Briceville Community Church
Encyclopedia
The Briceville Community Church is a nondenominational church
located in Briceville, Tennessee
, USA. Built in 1887, the church served as a center of social life and community affairs for the Coal Creek Valley during the valley's coal mining
boom period in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. In 2003, the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places
for its historical role and as an example of rural Gothic Revival architecture
.
Mining companies identified the coal resources of the Coal Creek Valley in the late 1860s, and by the 1880s a half-dozen mines were in operation throughout the valley. A railroad spur line was completed up the valley to Briceville in 1888, the year after the completion of the Briceville Community Church. The church was used as a temporary jail for prisoners in the aftermath of the Coal Creek War
, a labor uprising that began with the seizure of a convict stockade in Briceville in 1891. In the following decade, the church hosted memorial services for the Fraterville Mine disaster
of 1902 and the Cross Mountain Mine disaster
of 1911, and victims of both disasters are buried in the church's cemetery. The church housed a Methodist congregation until 1995, and today is still used for various community events.
The Briceville community is located at the upper end of the Coal Creek Valley, a narrow valley that slices between Walden Ridge
and the rugged areas of the Cumberland Mountains
.
to Coal Creek (modern Lake City
) in the late 1860s brought about a mining boom in the Coal Creek Valley. In 1888, at the urging of Ohio
Senator Calvin Brice, a spur line was built up the valley to Slatestone Hollow, and thus the Slatestone community was renamed "Briceville." The Briceville Community Church was built by volunteers in 1887 on land donated by John Moore. The church was initially nondenominational, but by 1896 had become a Methodist church after Briceville's Baptist and Presbyterian communities grew large enough to build their own churches.
Historian Karin Shapiro credits institutions such as churches for creating a sense of local unity that contributed to the Coal Creek War, a labor uprising that erupted in 1891 over the Tennessee Coal Mining Company's decision to use convict labor
to break a strike at its Briceville mine. The conflict began on July 14 of that year, when several armed miners surrounded the company's stockade in Briceville and marched the company's convict laborers out of the valley. Briceville remained at the center of the uprising until it was finally crushed by the Tennessee state militia in August 1892. The Briceville Community Church was used as a temporary jail to hold dozens of miners arrested by the militia in the conflict's aftermath.
On June 8, 1902, memorial services led by local doctor and pastor E. S. Dickson were held at the Briceville Community Church for victims of the Fraterville Mine disaster
, a mine explosion that killed 216 miners at the Fraterville Mine just north of Briceville. Another mine disaster took place at the Cross Mountain Mine about a mile west of the church on December 9, 1911, killing 84 miners. Many of the victims of this explosion were buried in a circular formation known as the Cross Mountain Miners' Circle on the slopes of Walden Ridge, although several were buried in the Briceville Community Church Cemetery, among them Eugene Ault (1889–1911), whose monument is inscribed with the "farewell message" Ault had written on a wall of the mine as he lay dying.
After World War II
, mining companies gradually moved out of Briceville as the nationwide demand for coal plummeted, and membership at the Briceville Community Church began to drop. Between 1947 and 1965, the church's pastor, Ralph Cline, and church member Anna Mae Evans initiated a number of programs that helped make the community more involved with the church. These included summer Bible school classes, a community Thanksgiving
service, and an annual New Year's Eve service that ended with the church's bell being tolled at midnight. It was also under Cline's leadership that a fellowship hall was built in the church's basement. Regular Methodist services continued at the church until June 1995, when the Methodist Church transferred the building to two local trustees. The church is still used for community events such as weddings and funerals, and serves as an evacuation place for Briceville Elementary School (located across the street) in case of emergencies.
The Briceville Community Church has painted weatherboard walls, a basement and a gabled roof. The building would be a simple vernacular structure but for the two Gothic Revival-style towers connected at oblique angles to the corners of the facade. Although both towers have louver
ed belfries and pyramid roofs, the east tower is taller than the west tower, and has a slightly different design. The east tower also contains the church's bell, which was cast in 1919. A brick chimney behind the west tower was added in the 1950s.
