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Introduction

Words of poet Amy Lowell spring to mind when first sighting these wooden churches of a past century: “The sight of a white church above thin trees in a city square/Amazes my eyes as though it were the Parthenon.”

Finding abundant forests of pine, oak, and cypress—choice timber for building —and endowed with strong faith and purpose, early nineteenth century settlers who poured into Southern territory wrested from Indian ownership soon erected places for communal worship. First came brush arbors, crude structures usually featuring rough benches under log-supported roofs of small limbs, vines, and brush. Next came log churches, some of which survive today. Finally, with the invention of the circular saw and water-powered sawmills, inexpensive uniform lumber was available. Then came the steam-powered scroll saw that allowed more inventive decorative trim. Although some settlers of varying nationalities built according to their native construction practices and the demands of their worship traditions, in general, an almost generic meeting house predominated. Foremost, however, was the sheer determination expressed, as one minister said quoting some early German immigrants, “Church first and best, then our homes slightly later.”

Early wooden churches that have survived are seen most often in rural areas and small communities; some remain even in now languishing small towns while a few are preserved in cities. Most of these are carefully maintained by those who recognize and value their heritage; many have been placed on historic registers.

Architecture

Approximately a third of the early wooden churches featured in this book were built before 1865, slightly more that half were built between 1865 and 1900, and about a fifth were built between 1900 and 1940, most of these early in the century. Basically, there were two inspirational sources from architectural history: the classical styles of ancient Greece and Rome and the Christian styles of medieval Europe. The most popular building styles of this period in small towns and rural areas were inspired by a European medieval style known as Gothic.

Early in the nineteenth century, the most popular high style was Greek Revival, which was based on the architecture of ancient Greece. Of course, Greek Revival did not replicate classical Greek architecture; rather Greek Revival was inspired by ancient Greco-Roman architecture. In general, the Greek Revival style was characterized by symmetry and proportion and a simple rectangular floor plan. A columned portico supported a pedimented front gable, and the rectangular windows often had louvered, exterior shutters. Although classic Greco-Roman temples, the inspiration for this style, were built of stone, in small town and rural America, including the South, these buildings were usually constructed of wood. However, the most sophisticated and ambitious, usually urban constructions, were of brick, often covered in stucco and scored to resemble cut stone. Master carpenters, with the aid of builders’ guides, could easily build in this style.

Slightly later than Greek Revival, a second high style became popular. Subsequently classically-inspired and medieval-inspired styles continued alongside one another. The style, based in one degree or another of the Christian medieval architecture, is called Gothic. Actually—because Gothic was so popular and because it was accepted as a Christian architecture as opposed to pagan classicism—it went through many variations. Like Greek Revival, Gothic Revival was popularized through builders’ guides, such as those of Alexander Jackson Davis, Andrew Jackson Downing, Samuel Sloan, and Richard Upjohn. If classical buildings focused on columns, Gothic buildings focused on steep gables and pointed-arch windows and doors, both of which helped create verticality.

In the American countryside and small towns, Gothic Revival style architecture, like Greek Revival style architecture, was adapted to fit local needs, technical capabilities, and financial resources. Local or house carpenters were used, and they freely improvised, retaining the basic Gothic elements. This improvised style—which came out of an abundance of wood rather than the stone or brick used in American urban and in European Gothic Revival architecture—was made all the more economical by the circular saw, water-powered sawmills, and stud-frame construction. Nineteenth century Gothic style changed over time. Carpenter Gothic, which began as an antebellum style, was a peculiar American version of the Gothic. To the basic Gothic elements, it added decorative, but not structural, buttresses, as well as board-and-batten siding, which was an attempt to achieve a degree of verticality. Late in the nineteenth century, High Victorian Gothic was the fashionable Gothic style. Even for simple, rural church buildings, it was characterized by a great deal of creativity: asymmetrical massing, a variety of surface textures, decorative wooden trim, and a degree of excess.

Variants on classical (such as Greek Revival) and medieval (such as Gothic Revival) style church buildings are evident throughout most of the United States, especially in longer-settled areas. Variation occurs for a number of reasons. Besides fashion, financial resources, the relative skills of builders and carpenters, and denominational preferences based on worship practices were considerations in determining church architectural choices.

