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Old Trinity Episcopal Church Photo taken between 1915 and 1920

“Old Trinity”

Posted on April 19, 2019May 30, 2022 by ML Williams

Situated in a grove of oak and cedar trees, the quaint chapel known as “ Old Trinity ” or “Trinity in the Field” is the oldest surviving church structure in Tipton County.  It is the fifth oldest Episcopal church still in use in the Diocese of West Tennessee.  Now in a rural, isolated area, the church was built in 1847 on what was then the Memphis to Brownsville road.  It replaced an even older church, St. Andrew’s, in nearby Fayette County that had burned in 1845.

Fortunately, one of the church’s early rectors recorded a history of the church in the parish register.  The first paragraph reads as follows:

In the month of March A. D. 1834, the Rev. John Chilton, then in charge of the congregation at Brownsville, Haywood Co. and Jackson, Madison Co., visited the neighborhood where the county lines of Haywood, Fayette, and Tipton corner, and preached at the residence of Mrs. Hunt, relict of Capt. Christopher Hunt, Fayette Co. after reading the morning service of the church with a few respondents.  At that time there was but one communicant of the church in the neighborhood.  There were three or four families who were friendly to the church and several persons attended from motive of curiosity, her forms and rituals being entirely new to them.

            The church history goes on to state that over the next two years, Mr. Chilton returned several times to conduct services, “alternately at the dwelling houses of Mrs. Hunt and Mr. Geo. T. Taylor, Haywood County.”  During this time, the Rev. Samuel Litton who had charge of the church at LaGrange, Fayette County, also held services in the neighborhood several times.

            In the spring of 1837, the Rev. John Drummond came to the neighborhood as a missionary and boarded with the family of Capt. Dabney Collier.  The Colliers were Episcopalians and had just moved to the area from Mecklenburg County, Virginia which was also the home of the Taylor family prior to their migration to Tennessee.  Rev. Drummond quickly organized a congregation and a store house was purchased and converted into a house of worship.  The church was named St. Andrew’s and eight persons were confirmed at the Bishop’s visitation that fall.  Today the site of old St. Andrew’s is about 400 yards due east of the dead end of Freedom Farm road. 

            After Mr. Drummond’s resignation, the vestry elected the Rev. William Steel of Mecklenburg County, Virginia to take charge of the parish.  He remained until the fall of 1839 when he moved to Texas.  For some time afterward St. Andrew’s was without a regular priest.  The congregation grew but little and “had to contend with much opposition from Presbyterians and Methodists.”  The church history notes that the Methodists were particularly strong in their opposition and did “all they could to prevent the people from attending on its ministry.” 

            In March 1845, St. Andrew’s burned.  The year before several members of the Collier family who had been instrumental in supporting the church all died within a short span of time.  Additionally, the George T. Taylor family had since moved several miles away to a plantation in Tipton County on what was then the Memphis to Brownsville road (now the St. Paul road).  These factors contributed to the relocating of the church some distance from the original St. Andrew’s.  On the first Sunday in Advent 1845, the Rev. James W. Rogers preached and held services in the Taylor home.   On January 25, 1846, he conducted services at the residence of Major Thomas T. Hunt who also lived on the old Memphis to Brownsville road (the section that is now the Bud Eubank road).  At that time, Rev. Rogers organized a congregation and appointed a vestry.  For the next year the congregation met in a free meeting house at Charleston in Tipton County.

            In 1847, Major William Taylor, an uncle to George T. Taylor, gave the church an acre of land on the Memphis to Brownsville road.  The site was about mid-way between the plantations of George T. Taylor and Major Thomas T. Hunt.  According to the church history, “the friends of the church erected a small house on it for the worship of Almighty God naming it after the Holy Trinity.”  Tradition states that the small chapel was built by the slave carpenters of Mr. and Mrs. George T. Taylor.  Although Mr. Taylor was not yet a confirmed member of the church, his wife, Mary Goodloe Somervell, had been an Episcopalian for many years and was very possibly the first communicant of old St. Andrew’s.   On the first Sunday services were held in the new church, she presented three small slave children for baptism and acted as their godmother.   She would continue this practice for all the slaves born on her plantation.  The parish register which thankfully has survived contains the baptismal records for over three hundred slaves in the neighborhood.