Doors at the base of both towers provide entrances to the church's sanctuary. The sanctuary has a carpeted wooden floor and oak pews (installed in the 1950s), and has a pulpit with wooden paneling. A set of wooden stairs accesses the church's basement, which contains a fellowship hall and Sunday school classrooms built in the 1950s.
The church's cemetery, which is a contributing site in the church's National Register listing, covers just under an acre on the west and north sides of the church. The cemetery's oldest marker is that of Henry Mears, who died on March 31, 1891. Most of the markers have an east-west orientation, and are typically commercial slabs or obelisks. Symbolic carvings include Victorian-era symbols such as opened Bibles, praying hands, stars, and doves, as well as symbols for groups such as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and the Freemasons.
Non-denominational Christianity
In Christianity, nondenominational institutions or churches are those not formally aligned with an established denomination, or that remain otherwise officially autonomous. This, however, does not preclude an identifiable standard among such congregations...
located in Briceville, Tennessee
Briceville, Tennessee
Briceville is an unincorporated community in Anderson County, Tennessee. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The community is named for railroad tycoon and one-term Democratic U.S. Senator Calvin S...
, USA. Built in 1887, the church served as a center of social life and community affairs for the Coal Creek Valley during the valley's coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
boom period in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. In 2003, the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
for its historical role and as an example of rural Gothic Revival architecture
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
.
Mining companies identified the coal resources of the Coal Creek Valley in the late 1860s, and by the 1880s a half-dozen mines were in operation throughout the valley. A railroad spur line was completed up the valley to Briceville in 1888, the year after the completion of the Briceville Community Church. The church was used as a temporary jail for prisoners in the aftermath of the Coal Creek War
Coal Creek War
The Coal Creek War was an armed labor uprising that took place primarily in Anderson County, in the American state of Tennessee, in the early 1890s. The struggle began in 1891 when coal mine owners in the Coal Creek watershed attempted to replace free coal miners with convicts leased out by the...
, a labor uprising that began with the seizure of a convict stockade in Briceville in 1891. In the following decade, the church hosted memorial services for the Fraterville Mine disaster
Fraterville Mine disaster
The Fraterville Mine disaster was a coal mine explosion that occurred on May 19, 1902 near the community of Fraterville, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. 216 miners died as a result of the explosion, either from its initial blast or from the after-effects, making it the worst mining disaster in the...
of 1902 and the Cross Mountain Mine disaster
Cross Mountain Mine Disaster
The Cross Mountain Mine disaster was a coal mine explosion that occurred on December 9, 1911 near the community of Briceville, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. In spite of a well-organized rescue effort led by the newly-created Bureau of Mines, 84 miners died as a result of the...
of 1911, and victims of both disasters are buried in the church's cemetery. The church housed a Methodist congregation until 1995, and today is still used for various community events.
Location
The Briceville Community Church is located on a hill at the southern tip of "Root Hog Ridge," a flank of Vowell Mountain, and is situated near the center of Briceville. This hill rises approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) above the surrounding terrain, allowing the church to be visible from almost anywhere in the community. The church stands at the edge of the hill, and the cemetery stretches northward from the rear corner of the church up the hillslope, with several gravestones straddling the treeline along the property's boundaries. State Highway 116 passes along the base of the hill.The Briceville community is located at the upper end of the Coal Creek Valley, a narrow valley that slices between Walden Ridge
Walden Ridge
Walden Ridge is a mountain ridge and escarpment located in Tennessee, in the United States. It marks the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau and is generally considered part of it. Walden Ridge is about long, running generally north-south...
and the rugged areas of the Cumberland Mountains
Cumberland Mountains
The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in southern West Virginia, western Virginia, eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the Crab Orchard Mountains...
.
History
The completion of a railroad line from KnoxvilleKnoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
to Coal Creek (modern Lake City
Lake City, Tennessee
Lake City is a town in Anderson and Campbell counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, northwest of Knoxville. The population was 1,888 at the 2000 census...
) in the late 1860s brought about a mining boom in the Coal Creek Valley. In 1888, at the urging of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
Senator Calvin Brice, a spur line was built up the valley to Slatestone Hollow, and thus the Slatestone community was renamed "Briceville." The Briceville Community Church was built by volunteers in 1887 on land donated by John Moore. The church was initially nondenominational, but by 1896 had become a Methodist church after Briceville's Baptist and Presbyterian communities grew large enough to build their own churches.