Religious Denominations

Until well into the twentieth century, Protestantism dominated the religious life of the United States. The Protestant denominations most prominent in the South—Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal—provide the majority of wooden churches presented in this book.

Methodists. Of note during this early era of Southern wooden church building was the rapid, unprecedented growth of Methodism, largely due to the diligent efforts of seemingly untiring Methodist circuit-riding preachers who traveled the Southern states by horse or buggy, taking from two to six weeks to make their assigned rounds. A proverbial saying persists about these faithful early circuit riders, once spoken on a bitterly cold winter day, “There is nothing out today but crows and Methodist preachers.”

Methodism, which was founded by John Wesley, a minister of the Church of England, was brought to America in the 1760s and was spread widely by the well-known preacher George Whitefield, who was famous for his part in America’s First Great Awakening movement. After the American Revolution, which stalled growth of the denomination, Methodism was soon revitalized. Wesley sent a general superintendent to establish and oversee church governance. In a 1784 conference in Baltimore, the official Methodist denomination was established in the United States and named the Methodist Episcopal Church.

One of the most influential of early Methodist circuit riders was Francis Asbury, who had been elected a joint superintendent in the first organizational Methodist conference. Historian John Wigger stated that Asbury traveled more widely across America, riding horseback, than probably any other individual of his day and that by the end of Asbury’s era “Methodism had become the largest and most dynamic religious movement in America.”

In those early years, however, only one circuit rider chose to minister in the newly formed Mississippi Territory, coming to the Tombigbee/Tennesaw River area in 1808. Finally an assistant came, and the two of them witnessed for several years in places like St. Stephens and McIntosh Bluff. St. Stephens’s wooden Methodist church, organized in 1857, still remains in what was from 1817-1819 the first capital of Alabama Territory. A log church, built by Methodists in 1860, survives in McIntosh. Both of these early settlements are located in southwestern Alabama. In 1819, the year Alabama became a state, the first full-fledged Methodist minister preached his first sermon in Montgomery.

In 1820, Florida became a state, ceded to the United States by Spain the previous year. Before this, Protestant clergy had been forbidden to serve in Roman Catholic Florida. In 1821, well-remembered Alexander Talley began his circuit riding work encompassing Pensacola, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; and Blakely, Georgia. Early Methodist settlers soon came to the Vernon, Florida, area and began a Methodist mission there.

In addition to circuit riders, another evangelistic tool aiding the spread of Methodism—as well as the Baptist denomination—also developed in the early part of the nineteenth century. This practice was particularly effective in the South. First appearing in the 1830s, “camp meetings” were usually held under brush arbors or simple wooden shelters when permanent shelter was unavailable. Models of unrestrained enthusiasm, these services were characterized by all sorts of dramatic, emotional outbursts. Itinerant preachers would sometimes preach for weeks, inspiring their eager listeners to great heights of emotion. One awed observer told how a large portion of the gathered believers were “prostrated on the ground and in some instances they appeared to have lost the use of their limbs. No distinct articulation could be heard; screams, cries, groans, shouts, notes of grief and notes of joy, all heard at the same time, made such confusion a sort of indescribable concert.”

The large number of surviving wooden Methodist churches reflects the phenomenal growth of Methodism. The South, it was said, proved particularly receptive to the spread of this denomination. By 1850, half of all Americans professed to be Methodists, although a split had occurred in 1845 over slavery—which led Southern Methodists to call their denomination Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This percentage dipped slightly as Baptists expanded, but as late as 1890 Methodists accounted for about 43 percent of Christians in Alabama, 50 percent in Florida, and 38 percent in Mississippi. Today, after consolidation of several branches of the church in 1968, the official name of the denomination is the United Methodist Church.

Baptists. Other denominations came south. The oldest Baptist church in the South is the First Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina. It was first organized in Kittery, Maine, in 1682 under sponsorship of the First Baptist Church of Boston. After harassment by Massachusetts, which then controlled Maine, and by Congregationalists, who dominated Massachusetts, Kittery’s Baptist pastor and sixteen members migrated to Charleston and began Baptist work there.

