The Colored Folk Churches in East Tennessee

Abstract

THE COLORED FOLK CHURCHES IN EAST TENNESSEE Robert Boyd "Oh Come, come, come to the church in the wildwoods. Oh come to the church in the dell. No lovelier place in my childhood Than the little brown church in the dell." When traveling EastTennessee's secluded ridges and dells near the Smoky Mountains, you will find small family churches where Colored folks have worshiped for more than a century. These small country churches stand like sentinels guarding the graves and history of the Colored folks who once lived on and farmed the rugged Appalachian land. Looking back, there is no lovelier place in my childhood than the days I worked the rugged land with my uncles and worshipped in the family churches with my aunts. "No lovelier place in my childhood" New Salem Baptist Church, built in 1886, is listed in the National Register of Historical Places. The New Salem Baptist Church is the oldest building in Sevierville, Tennessee, and Sevier County's oldest brick church. It sits on the banks ofa stream that runs into the Little Pigeon River, which meanders down the Smoky Mountains through Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville. New Salem Baptist Church was built in 1886 by the Dockery, McMahan and Coleman families who were ex-slaves and brick masons. They were three of the Colored families of Sevier County who saw a need for the Colored families ofthe county to have a church. Although "you can never go home again" has some element of truth, you can, however, remember home as it once was. I remember the first school that I attended. It was a one-room, brick school house 89 built on Mr. Fred McMahan's Sevier County farm, and his wife, Miss Mary, was my first teacher. The McMahans saw the need and built a solid brick school for the Colored children who lived in Sevier County. The brick school house still stands at the edge ofwhat was once a corn field. From seeds of"progress," expensive homes and townhouses have sprouted on what were once fields ofgrain. Although I "can never go home again," I remember working on Mr. Fred's farm. I remember clearing the corn stalks from a two-acre corn field with the McMahan children and how proud we were when we completed the task. I can still see four small children kneeling in prayer in the cleared field, thanking God for helping us clear the field. There was no adult present in the field urging us to pray—we just fell to our knees and prayed. It is one ofmy unforgettable childhood memories. I remember the Sundays when I would go to New Salem Baptist Church with my Uncle Kenneth and Aunt Pearl. When we arrived, my sister Ruth would follow my Aunt Pearl and the other women into the church. I would remain with my Uncle Kenneth outside under a tree with the men. I enjoyed leaning on the truck with my uncle and listening to men as they discussed their crops, their farm animals and their dogs. The shade from a tall oak tree was our shield from hot summer sun but not from the music, prayers, and sermon that resounded through the church's open windows and across the church yard. "Give me that ol' time religion Give me that ol' time religion It was good for my dear mother ..." The tombstones that mark the graves in the churches' cemeteries chronicle the life and death of the Colored families who lived in the secluded dells and along East Tennessee's mountain ridges in Knox, Blount and Sevier Counties. In Sevier County, Abe, Ruthie, Kenneth, Pearl, Paul, Mollie and Myrtle Brabson are all buried in New Salem's graveyard. They are my grandfather, grandmother, uncles, aunt and mother. It seems when I visit the graves I can still hear my uncle's and aunt's voices: 90 "Kenneth, make that boy climb back down out ofthat tree 'fore he falls and hurts hisself," my Aunt Pearl would caution. "That boy ain't gonna fall," replied my Uncle Kenneth as he watched me climb one limb at a time to the top ofthe apple tree and pluck...