Ceremony at granite monument observes Methodist history in E-T

Published 1:07 pm Monday, August 5, 2019

For more than 90 years, a granite boulder stood alongside Knob Creek Road, Johnson City, overgrown with weeds and overshadowed by steel cables tethering a power pole. Then, a few weeks ago, due to efforts by members of Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church, it was moved to a new resting place, next to the Hunter’s Lake neighborhood clubhouse. This large stone, actually a forgotten historical marker, commemorates the early days of Methodism in Tennessee.

On Oct. 8, 1926, several hundred ministers and laymen traveled by motorcade from an annual conference downtown at Munsey to dedicate the memorial, placed by the S.C. Williams Sunday School Class from Munsey. The natural granite boulder had been hauled from the Watauga River and engraved with an inscription to mark the location as the “Ancient home for Methodists and Methodist preaching — Bishop Asbury…First sermon by Methodist bishop in Tennessee preached here, May 1788, by Asbury.” Early Methodist conference dates were listed at the bottom.

“We’ve moved it deeper into the original Nelson/Carr farm property where Francis Asbury and other local ministers held some of the first Methodist conferences in Tennessee in the late 1700s,” said Rev. Michael Lester, associate pastor at Munsey. “The new placement will give it more prominence and accessibility.”

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Methodist pioneer Asbury (1745-1816) was one of the first two bishops in the Methodist Episcopal Church in America and was best-known as the foremost “circuit rider,” an itinerant preacher and church planter, in the opening frontier for more than 30 years. Asbury grew the denomination during that time from 1,200 to 214,000 members with 700 ordained preachers, including the first black pastor in the United States, Richard Allen.

Asbury traveled an average of 6,000 miles per year by horseback and carriage, preached and conducted conferences, and kept detailed notes in a journal that has become important to historians today for its first-person account of life on the frontier.

In 1788, Asbury ventured to Knob Creek, where his first sermon preached in Tennessee happened at the farm of William Nelson. The home soon afterward became a favorite stopping place for Asbury. Nelson also built there the first Methodist church erected in Washington County, Nelson’s Chapel, in 1789, and meetings were held in this chapel for what would become today’s Holston Conference of the United Methodist denomination. The farm was later owned by R.T. Carr and his descendants before being developed into the Hunter’s Lake subdivision.

“Since we’re all celebrating Johnson City’s sesquicentennial this year, it’s great timing for us to remember our local history and roots here by giving recognition to this monument,” Lester said.

On Thursday, Aug. 8, members of Munsey, the Holston Conference, and Hunter’s Lake neighborhood will gather at 10 a.m. at the clubhouse location, 908 Hunter’s Lake Drive, to rededicate the marker with a special ceremony. Invited are Phil Pindzola, director of Johnson City Public Works; developer Mitch Cox; and Munsey member Betty Canestrari, who all helped arrange the marker to be moved. Descendants of the Nelson and Carr families are also encouraged to attend. The public is welcome. For more information, call Munsey’s church office at (423) 461-8070.