HISTORY OF BETH-CAR UNITED METHODIST CHURCH AND CEMETERY

Twenty-one or twenty-two years after Methodism was first organized in the American Colonies, a Methodist Society was organized at Beth-Car. This was the year 1787 or 1788 according to a statement found on page 863 of Goodspeed's History of Tennessee, East Tennessee Edition, published in 1887.

Early settlers from Virginia found a likely haven near the confluence of the Nolichucky and the French Broad Rivers. The Nolichucky flows in a southwesterly course across East Tennessee and the French Broad flows from North Carolina. These rivers are now part of the Douglas Dam embankment of the Tennessee Valley Authority lakes. Both of these rivers offered natural barriers to the Indian warriors, and for this reason the settlers possibly named the little Methodist Society, Beth-Car. The only reference to the name found in the Bible is I Samuel 7:11. Interpreted it means "place of or house of the lamb." This would be about the only Hebrew name that could be given a Christian church with the emphasis of Christ as the Lamb of God. The early pioneers to this area not only sought a place to live and worship but also from a place where they would be safe from "the savage red-man." This sight offered them the most likely place.

In Miles' book, Methodism in Tennessee, dated 1869, he states on page 102, "Among the first societies organized in this country were Old Beth-Car and Pine Chapel. (Both were in what is now Jefferson County; however, Pine Chapel is now non-existent). Both Societies were formed in 1787 or 1788."

R. N. Price in his History of Methodism states that "the people of Pine Chapel and the people of Beth-Car were well known to each other." Price lists the following families as the early organizers of Beth-Car: Martin Stubblefield, Richard Thompson, White Moore, and John McAnnallay.

William Garrett in Recollections of Methodism in Tennessee calls Beth-Car "Moore's Chapel because White Moore was a "useful local preacher." Garrett says many of these men had been converted under the preaching of John Wesley and had been sent forth by Wesley to preach the gospel. Garrett, too, affirms that it is very possible that the people of Pine Chapel in the Indian Nation were aware of the Society at Beth-Car. Of one thing he says we can be sure, the people at Beth-Car were somewhat more secure from the Indians than were their neighbors across the river at Pine Chapel.

The first structure built as a place of worship for the Beth-Car Society was a log meeting house. The present frame structure was built circa 1848. Reverend B. H. Talley (born in 1850 and buried in Beth-Car cemetery) told his children of going to school in the log meeting house and how the Civil War soldiers had lived in one end of the meeting house and stabled their horses in the other end.

Dykeman in The French Broad says, "In those early beginnings it was truly the people who made the church and not the structure. After organization local preachers and class leaders probably served the Beth-Car pulpit."

In 1972, the first General Conference of the Methodist Church met in Baltimore under the leadership of Francis Asbury and set the salaries of all preachers at $64.00 annually plus traveling expenses. Also, the Conference placed Beth-Car on the Greene Circuit with Stephen Brooks and William Barker as the assigned Circuit Rider Preachers. The Circuit Riders played an important role in spreading Methodism. Francis Asbury was numbered among these dedicated men before becoming a Bishop. On his way to Kentucky via Bean Station, it is not unlikely that Bishop Asbury paused at least briefly to be with the congregation at Beth-Car, since it was an important frontier Methodist Church.

William Garrett in Recollections of Methodism in Tennessee refers to Beth-Car in connection with the Great Revival of 1810. He says, "Beth-Car comprised a large and respectable membership. The pastors used to say that they had the best looking audience at this church. It was a prosperous church in a prosperous community. At this time the pastor's salary was $100.00 per year -- a good salary."

In 1844, Beth-Car was added to the Dandridge Circuit. Around 1856, Mr. John A. Funkhouser, a Virginia emigrant, gave some land to Beth-Car church for a cemetery. this land was previously owned by the Chunns. The Funkhouser estate lay on the land between the rivers. The large brick homestead was at the "mouth of the Chucky." It is fairly well known that about 1880 the men of Beth-Car were requested to wear long black split-tail coats to every service. Thus, bringing about the effect of utmost dignity. The gentlemen sat of the right side of the church and ladies on the left.