            During the 1850s, the congregation grew significantly under the care of the Rev. William M. Steel and the Rev. J. A. Wheelock.  Beginning in 1854, services were commenced for the “servants” on alternate Sundays.  When the chapel was built in 1847, there were not more than a dozen members.  By 1859 there were forty-one white communicants and twenty-one black communicants.  Most of the church’s members belonged to a network of kin all connected in one way or another to the Taylor family.  In addition to the Taylors, other communicant families included the Claibornes, Clements, Colliers, Elcans, Hunts, Jetts, Maclins, Malones, McCalls, Peetes, Rives, Somervells, Tarrys and Whitleys. 

            In the nineteenth century, most weddings in this area took place in the home of the bride’s parents.  But Old Trinity was the scene of a Civil War wedding that was talked about by the locals for generations to come.  It took place on Christmas Day, 1862.  The bride was Mollie Bet Taylor, the allegedly very spoiled granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. George T. Taylor.  The groom was William Francis Brodnax, a successful young merchant in the thriving, railroad village of Mason about three miles to the southwest.  Mollie had enjoyed every advantage that money and privilege could bring at that time including a boarding school education in Maryland and a trip abroad to Europe.  But she was not happy.  Her betrothed was not her first choice.  Her family had forbidden her from marrying her true love, a cousin named Willis Lewis Green.  At the wedding she wore a royal purple satin dress with hat to match with a beautiful white plume.  As she stood for the ceremony, the plume shook and trembled.  When a small boy present, John Y. Peete, asked an older relative why she was shaking so, the reply was, “because she married one man and loved another.”  Within six months Mollie Bet and her lover Willis Green both died of “broken hearts.”  After the Civil War, Mollie Bet’s only sister, Sallie, married Richard Brodnax, a younger brother of William Francis Brodnax.   Their son, George Taylor Brodnax, later founded Brodnax Jewelers in Memphis.

            At the time the church was built, most of its members buried their loved ones in family burying grounds on their plantations.  The first burial in the churchyard took place in 1851 when an infant daughter of the rector, Rev. William M. Steel, was buried behind the church.  Three years later his wife was also laid to rest there.  Soon afterward, Eleanor Peete, niece of George T. Taylor, buried a young child there.  Ultimately, eight of Mrs. Peete’s children would be buried all in a single row behind the chapel.  With the many transfers of property that occurred after the Civil War, some of old family burying grounds ended in the hands of strangers.  Consequently, over time more of the church’s members began to use the churchyard as a burial ground. 

            In 1859, a northerner, the Rev. Charles F. Collins, was called to serve the parish in return for a salary of $800 and the use of a parsonage.  He proved to be an immensely popular priest with the congregation. Regarding the Civil War and its effect on the congregation, he recorded the following in the parish register:

“During the war our church services were at no time interrupted, and we found our chief comfort in our troubles and adversities in seeking God’s help in His Holy Sanctuary.  About the close of the war the Parsonage building, which the Rector had purchased from the vestry, was burned by Federal soldiers.”

            After the war the congregation continued to thrive and grow.  By 1867 there were sixty white communicants and forty black communicants.  Clearly there was a need by then for a larger sanctuary.  A decade earlier, the town of Mason had sprouted about three miles to the south along the Memphis to Ohio Railroad.  Mason had quickly grown as the bustling commercial center of the area.  In 1870 the congregation built a new brick gothic church in Mason for a cost of $10,000.   The black communicants continued to worship at Old Trinity under the charge of a former slave, Rev. Henderson Maclin, who was ordained as a deacon on March 3, 1872.  In 1873 they organized a new parish under the name of St. Paul’s.  The cornerstone for their new church was laid by Rev. Collins on Feb. 8, 1873 on land donated by Mrs. Frances A. Taylor, daughter of George T. Taylor.

With the building of Trinity in Mason and nearby St. Paul’s in the 1870s, Old Trinity was abandoned except for its use as a burial ground.  In the early 1920s, Judge John Y. Peete and others organized an annual pilgrimage to the old chapel with services and dinner on the grounds.  This ritual has been continually observed on Trinity Sunday by the faithful descendants for nearly ninety years.

