Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church

The Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church had it principal roots in two Southern Methodist Churches located in Bedford County, Tennessee, namely, Moore's Chapel and Knight's Camp Ground. Methodism is believed to have been introduced into Bedford County as early as 1808 with campground meetings first at Salem near Bell Buckle, and later at Steele's, Horse Mountain, Knight's, and Holt's. Knight's later became Knight's Camp Ground Episcopal Church, South, getting its name from a family named Knight that gave the land. Moore's Chapel was located in Blue Stocking Hollow, which area got its name from the old Blue Stocking Presbyterian Church located on this road, thought to have been established about 1811. The Moore's Chapel building is no longer standing. A cemetery known as Moore's Chapel Cemetery is now a well kept cemetery where many of the early members are buried. Knight's Camp Ground Church was located on what is now Knight's Camp Ground Road near the intersection with  Dixon Road. There was a third church of this vicinity known as Solomon's Chapel that closed about the mid 1920's. This church was located on the Pleasant Grove Road near Thompson's Shop. All three of these churches were part of the same Methodist Circuit, and a part of the Tennessee Conference now known as Rich Valley Charge. In later years there were two other Methodist churches that discontinued services which were a part of the Rich Valley Charge, namely, Bethlehem which closed in 1953, and Center which dosed in 1970. Pleasant Grove received members from these churches also, so we can say that we are now a church claiming roots in at least five former Methodist congregations.

Rev. J. E. Trotter was the minister in charge of Moore's Chapel and Knight's Camp Ground Churches beginning in 1927 and in the summer of 1928 a tent revival was held in Pleasant Grove at the location of the Cottage Grove Cumberland Presbyterian Church which discontinued services in the mid 1920's. It is thought that this revival led to the consolidation of the Moore's Chapel and Knight's Camp Ground churches and purchase of the Cottage Grove Church. The Presbyterian's acquired the property as a gift from John W. Wiggins in 1860 who was the grandfather of Finis Neely who became a member of the consolidated church. The church was purchased on Oct. 2, 1929 for $400 from the Elk Presbytery. This included a tract where the building sat and also a tract across Sandusky Road. In addition, Dr. A. J. Kimmons gave about one-half acre to the church in 1932 whose trustees were J. H. Davidson, Finis Neely, S. J. Pickle, Will Milton, and John Harrison. Rev. Trotter continued to serve the church until 1931. The church continued to grow in the following years.

With Rev. H. L. Smith as minister and Mr. Will Winford, Church School Superintendent, the church was being urged to get a new building as the congregation had outgrown the one room building. On Oct. 10, 1949 ground was broken for the new church. J. H. Davidson was made supervisor of the work, Frank Daughtrey was made treasurer of the building fund and Katie Pickle went over the community soliciting and collecting moneys for the new building. First the old building was torn down so that the useable lumber, mostly poplar, could be salvaged for the new building. The construction crew included some experienced builders but mostly volunteers from the church who gave many hours and days to complete the task. Opening services were held on the second Sunday in January, 1950, with Rev. Smith preaching the sermon. Dedication services took place on Sunday, June 8,1952 with the Rev. Grady L. Wall, Superintendent of the Murfreesboro District conducting the services. New pews were added in 1962 at a cost of $57.50 per pew. Since that time, numerous additions were made to the church including stained glass windows. Many of these additions were made in memory of loved ones.

What is a Dream? We all have dreams when we are sleeping. We know what they are. But Mr. Webster says there is also another definition of a dream - a vision of the future. When we were young, we dreamed about growing up; when we became teenagers, we dreamed about getting our drivers license or our first car or what we would do when we graduated from high school; when we got married and had children, we had dreams for them; and, when we became grandparents, we had dreams for our grandchildren. We all have dreams. I believe this church had a dream for a new Fellowship Hall.

This church was constructed in the year 1950. It was built with classrooms for the children and young adults. The basement area was also used for social events such as bridal showers, wedding receptions, meetings, parties and fellowship meals. As the church grew over the years, it became evident we needed a larger area for these events and we began to explore the idea of building a Fellowship Hall. I perused the minutes of the Board meetings for the past 15 years and they revealed that this subject was discussed at more than half of those meetings, but it seems that was all we did - we just talked about it. Years passed - more talk, no decision.