In 1755, a Baptist church organized at Sandy Creek, North Carolina, led by a minister from Massachusetts who wanted to reach out to the unchurched backcountry farmers. It became a very mission-minded denomination, going to all the Southern colonies plus the Western frontier. In general, these frontier Baptists were less sophisticated, poorer educated, and of lower socio-economic status than their coreligionists in the coastal towns. The denomination placed little emphasis on an educated ministry. In fact, any Baptist who felt “the call” to preach could do so, educated or not. Furthermore, any group of like-minded Baptists could form a church; approval from a governing body was not needed. Therefore, Baptist work as a whole was somewhat hampered, as the variety of Baptist beliefs brought about divisions into over eighteen distinct Baptist church groups in the National Era (1789 and 1836). Nevertheless, by 1890, Baptists outnumbered all other denominations in Alabama (46 percent) and Mississippi (52 percent), while trailing only Methodists in Florida (29 percent). Today, Baptists of one sort or another are second only to Roman Catholics in the number of adherents in the United States.

Presbyterians. Mostly Scottish and Scotch-Irish, Presbyterians were early in America. Presbyterians, however, did not spread throughout the country as did the Methodists and Baptists, particularly in the frontier areas. Presbyterian churches could only be formed on the approval of the presbytery and with certain exact ecclesiastical conditions. Presbyterian church doctrine required an educated clergy with at least six years of study. Such training and clergy were simply unavailable in most of early America. Consequently, thousands of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in frontier areas of America were left without church or minister. Many became Baptists. While Presbyterians were spending years getting ready to preach, Baptists were already preaching.

Episcopalians. The Church of England in America, forerunner of the Episcopal Church, traces its beginnings to the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607; the first church in Virginia was established two years later. In 1649, the Church of England was granted a charter to form a missionary organization, and its work began to spread throughout the English colonies. After the American Revolution, having lost their connection with the Church of England and their privileged status in the royal colonies, American Anglicans were left with little organization and not one American bishop. A convention was called in Maryland in 1780 for organizational purposes, and here the name Protestant Episcopal Church was first used. The General Convention of 1789 united the various state churches into one national church and also adopted a constitution and a modified version of the Book of Common Prayer.

An Episcopal presence was first introduced in Mississippi Territory in 1790 when Episcopal missionary Adam Cloud came to the Natchez area. The Reverend Cloud was forced to leave after a few years, and Episcopal services were not resumed until 1798 when a second clergyman came and began services in the Natchez courthouse. Trinity Episcopal Church of Natchez was founded in 1822 and is today the oldest Episcopal church building in Mississippi.

Episcopal church work in Alabama was first organized as a parish in Mobile (1825) followed by another parish in Tuscaloosa the following year. In 1830, a Connecticut Episcopal bishop was sent to Mobile to organize the Southern states into dioceses. By 1832, the Episcopal General Convention recognized parishes in Mobile, Tuscaloosa, Greensboro, Selma, Montgomery, and Florence, with the Mobile parish considered the strongest. Today there are two Episcopal dioceses in Alabama.

The first full-fledged Episcopal Church in Florida was founded in Tallahassee in 1838 when members of mission churches throughout the area met to form the Diocese of Florida. Today there are five Episcopal dioceses in Florida. Interestingly, a number of Florida’s early Episcopal churches were built, mostly on the East Coast, to accommodate the influx of Northern winter visitors who wanted to worship in the style and manner to which they were accustomed.

Roman Catholics. A Spanish Catholic imprint was established in what is now the Southern United States when the first permanent Catholic parish was planted in St. Augustine in 1565. Soon Spanish explorers, often accompanied by Catholic missionaries, spread along the Gulf Coast establishing settlements and missions, venturing into the vast Mississippi Valley as well.

When Mobile was founded in 1706 and New Orleans in 1718, French explorers and settlers also established a French Catholic presence. In 1727, New Orleans was selected as the site of the first Catholic school and first organized charity work in the Deep South, a school for girls, an orphanage, and a hospital.

In these early years of Catholicism, the See of Quebec exercised spiritual direction over all the French provinces in North America, an area stretching the length of the Mississippi Valley down to Louisiana. In time, however, Catholic work dwindled away in the Southern inland territories leaving mainly a French Catholic presence along the Gulf Coast, and there only in the larger settlements. At the close of the American Revolution, only twenty-four Catholic priests were reported to be in the entire United States. By the time the Mississippi Territory was purchased by the United States, it was reportedly without a Catholic priest. Roman Catholic clerical leadership was lacking as most of the missionary priests had returned to their home countries.