The above was written by John W. Marshall in 2013.

Old Trinity Episcopal Church Photo taken between 1915 and 1920
Old Trinity Episcopal Church Photo taken between 1915 and 1920

Old Trinity Church information from the NRHP Registration Form 1977

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Welcome!

Mary Lynne Williams with Kenny Faulk at Bozos Bar-B-Q in 2018
Mary Lynne Williams with Kenny Faulk at Bozos Bar-B-Q in 2018

My name is ML Williams. I am a hiking, fossil hunting, God loving, coffee drinking, hot fries eatin' middle school math teacher! I love researching my family history and, since my family is from Tipton County, I love researching the people and areas of Tipton.

Thanks for visiting my site and good luck in your quest!

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© 2018-2021 Tipton County, Tennessee
Mary Lynne Williams

Shelley, Barbara June Abbott

BARBARA JUNE ABBOTT SHELLEY | 52, of Drummonds, Tenn., clerk for Abbott Jewelry, died Thursday at Baptist Memorial Hospital – Tipton in Covington, Tenn. Services will be at 2 p.m. today at Munford (Tenn.) Funeral Home with burial in Poplar Grove Cemetery in Drummonds.  She leaves a daughter, Kimberly Ann Douglas, and a son, James D. Shelley, both of Atlanta; her parents, John and Reamonia Millican Abbot of Drummonds; a brother, Paul Abbott of Memphis, and five grandchildren.

[Barbara June Abbott Shelley; The Commercial Appeal; Memphis, Tenn; 14 Dec 2003; Pg 29]

Janie Reamonia Rann

JANIE REAMONIA RANN, 17, of Drummonds, Tenn., clerk for Abbott Diamond Enterprises, died Thursday at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis. Services will be at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Munford (Tenn.) Funeral Home with Burial in Poplar Grove Cemetery in Drummonds. She was a member of Fellowship Baptist Church. She leaves her great-grandparents who raised her, Reamonia and John Abbott of Drummonds; a half-brother, John Abbot Peak of Texas, and her grandmother, Barbara Shelley of Drummonds.

[Janie Reamonia Rann; The Commercial Appeal; Memphis, Tenn; 20 Sep 2003; Pg 15]

John A Murrell Death

Lillian Oreed Smith

Lillian was born August 22, 1903, in Tipton County, Tennessee and died June 22, 1992, in Covington, Tennessee.  She married William Austin Rhodes, May 25, 1924.  William was born July 18, 1894, and died September 17, 1980.  Lillian taught school in the schoolhouse at Bethel as a very young woman.  Then she went to Memphis where she met and married Austin.  They operated drug stores, sometimes one and sometimes two, in north Memphis most of their adult lives.  One of the stores was on Leath Street very near Humes High School and the other was on Manassas Street.  Rather late in life, they bought the old Smith family house and four acres from Lillian’s mother, Della, and moved back to Tipton County.  They put in a hen house for laying hens and sold eggs until retirement.  Austin and Lillian never had any children.  They both are buried in the “New Part” of Bethel Cemetery.

[ from An Illustrated History of the People and Towns of Northeast Shelby County and South Central Tipton County, page 178]

Lillian Oreed Smith Rhodes Obituary

ATOKA – Lillian Smith Rhodes, 88, retired merchant, died Monday at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Tipton after a long illness.  Services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Munford Funeral Home with burial in Bethel Cemetery.  She was a member of Bethel Cumberland Presbyterian Church and Home Demonstration Club.  Mrs. Rhodes, the widow of Austin Rhodes, leaves a sister, Carmen Smith of Memphis, and two brothers, A. T. Smith of Atoka and Richard Smith of Gautier, Miss.