At White Pine in 1907, a Methodist Church was organized "in the pines" -- the present Edwards Chapel site. (That property was used first by the Presbyterians and later by the Evangelical United Brethren until its merger with the Methodist Church in 1968.) In 1914, the White Pine Methodist Church was built on Main Street in White Pine. Some of its charter members were transfers from Beth-Car. Thus, Beth-Car may rightfully be the mother church of White Pine First United Methodist Church.

In the latter part of the 1920's, Beth-Car ceased having Sunday School and only had preaching services once a month on the afternoon of the second Sunday. In 1938, a group led by Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Hawkins, Mrs. Myrtle Martin, Sr., Mrs. Lillie Shipley Deering, and Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Maloy, Sr. began a campaign to refurbish the Beth-Car Church and re-organize the Sunday School. Mrs. J. C. Hawkins (Maggie) was elected Sunday School Superin-tendent, a position she held until her death in 1945. It was largely through the effort of this good woman and others in the group that new life was breathed into the church. In 1945, Mr. Maloy, Sr. was elected Superintendent and was an inspiration in keeping the church alive.

In 1951, there was new interest in Beth-Car's history. Interested persons, among them Mrs. Charles Dunham (Marion) and Mrs. Hal Wilson (Emma Ruth), spent many hours searching Court-house records in Jefferson, Grainger, and Greene Counties in Tennessee and State records in Raleigh, North Carolina, for deeds, histories, etc. They followed through every lead and were able to compile much data, including the list of pastors since 1792 from the minutes of the Conference through the courtesy of Reverend Isaac Patton Martin, the Holston Conference Historian.

Before the structure was renovated in 1952, there were two front entrances into the vestibule which ran the width of the church. Both ends of the vestibule were made into classrooms leaving one entrance. The outside shutters were removed and frosted panes were placed in the windows. Electric lights were added and the old coal-burning stoves in the Sanctuary were replaced with oil circulating heaters; the classroom heaters were electric.

In 1961, rather than once a month services, Beth-Car began having services each Sunday at 9:00 a.m. followed by Sunday School at 10:15, (this schedule continues to the present).

Beth-Car women, with the help from women at Ebenezer Methodist Church organized a unit of the Woman's Society of Christian Service an May 11, 1961, with twelve charter members. October 7, 1962, Beth-Car had its first weekly bulletin printed. During Reverend Virgil Hale's assignment, (1962-1966), the church history was updated. Also, in May-June 1964, White Pine First Church congregation joined Beth-Car's services since their church structure was being renovated. The two congregations also engaged in a lay-witnessing revival at that time.

In 1979, the White Pine Circuit was formed consisting of Beth-Car, Edwards Chapel, and Watkins Chapel. Presently Mr. Doyle Alexander is Church School Superintendent, having held this position since the death of Mr. Maloy, Sr. in 1970.

In the early 1980's, the floors were carpeted, the pews were padded and propane gas heaters replaced the oil heaters. In the mid-1980's, a basement was dug for a fellowship hall which includes a kitchen and restrooms.

In the cemetery adjacent to the church, the prominent monument, (a tall, needle-style), was erected for the Baker family. The oldest marked grave is dated 1800, but in all probability the cemetery received the beloved dead of the community long before that. In the wooded section outside the iron fence is an old Negro graveyard. Many of those dead carried the names of white slave owners. It is very conceivable that the Negro slaves attended Beth-Car before they had a church of their own.

While Beth-Car is a United Methodist Church it has furnished spiritual inspiration to members of all denominations in the community. Beth-Car has never been the scene of any startling or dramatic historical events, but over the years it has witnessed a continuing drama of neighborhood living, ministering to the needy, the sick and the afflicted, the burying of the dead, as well as offering the hope to the tempest tossed.

May those who pass this way pause for a moment to realize that Beth-Car "has not ignored the passage of time, but recorded it with scars, lines, furrows, and erosions," to borrow a phrase from John Steinbeck.