The nineteenth century saw a great wave of Roman Catholic immigrants, primarily Irish, which had enormous impact on the Catholic Church in the United States, straining resources and ministry. By 1890, this flood of immigrants swelled to over six million Catholics. In many ways, Irish Catholics have influenced American Catholicism; they have provided most of the bishops and controlled most of the Catholic colleges and seminaries.

Although Roman Catholicism is the largest denomination in the United States today, in the South, especially the rural South, Catholics have remained a minority. From the time of the great influx of immigrants, the Catholic Church has remained mostly urban in location and outreach. Catholic immigrants entering a mostly Protestant South and an agrarian culture found that Southern Protestants viewed them with suspicion, wary of their diverse cultural and social practices, as well as what Protestants saw as Catholic ties to foreign influence.

The greatest problem facing the Roman Catholic Church in the South, however, in its early days and later, has been the shortage of priests and bishops and these clerics overburdened with administrative duties. Religious orders of women have traditionally taken up the slack, teaching in schools and supervising orphanages and hospitals. Today, of course, vocations in the religious orders have declined precipitously.

African American Denominations. In general, African Americans and whites worshiped together in the antebellum South. Usually, the former sat in slave galleries or, in smaller churches, at the back. They took communion after whites. Occasionally, separate worship services or sermons were held for slaves. It was only after the Civil War that congregations split along color lines.

In 1990, C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya listed seven major denominations comprising the African American worship experience, which, in their words, were the “independent, historic, and totally black controlled denominations, which were founded after the Free American Society of 1787 and which constituted the core of black Christians.” Usually poor and rural, these congregations tended to meet in vernacular church buildings, a few of which appear in this book.

African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), African American Methodist Episcopal Zion (AME Zion), and Christian (formerly Colored) Methodist Episcopal Church (CME). By the close of the nineteenth century, more than two-thirds of black Methodists of Alabama left the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to join the earlier-organized black denominations African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and African American Methodist Episcopal Zion (AME Zion). With so many black members leaving to join other denominations, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, gave all black churches and property belonging to them a new denomination, Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (CME), which initiated a name change in 1954 to Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

The AME Church is one of the oldest and largest Methodist bodies in the world, founded in 1814 in Philadelphia by a former slave. The AME Zion Church formed in 1821 in New York, separating from New York’s Methodist Church. Efforts were made by the Philadephia AME Church to bring AME Zion under its umbrella, but members in New York preferred to create their own denomination. Property rights within the Methodist Church system became a problem resulting in an 1816 ruling in favor of the AME Church.

AME Zion Church membership increased rapidly in the South after the Civil War and today is found all across the United States. AME Zion affirms traditional Methodist doctrine, but its worship styles tend to be more exuberant than those of white Methodist churches. The denomination is strongly evangelistic and has an active social justice ministry.

In Mississippi, after years of separate church conferences, white and black Methodist conferences came together and in 1988 merged into the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church.

National Missionary Baptists. By the 1950s, black Baptist churches could choose to become members of the Southern Baptist Convention, previously almost all white, although cultural and political interests continued to be divisive, limiting choice. With a membership today estimated at a million, the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America is one of the largest African American denominations. This body formed in 1988 when leaders of the National Baptist Convention of America, meeting in Dallas, voted to form this new convention with the goal of uniting all Missionary Baptist churches and organizations in the country for a wider ministry.

Roman Catholics. After the Civil War, black Roman Catholics mostly formed their own separate religious orders. Southern blacks seemed more at home with Protestant culture and, in general, affiliated with Protestant groups rather than the Catholic Church with its Latin rites and mostly urban outreach. Today, the African American Catholic community has increased nationally and is represented by the Subcommittee on African American affairs, which acts as the official voice in all matters of ministry. The National Black Catholic Congress and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops coordinate closely with this organization.

Today, black churches are among the most diverse as far as denominations are concerned.

There are churches of other denominations included in this book, such as Primitive Baptist and Church of Christ/Disciples of Christ. These, which are not as readily known in the South as the denominations above, are covered at the appropriate place in the text.

These early wooden churches, of varying denominations, are reminders of the indomitable religious spirit of the early settlers and of their will power and sheer physical strength. These churches are memorials of an enduring faith. Indeed, they are indelible “footprints on the sands of time” for succeeding generations.