Truckin' on the Western Branch

Members alternated between the two sanctuaries until the end of the Civil War when they sold the Shoulder’s Hill building to a black congregation for $1,000 and settled in at Sycamore Hill. The church burned in 1863, with an “incendiary” being blamed, and was rebuilt in 1868 with the $1,000 from the sale and a donation from landowner James H. Carney. They officially adopted the name Churchland Baptist in 1890. Twenty years later they built the Gothic structure that was the main sanctuary for more than 60 years. “The Churchland Baptist Church Ladies Aid Society catered to raise money and kept the church going during the Depression,” Judy Hathaway said. “They catered lunch meetings for the Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs. There were some really good cooks in church, and they had fresh food from the farms.”

With Churchland’s post–World War II growth, the congregation grew and added a social hall and children’s wing.

“In 1962–63 the sacristy was built under John Moran’s leadership,” Rev. Larry Coleman said. “It was at the peak of church attendance and drew a lot of people.” The Bidgood, Wright, Deans, and Carney families fully supported the church over the years. Reuben Jones, born in Isle of Wight, was a Methodist circuit rider in Western Tennessee before he

pastored Churchland Baptist from 1842 to 1848. He left to serve a church in Arkansas but returned to Churchland in 1855, serving as pastor until his death in 1885. Since then the church has had only seven ministers: A. B. Dunaway, William Vann Savage, Robert E. F. Aler, John L. Moran, R. Lee Carter, R. Clint Hopkins, and Coleman. Coleman, an Ashville, North Carolina, native and the current pastor, came to preach a trial sermon before he was hired 14 years ago. As he stepped up to preach, he glanced down and saw that the pulpit had been given by an uncle of his in memory of his Bidgood grandparents.

“Churchland Baptist Church has always identified with high Baptist and has been called Episco-Baptist as we became more liturgical,” Coleman said. “In 1996 we broke ties with the Southern Baptists. We were here before them, and we will be here after. We are a thinking church, much more liturgical with very progressive people, and we have a blended congregation with people who came from a range of different faiths.”

“In 1815 we had three African American deacons,” Coleman said.

According to Dr. Terry L. Jones, one of those three was a free man, Tony Pugh, for whom Pughsville likely was named. The other two deacons were Sam Baily, also a free man, and an unnamed slave.

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