St. John's Episcopal Church (Columbia, Tennessee)

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St. John's Episcopal Church, 2008

St. John's Episcopal Church is a church building of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America in what is now Ashwood in Maury County ( Tennessee , USA). It is located approximately 9.5 km southwest of the capital Maury Countys, Columbia . The land originally belonged to Colonel William Polk , a veteran of the American Revolutionary War .

The church was built by one of Polk's sons, the "Fighting Bishop" Leonidas Polk from 1839 to 1842 across from Ashwood Hall .

Prior to building the church, Leonidas Polk served as the head of St. John's Episcopal Church from January 1, 1834 to August 31, 1838 in his own home. Due to his poor health, he was supported by James Hervey Otey . In 1839 Polk decided to build a church across from his property. At the selected spot there was previously a large cherry tree that he had cut down. He used the wood of the tree in various places within the church, for example on the altarpiece . The church was built in the neo-Gothic style. Polk used a church in Devon as a model. The slave labor building was completed in the summer of 1842 and consecrated on September 4th of the same year.

Stephen Patterson was installed as the first permanent pastor in July 1845. Worship services were held for both blacks and whites. When Polk moved away in 1848, EH Cressy became the new head of the church. In 1849 the church tower received a bell. James Hildebrand became church leader in 1858.

On March 31, 1862, during the Civil War, Brigadier General Don Carlos Buell's troops invaded Ashwood Hall, ransacked the church, and smashed the windows. From 1864 the church served as a hospital for the soldiers of the Confederate troops .

After the war the church was used as a church again. In 1872 Richard N. Newell became the new director. Church services were held there until 1915, when they were discontinued due to insufficient participation.

At the request of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, Leonidas Polk's remains, buried in 1864, were removed from the crypt in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Augusta, Georgia and buried at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans , Louisiana . A burial in St. John's Church, as Polk had stated in his will of 1847, did not take place due to the occupation of Tennessee by Union troops. Today the church is only used for church services once a year. The adjacent cemetery is the resting place of four episcopal bishops of Tennessee .

The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 8, 1970 . The reference number is 70000615.

Web links

Commons : St. John's Episcopal Church (Columbia, Tennessee)  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wilmer L. Jones: Generals in Blue and Gray: Davis's generals . Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, Connecticut / London 2004, ISBN 978-0-275-98324-6 , pp. 247 f . (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ^ Jill K. Garrett: St. John's Church, Ashwood . In: Tennessee Historical Quarterly . 29, No. 1, Spring 1970.
  3. ↑ a b c Architecture in Tennessee, 1768–1897
  4. ↑ St. John's Church - Ashwood. Tennessee Historical Society, accessed February 15, 2017 (English, first place of burial).
  5. ↑ St. John's Episcopal Church on the National Register of Historic Places , accessed February 21, 2020.

Coordinates: 35 ° 20 ′ 33.7 "  N , 87 ° 4 ′ 55.2"  W.