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The History of Rayburn Chapel A.M.E. ChurchBy L. Jarod Pearson
Rayburn Chapel A.M.E. Church, Cowan, Tennessee’s oldest black church, traces her roots back to a Methodist circuit rider who came into the area to evangelize the Cherokee Indians.
The early 19th Century was a period of nationwide revival known as the Second Great Awakening. The Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians made an extraordinary effort to evangelize the pioneer settlers in the Appalachian region and in the growing western settlements. Area revivals, also known as camp meetings or brush arbors, were organized for the preaching of the gospel and made way for churches to be built some years later.
The Methodists ordained and commissioned circuit riders to venture into the wild frontier and minister to small populations widely dispersed across the region of Appalachia. The Methodists circuit riders not only preached to white settlers but also preached to the indigenous Cherokee populations. While hearing the Good News in their own spoken language, the Cherokee also learned English from the circuit riders using the Bible as a primary text book.
Rev. Cummins, one such Methodist circuit rider, made his way up the Boiling Fork Creek in the 1830’s and brought the gospel to Cherokee Indians living in the Hawkins Cove, Miller Cove and Keith Cove areas. The area between these three coves was designated a commercial trade district and later became the town of Cowan. Rev Cummins planted a Cherokee congregation in the area, presumably in Hawkins Cove where the Cherokee population was heavily concentrated.
The Reverend’s two daughters, Ellen Jane and Elizabeth Cummins, married into a Cherokee family. William Coker, a Cherokee, married Ellen Jane Cummins while his brother, John, married Elizabeth Cummins. William and John both became lay Methodist ministers and William pastored the congregation founded by his father-in-law.
The sustainability of the Methodist congregation ended in 1838 when the Cherokee Indians left the area on the Trail of Tears. The Coker family was among thousands of Tennessee Cherokee that moved west to Indian Territory. Fortunately, the congregation founded by the Cummins and Coker families did not completely disband. According to Rev. Cummin’s descendants, the Cherokee congregation was turned over to the slave families living in the Hawkins, Miller and Keith Cove area.
We do not know if or how the Methodist congregation was maintained over the next few decades. We can accurately assume that it was disbanded or at least inactive during the American Civil War as most other churches were at that time. Following the Emancipation Proclamation, some of the former slaves in the Cowan area built homes on and near the former plantations. When industrialization came to Cowan in the 1880’s a significant number of former slaves relocated to the town of Cowan itself and took jobs within the growing industrial base. Cowan was home to a large steel mill, a large railroad operation, and later on a logging and sawmill operation. These industries employed several black residents and so did the growing retail and hospitality businesses in the commercial district.
Cowan’s black residents built and established a tight-knit community in the southeast quadrant of town on Boiling Fork Creek. The neighborhood was affectionately known as “The Bottom” because of its low elevation relative to other parts of town. The residents brought with them the desire to organize a new church in the Methodist tradition passed down from the Cherokee Indians. A bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Col. Wiley Rayburn, paid a visit to Cowan in 1889 for that very purpose.
Col. Rayburn acquired an acre of land on Boiling Fork Creek from Mr. Joseph Holder. A deed filed in Franklin County on November 11th, 1889 records the sale and describes the acre of land as “on the waters of Boiling Fork, on the South side of the N + C R.R. + adjoining the town of Cowan” and sold for a sum of twenty dollars. The black community built a wood frame Methodist church on this acre of land.
As its name would indicate, The Bottom was prone to flooding and this was a major problem for a church located directly on the creek. Seeking higher ground, the trustees of the church entered an agreement in 1906 to purchase a small piece of land about 200 feet from Col. Rayburn’s property. The property was owned by Mr. W.M. Bryson with whom the church signed a promissory note giving $33.25 as a down payment and the remaining $66.75 payable on May 30th, 1906. The deed says that the note was paid in full and exactly on time, but does not say when the note was issued. Mr. Bryson released all claims to the property on May 30th, 1906, but the instrument was not registered with the county until August 29, 1909.
In the timeframe of this agreement with Mr. Bryson, the church building was relocated from its original location to the former Bryson property. The higher elevation was a safe distance from flood waters such that it became a temporary shelter for families whenever the creek rose.
Although the wood frame church facility was small by any standard, it housed a vibrant congregation through most of its history. Local residents and families connected to Rayburn Chapel have fond memories of revivals, gospel singings, pot-luck dinners and Easter Egg hunts. There were Sunday school classes for all age groups and church soft ball teams as well. Looking back on these fond memories one has to wonder how so much activity could happen in such a small facility!
Seeing the need for additional space, the trustees of the church acquired a piece of land behind the church from Mrs. Mattie Amacher and Mr. James Solomon on May 17th, 1982. Shortly thereafter a slab of concrete was poured on the northwest corner of the newly acquired property with intentions to relocate the historic building to that location. The move never took place and the reason, so far, has not been fully explained.
The 1980’s decade proved to be an extremely difficult time in Cowan history and resulted in very poor timing for Rayburn Chapel’s growth plan. Cowan’s two largest employers – Marquette Cement and Genesco Shoe – closed and caused dozens of Cowan family’s to relocate. The economic decline and population decline took a terrible toll on local churches and Rayburn Chapel was no exception. By the late 1980’s almost all of the younger families that supported Rayburn Chapel had moved away and some of the prominent older members passed away.
As membership diminished to only two families there congregation met only sporadically for worship services. The last scheduled worship service at Rayburn Chapel was held in the fall of 1997. In December 1998 all utility services were cancelled and the building was abandoned after 109 years of ministry.
Following the closure of the church, the simple, handsome structure stood quiet. Sadly, vandals broke windows and eventually gained entrance to the building, but the damage was relatively minimal thanks to the watchful eyes of area residents.
In the summer of 2008, Cowan Ministerial Association and the 13th Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church became partners in the newly organized Rayburn Chapel Preservation Society. Through funds raised by the organization and with the help of volunteers the historic church is undergoing a multi-phase repair project to help preserve her beautiful history.
Rayburn Chapel’s Inconsistent Naming Convention
One of the more interesting quirks about Rayburn Chapel is that it did not have a consistent naming convention like most other churches in the area. We know that the name Rayburn Chapel was given to commemorate Col. Wiley Rayburn, but we do not know when the name was officially adopted. The earliest church documents we have found so far refer to the congregation merely as the “A.M.E. Church” but do not give a specific name. In fact, the name Rayburn Chapel was not well known or well publicized because the church did not have a road sign like most other churches in the community. A local Cowan newspaper, the Cowan Bell, once referred to the church erroneously as the “Cowan C.M.E. Church”. When the property acquisitions took place in 1982, one document refers to the church as “Raybun Church Methodist Chapel” while the other says “Raybun Chapel A.M.E. Church” with the name misspelled in both cases. When the preservation effort first began, it seemed most Cowan residents never knew the church existed. Some locals knew of a “little Methodist church in The Bottom” but did not know the name of it, if it ever had one! After a few conversations with elder members of the black community, the church’s official name was finally confirmed as Rayburn Chapel A.M.E. Church.
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