Historian Karin Shapiro credits institutions such as churches for creating a sense of local unity that contributed to the Coal Creek War, a labor uprising that erupted in 1891 over the Tennessee Coal Mining Company's decision to use convict labor
Convict lease
Convict leasing was a system of penal labor practiced in the Southern United States, beginning with the emancipation of slaves at the end of the American Civil War in 1865, peaking around 1880, and ending in the last state, Alabama, in 1928....
to break a strike at its Briceville mine. The conflict began on July 14 of that year, when several armed miners surrounded the company's stockade in Briceville and marched the company's convict laborers out of the valley. Briceville remained at the center of the uprising until it was finally crushed by the Tennessee state militia in August 1892. The Briceville Community Church was used as a temporary jail to hold dozens of miners arrested by the militia in the conflict's aftermath.
On June 8, 1902, memorial services led by local doctor and pastor E. S. Dickson were held at the Briceville Community Church for victims of the Fraterville Mine disaster
Fraterville Mine disaster
The Fraterville Mine disaster was a coal mine explosion that occurred on May 19, 1902 near the community of Fraterville, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. 216 miners died as a result of the explosion, either from its initial blast or from the after-effects, making it the worst mining disaster in the...
, a mine explosion that killed 216 miners at the Fraterville Mine just north of Briceville. Another mine disaster took place at the Cross Mountain Mine about a mile west of the church on December 9, 1911, killing 84 miners. Many of the victims of this explosion were buried in a circular formation known as the Cross Mountain Miners' Circle on the slopes of Walden Ridge, although several were buried in the Briceville Community Church Cemetery, among them Eugene Ault (1889–1911), whose monument is inscribed with the "farewell message" Ault had written on a wall of the mine as he lay dying.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, mining companies gradually moved out of Briceville as the nationwide demand for coal plummeted, and membership at the Briceville Community Church began to drop. Between 1947 and 1965, the church's pastor, Ralph Cline, and church member Anna Mae Evans initiated a number of programs that helped make the community more involved with the church. These included summer Bible school classes, a community Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
service, and an annual New Year's Eve service that ended with the church's bell being tolled at midnight. It was also under Cline's leadership that a fellowship hall was built in the church's basement. Regular Methodist services continued at the church until June 1995, when the Methodist Church transferred the building to two local trustees. The church is still used for community events such as weddings and funerals, and serves as an evacuation place for Briceville Elementary School (located across the street) in case of emergencies.
Design
The Briceville Community Church has painted weatherboard walls, a basement and a gabled roof. The building would be a simple vernacular structure but for the two Gothic Revival-style towers connected at oblique angles to the corners of the facade. Although both towers have louver
Louver
A louver or louvre , from the French l'ouvert; "the open one") is a window, blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine, and noise...
ed belfries and pyramid roofs, the east tower is taller than the west tower, and has a slightly different design. The east tower also contains the church's bell, which was cast in 1919. A brick chimney behind the west tower was added in the 1950s.
Doors at the base of both towers provide entrances to the church's sanctuary. The sanctuary has a carpeted wooden floor and oak pews (installed in the 1950s), and has a pulpit with wooden paneling. A set of wooden stairs accesses the church's basement, which contains a fellowship hall and Sunday school classrooms built in the 1950s.
The church's cemetery, which is a contributing site in the church's National Register listing, covers just under an acre on the west and north sides of the church. The cemetery's oldest marker is that of Henry Mears, who died on March 31, 1891. Most of the markers have an east-west orientation, and are typically commercial slabs or obelisks. Symbolic carvings include Victorian-era symbols such as opened Bibles, praying hands, stars, and doves, as well as symbols for groups such as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
Independent Order of Odd Fellows
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows , also known as the Three Link Fraternity, is an altruistic and benevolent fraternal organization derived from the similar British Oddfellows service organizations which came into being during the 18th century, at a time when altruistic and charitable acts were...
and the Freemasons.
External links
- Historic Briceville Church – Coal Creek Watershed Foundation site detailing restoration efforts at the church