Beech Cumberland Presbyterian Church

The church was born in a quarrel over revivals. Camp-meeting revivals on the Tennessee-Kentucky frontier produced the Cumberland Presbytery, whose ministers favored the revival style. In 1806 the Synod of Kentucky dissolved the presbytery, and after repeated attempts at reconciliation failed, ministers Finis Ewing, Samuel King and Samuel McAdow formed an independent Cumberland Presbytery at Dickson, Tennessee, on February 4, 1810. The new denomination spread across Tennessee, Kentucky and eight other states. By the time its General Assembly formed in 1829, it already included four synods.

What the plaque says

Beech Cumberland Presbyterian Church The Cumberland Presbyterian Church, founded in 1810, constituted its first Synod here on October 5. 1813. Presbyterian minister Thomas Craighead organized the congregation in 1798. In 1828, the stone building was erected with walls 3 ft. thick, replacing the original meetinghouse. The historic cemetery, deeded to the church in 1799, is the final resting place of early settlers and founding members of the church. Among these are pioneer government surveyor William Montgomery and Revolutionary War soldiers Francis Catron (Ketring) and John McMurtry.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 11 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.
• Tennessee State Capitol — 17 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.
• Ryman Auditorium — 17 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 17 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.

More markers nearby

• Hendersonville, Louisville & Nashville Railroad Depot — 4.3 mi
• Rock Castle — 4.4 mi
• William Henderson — 4.5 mi
• Free Hill Road — 4.7 mi