Then at the Board Meeting on November 12, 2000, after a lengthy discussion, it was decided that the Trustees should visit other churches and look at their Fellowship Halls in an effort to get ideas as to the size and layout and report their findings at subsequent Board Meetings. This was done.

Still more talk - no decision.

Fast forward to the Board Meeting of March 17, 2002. The Trustees appointed a committee composed of Paul Gambill, Brent Davidson, and Tim Parker, to obtain plans, drawings, and estimates of cost to be presented to the Board for review.

There were several areas of concern that needed to be addressed. The entire building must be built according to Code, i.e., handicap accessibility. This would include, but not be limited to, the building of a ramp to the Fellowship Hall and the enclosed access hallway from the Fellowship Hall to the sanctuary. With both of the features, the sanctuary would then become handicap accessible.

At the board meeting on July 21, 2002, the Committee presented the plans and drawings as designed by Carl Gleghorn of Fayetteville. The drawings, revealed that the building would be of brick masonry; it would be 36' x 50' in size; and, would be completely handicap accessible in all respects which included the ramp and the access hallway from the Fellowship Hall to the sanctuary. The plans for the proposed construction showed that the building would be completed in four phases:

Phase 1 would consist of the foundation, framing, roof, porch, windows, doors and ramp. Lincoln Utility Contractors would be responsible for the foundation and site work, with the remaining portion of this phase to be completed by contractor Frank Eslick of Fayetteville.

Phase 2 would encompass all of the plumbing and electrical work, fixtures, and a 5 ton central unit. This phase would be done by Tim Parker.

Phase 3 would consist of the installation of the ceiling, floor covering, insulation, and walls, all of which would be done by various companies. Also included in this phase was the painting to be done by church members.

Phase 4 consisted of the kitchen cabinets, double wall ovens and cooktop, all of which would be donated by our pastor, Bro. Jim Sorrells. This phase also included the installation of the cabinets with countertops. The refurbishing of the cabinets and installation with countertops would be done by Gary Bills. Other appliances as needed would also be included in this phase.

The estimated cost for the first three phases was $65,500, with the cost of Phase 4 being undetermined at that time.

There were questions and more discussion after the presentation until finally a person present at that meeting spoke up and said, "Let's either build it or quit talking about it." That person was Judy Gambill. The Chairman of the Board asked her if she would like to put that in the form of a motion and she said yes. Her motion was to accept the proposals as presented by the Committee and proceed with the construction of the Fellowship Hall. I placed a second to that motion. A vote was taken and all present as that meeting on July 21, 2002, voted in the affirmative. The minutes of that meeting also reflect that we all left the meeting that night wondering what we were going to talk about for the next 20 years now that a decision had finally been made to build a Fellowship Hall.

A ground breaking ceremony was held and doing the honors was Mr. William Turrentine, the oldest member of our congregation and who for many years had wanted to build a Fellowship Hall.

Construction was begun on July 31, 2002 and all phases proceeded in a timely manner. The building was completed in November of 2003 with the total actual cost being $86,936.08 which was totally paid for by funds in our church treasury. Our first event in the Fellowship Hall was the Thanksgiving meal on November 23, 2003. Subsequent to the completion of the building, a sound system was installed in memory of Marie Barton Pickle. This was funded by memorial funds given in her memory by her family. We again want to commend and thank the committee of Paul Gambill, Brent Davidson and Tim Parker who, in addition to the management of their own businesses, accepted the responsibility of overseeing every aspect of the construction of our Fellowship Hall. Also we need to remember all of the volunteers who tirelessly gave of their time and expertise to help in the completion of our building.

My only regret is that Mr. Turrentine did not live to see the completion of our Fellowship Hall. But if he had been here, I believe he would have conveyed his feeling to us by using the words of our Lord as found in Matthew 25:21 which says in part "Well done my good and faithful servants."

So, after all of the years of "more talk and do decision" we finally made the decision to build a Fellowship Hall and we are here today to dedicate our building to the service of the Lord.

Our dream has become a reality!