[Rhodes, Lillian Smith; The Commercial Appeal; Memphis, Tenn; 24 Jun 1992; Pg 11]

Delayed birth certificate Lillian Oreed Smith
Delayed birth certificate Lillian Oreed Smith
Lillian Oreed Smith and W A Rhodes Marriage License
Lillian Oreed Smith and W A Rhodes Marriage License
Lillian Oreed Smith Rhodes
Lillian Oreed Smith Rhodes
Richard Arnold Smith

Richard was born on June 29, 1912, and died in Pascagoula, Mississippi on June 3, 1994.  He married Zelma Wright on October 19, 1940.  Richard attended college at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.  I do not know if he got a degree or not.  After college, he went to work for Continental Gin Company as a sales engineer in Birmingham.  He and Zelma lived there for a long time.  He finally did transfer to Memphis and lived there for several years.  During his years with Continental Gin Company, he traveled a lot, even to India for several months to install a cotton gin there.  After a long career with Continental, they bought a small tourist court in Pascagoula and moved down there to operate it.  This facility consisted of several individual cottages scattered through a pine grove.  They did most of the work themselves, just hiring people to supplement in areas that they could not see after twenty-four hours per day.  Most of their clientele were extended stay types who worked on the shrimp boats that fished out of the Pascagoula harbor and construction workers who were there for several months at a time.  Of course, they did do some overnight business, too.  Later in life, when the work became too difficult, they sold the tourist court and retired to Dolphin Island where they lived until Richard died.  It is assumed that both Richard and Zelma are buried in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

[An Illustrated History of the People and Towns of Northeast Shelby County and South Central Tipton County]

Jackson County Memorial Park

Iva Electa Smith

Iva Electa was born April 20, 1901, and died December 24, 1991, in Savannah, Hardin County, Tennessee.  She married Lenvil Gordon Beaver on March 30, 1925.  He died February 21, 1949.  They lived in the community that was named after his family, Beaver, or sometimes referred to as Beaver Town.  There was a store and cotton gin, both of which he owned.  They lived in a house that sat across the road from the store.  They had five children: Lenvil Oneda, Iva Shirley, Steve, Carmen Theo, and Lemuel Gordon Beaver.  Gordon and Iva Electa are buried in Ravencroft Cemetery in Tipton County, Tennessee.

[An Illustrated History of the People and Towns of Northeast Shelby County and South Central Tipton County, page 178]

After the death of Gordon in 1949, Iva Electa married Jesse Ray Blakey on 21 Aug 1970.  Both the bride and the groom were 69 years of age.

Iva Electa passed away on 24 Dec 1991.  Her obit is below:

BRIGHTON – Electa Smith Beaver Blakey, 90, former teacher, died Tuesday at Hardin County General Hospital in Savannah.  Services will be at 1 p.m. Friday at Munford Funeral Home with burial in Ravenscroft Cemetery.  She was a member of Beaver Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School and the Women’s Bible Class.  Mrs. Blakey, the widow of Gordon Beaver and J. R. Blakey, leaves three daughters, Lenvil Leadbetter of Savannah, Shirley Dyer of Clinton, Ill., and Carmen Harshfield of Somerville; a son, Gordon ‘Lem’ Beaver Jr. of Brighton; two sisters, Carmen Smith of Memphis and Lillian Rhodes of Savannah; two brothers, A. T. Smith of Atoka and Richard Smith of Gauthier, Miss., 15 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Electa Smith Beaver Blakey; The Commercial Appeal; Memphis, TN; 26 Dec 1991; Pg 29
Electa Smith Beaver Blakey; The Commercial Appeal; Memphis, TN; 26 Dec 1991; Pg 29

 

Gordon and Electa Beaver's Headstone in Ravenscroft Cemetery
Gordon and Electa Beaver’s Headstone in Ravenscroft Cemetery
Delayed Birth Record Iva Electa Smith
Delayed Birth Record Iva Electa Smith
Electa Smith marriage to Lenvil Gordon Beaver
Electa Smith marriage to Lenvil Gordon Beaver
Electa Smith Beaver Marriage to Jesse Ray Blakey
Electa Smith Beaver Marriage to Jesse Ray Blakey
Carmen Theo Smith

Carmen was born on 24 Oct 1898 in Tipton County, Tennessee.  After graduating high school, Carmen moved to Memphis where she was a bookkeeper and secretary for William G. Smith.  William owned a refrigerator business.  They soon fell in love and where married on 24 Jun 1927.  William had three children from a previous marriage, and he and Carmen did not have any children.  They lived on E. Cherry Circle in Memphis.  According to Wayne Smith, their house was very nice and sat on about two acres of land.  Carmen died on 6 Feb 2000 in Shelby County, Tennessee.  Both William and Carmen are buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.

