptist Church printed in December 1949, discusses the role played by Sinking Creek in encouraging the growth of the new church. It quoted from the Sinking Creek Church records that said members of its church from the Stoney Creek community were “at liberty to join” the new church.
There were 24 charter members, and nearly all of their last names are still commonly found in Stoney Creek the community and the church today, names like Thomas Evans, Elizabeth Nave, Abigail Bowers, Lydia Taylor, Jacob Cole, Samuel Musgrave, Joseph Cable, Anna Buckles, and Joseph Cable.
A small log church was built and the first pastor was Reece Bayless.
Another historical impact of the early church was that when the Watauga Association of Baptists was organized in 1868, Stoney Creek Baptist Church was one of the original 14 churches in the association’s membership. At that time, the church had 109 members. A frame building was also built and served as the church for the next 50 years.
The church suffered a fire in 1910 and early church records were burned. A new, larger church building was erected in 1910. Other buildings were also added. In 1936, the church was remodeled and Sunday school rooms were added on. In 1947, the parsonage was built. In 1966, the brick education building was built.
The building trend continued, with a new sanctuary built in 1970. The church had a setback on Nov. 25, 1970, when the old frame building that had been the second church building in 1910 caught fire. While the new sanctuary was built, there was a lot of worry the fire would spread to the parsonage and other church buildings. At that time, there was no organized volunteer fire department in Stoney Creek.
The church notes said that one member, Uncle Jim Hyder, called upon the city of Elizabethton to help save the rest of the church buildings. Hyder was told the city could not send the fire trucks and firefighters into the county. The notes said “By the grace of God, the mayor took the responsibility for the fire trucks and firefighters. The new church and the parsonage were saved, praise God.”
The notes do not identify who the mayor was, but a search of the Municipal and Technical Service website lists the Elizabethton mayor for 1970-71 as J.I. Cornett.
The notes continued the story by saying the congregation met in the new church on Nov. 26 for prayer and to praise God for being with the church.
The experience had an immediate impact on the residents of Stoney Creek, whether they were members of the church or not. Strong support was given to forming a volunteer fire department. The Stoney Creek Volunteer Fire Department was soon organized under Chief Clifford Peters. The firehall is located within sight of Stoney Creek Baptist Church.
Reporter
John Thompson covers Carter and Johnson counties for the Johnson City Press since 1998. He grew up in Washington County and graduated from University High and East Tennessee State University
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