Country Church I by Lisa G. Putman
This is the resting place of many great pioneers of Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Cades Cove Methodist Church and Churchyard Cemetery
In the spirit of Cades Cove, a blacksmith who lived in the cave named JD McCambell built this Cades Cove Methodist church in 1902 in 115 days for only $115. later on Mr Mccambell went on to become minister for this church.
There were far more Baptist who lived in the cades cove than Methodist but there were enough to form a Methodist congregation in the 1820s. The original church which stood here was a simple log building with a firepit and a dirt floor.
A interesting note about the construction of this church is the fact that it used building plans from another church that separated the congregation by men and women. This is why there are one small door on each side of the church rather than one large door in the center which clearly shows in the picture of the church on this page. Also, it is very interesting how this huge building is just balanced on a few local rocks.
The graves in this cemetery date back to its first, Feezell, Sarah J. 1826 to more recent ones dated 2007. Death was often communicated to the Cades Cove community through the tolling of the church bell, each mournful toll signifying one year of life. Cove residents could generally identify the deceased through this method and would respond appropriately to assist the grieving family in preparation of the body for burial, to build the coffin, to assure appropriate dress, to provide food or essential farm labor, and to “sit with the dead”. Oftentimes, dependent on the season of death, paper flowers were lovingly made to decorate the burial plot. These were “neighbors” in the truest sense.
Sirnames found in this churchyard include: Abbott, Chambers, Craig, Feezell, Gregory, Hill, Hodge, Lawson, Lemons, LeQuire, McCauley, Moore, Myers, Peacock, Sands, Seaton, Shields, Shuler, Snodgrass, Sparks, Tipton, Williams and Wilson.
Other works in the Cade’s Cove Collection:
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Companion Piece
Comments
Excellent detail with great colour & composition
beautiful scene… well done
Wonderful Lisa, I really like old churches and cemeteries, so much history to be found there, and reading about them makes them even more interesting, thank you for the knowledge, really nice photo, so clean and crisp :)
Interestingly enough Chris Ewing was in the cove when that last funeral was held. He got to witness a little bit of history that day.
Beautiful shot well done!!