Obituary for Carmen Theo Smith

Carmen T. Smith, 101, of Bartlett, retired bookkeeper for Smith’s Refrigeration Co., died of heart failure Sunday at Ave Maria Nursing Home.  Services will be at 1 p.m. today at Memorial Park Funeral Home with burial in Memorial Park.  She was a choir member at Broadmoor Baptist Church, taught Sunday school, and was a charter member at Sunset Baptist Church.  Mrs. Smith, the widow of William G. Smith, leaves a brother, A. T. Smith of Atoka, Tenn. The family requests that any memorials be sent to Bethel Cumberland Presbyterian Churchin Atoka.

Carmen T Smith; The Commercial Appeal; Memphis, Tenn; 8 Feb 2000; Pg 14
Carmen T Smith; The Commercial Appeal; Memphis, Tenn; 8 Feb 2000; Pg 14

 

Delayed Birth Certificate
Delayed Birth Certificate
1910 US Census
1910 US Census
1920 US Census
1920 US Census
1940 US Census
1940 US Census
1950 US Census
1950 US Census
Allie Perry Smith

Allie was born about 1865 and died on 10 Aug 1911.  Allie worked as a clerk in  a store in Randolph, Tennessee.  He never married.

There is an old rumor that Allie was shot and killed.  The suspect, a jealous husband, but no one was ever charged with the crime.  It seems, although an interesting story, this cannot be true as his death certificate states he died of Typhoid Fever.

Fannie Smith

Fannie was born in 1867.  She married John W Reeves (1862-1945) on 7 Feb 1889 in Tipton County, Tenn.  The couple had two children:  Baudine and Finis Henry Uric.  The Reeves family was instrumental in the growth of business and church affairs in Atoka.  John was a merchant for many years and he was very active in the civic projects of the town.  They were members of the Methodist Church, where Fannie taught Sunday school.  Their son, Finis, born 6 Aug 1895, was confined to a wheelchair because of a spinal injury he received as a child.  He died on 28 Jan 1924, at the at of 29. Fannie, John and Finis are buried in Bethel Cemetery.  Baudine, who was born 19 Nov 1893, married James C Smith (1891-1981) on 3 Sep 1916 in Tipton County, Tenn.  Baudine died in Dec of 1981 and is buried in Bethel Cemetery.

 

William Richard Smith

William was born February 16, 1863, and died 22 Oct 1900.  He married Lula Victoria Aycock.  The couple farmed between Tipton and Bethel on land they had purchased.  William and Lula had two daughters, Dorcas Smith and Gladys Smith, and one son, William R Smith who was born 16 Feb 1901, and died 25 Feb 1902.  William and Lula are buried in Bethel Cemetery in unmarked graves.  Their son, William, is buried in part “C” of the cemetery.  They are probably buried in that vicinity.

After William’s death, Lula married Walter Lyles. Walter had a child from a previous marriage named Helen.  Walter and Lula did not have children.

Edward Scott Smith

Edward was born 1860 and died in 1932.  He married Laura McCormick who was born 1859 and died in 1945.  They lived in Shelby County near the Tipton County line just south of Bethel Road.  They farmed, but the land was very poor and they did not do very well.  After their children were grown, Ed and Laura moved into a house located on Tipton Road between Tipton and Munford.  They are buried in the “C” section of Bethel Cemetery.  The children of Edward and Laura McCormick were daughter Myrtle and twins Roger B. and Rodney.

John Alexander Smith

John Alexander married Jarusha Dorcas Walker Oct. 28, 1959 in Tipton County, Tennessee.  She was the daughter of John and Frances Walker.  Jarusha was born July 20, 1842, and died April 24, 1917.  John and Jarusha are buried in the “B” section of Bethel Cemetery.

Arthur Theophilus Smith said that he always heard that John and Jarusha did not own the house and property where they were living when John died.  This property was located in Shelby County between Tracy Road and Mudville Road.  Today the road is known as Mulberry Road.  Somehow, Jarusha managed to raise seven children and purchase a portion of the property, at least the house and maybe some land.  The children of John A. and Jarusha Walker Smith were:  Edward Scott, William Richard, Allie, Fannie, Auther Theophilus, Wyatt Andrew and Johnny LeAndrew.