Religion

With roots going back to 1901, American Baptist Theological Seminary remains one of the most influential and important African American seminaries in America. After a long planning process, the school actually began to take shape in 1904 when a joint commission of the Home…

Francis Asbury, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, was born near Birmingham, England, to Joseph and Elizabeth (Rogers) Asbury and apprenticed as a blacksmith. At an early age Asbury joined the Methodist movement under John Wesley's leadership and…

By the middle of the eighteenth century, Baptists had begun to settle the mountain valleys of what is now East Tennessee, and by 1786 their small churches were numerous enough to establish what became the second Baptist association west of…

Beersheba Springs, a historic resort village in north Grundy County, began attracting visitors after Mrs. Beersheba Porter Cain of McMinnville discovered a large chalybeate spring in 1833 and suggested that the water, with its high iron content, contained medicinal properties.…

Three huge white crosses facing Interstate I-40, east of downtown Memphis, mark the campus of Bellevue Baptist Church. With the center cross standing 150 feet high, flanked on either side by crosses measuring 120 feet tall, the “Millennium Crosses” exemplify…

The history of Belmont University begins with Adelicia Acklen, mistress of Belmont Mansion, and two schools for women which operated on the mansion's grounds: the first Belmont College (1890-1913) and Ward-Belmont (1913-51). After a century of education on the campus…

Located in McKenzie, Carroll County, Bethel College is one of two institutions of higher learning for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 1842 the college began in nearby McLemoresville as the Bethel Seminary, established by the West Tennessee Synod, Cumberland Presbyterian…

Gideon Blackburn, Presbyterian minister, college president, and missionary to the Cherokees, was born in Augusta County, Virginia, on August 27, 1772. As a young boy, Blackburn moved with his parents to what is now East Tennessee.  In 1787,  he became…

Richard Henry Boyd, a founder of both the National Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Publishing Board, was born in Texas late in the antebellum era. After receiving an education at Bishop College, an institution for black Baptist men supported…

Brainerd Mission was a multi-acre mission school situated on Chickamauga Creek near present-day Chattanooga. Named for eighteenth-century missionary David Brainerd, it was the largest institution of its type among the Eastern Cherokees. The Boston-based American Board of Commissioners for Foreign…

Born July 2, 1897, on a farm near Somerville, William H. Brewster was the oldest of sharecroppers William and Callie Polk Brewster’s eight children. In 1915 Brewster entered Memphis’s Howe Collegiate Institute and studied under the Reverends T. O. Fuller…

Parson Brownlow, minister, journalist, and governor, was one of those unique individuals who influenced Tennessee culture, politics, and government during the middle half of the nineteenth century. Born in Wythe County, Virginia, orphaned at age eleven and possessing limited formal…

While in Dayton for the Scopes Trial, William Jennings Bryan expressed to friends his dream that a prep school and junior college to be founded in the town. Bryan had long believed that a Christian school, emphasizing the Bible and…

The now defunct Burritt College was founded in 1848 at Spencer, Van Buren County, as a preparatory school and junior college under the auspices of the Churches of Christ. The college was an early coeducational institution with a classical curriculum…

Camp meetings were outdoor religious revival meetings popularized on the southern frontier during the early nineteenth century. These meetings generally lasted several days and attracted participants who traveled significant distances and camped on-site for the duration of the meeting. The…

Lucie Campbell-Williams, composer, educator, and activist, was born on April 3, 1885, in Duck Hill (Carroll County), Mississippi, the youngest of Burrell and Isabella (Wilkerson) Campbell’s nine children. Her father worked for the Mississippi Central Railroad and her mother worked…

Alexander Campbell, editor and religious reformer, was born in County Antrim, Ireland, the son of Jane Corneigle (Corneigh), a French Huguenot, and Thomas Campbell, a minister in the Anti-Burgher Seceder Presbyterian Church. Reared in the Church of England, Thomas Campbell…

Will D. Campbell, civil rights advocate and author, was the only white person present at the founding of Dr. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Campbell was born July 18, 1924, in the rural farm country of Amite County,…

Carson-Newman University is a four-year liberal arts institution located in Jefferson City. It traces its roots to the founding of the Mossy Creek Baptist Seminary, which opened its doors for the first session in September 1851. Reverend William Rogers served…

Frontier Methodist circuit rider Peter Cartwright was born in Amherst County, Virginia, shortly before his parents moved to Logan County, Kentucky. When he was fifteen years old, Cartwright attended one of the religious meetings that were part of the camp…