Cold Spring School: Circa 1857-1933

The preacher who organized a congregation here in 1866 became the strongest voice in his movement. David Lipscomb, baptized by Tolbert Fanning at Franklin College, took a pacifist stand when the war split families and churches, holding that Christians should keep apart from government. For forty-seven years after the war he edited the Gospel Advocate, and his opposition to missionary societies and instrumental music in worship led the Churches of Christ out of the Disciples of Christ, a division the 1906 religious census recognized. In 1891 he and James A. Harding founded the Nashville Bible School, now Lipscomb University.

What the plaque says

Cold Spring School: Circa 1857-1933 2.8 miles northeast is the site of Cold Spring School. It was built on land donated in May 1857 by Thomas Baskerville for a school and meetinghouse. Early in the Civil War, it was used by Camp Trousdale as a military hospital. There, in 1866, David Lipscomb organized the Portland Church of Christ. Landowners Jim and Bill McGlothlin gave the schoolhouse to the citizens of Portland for a museum of local history. In September 1975, it was relocated to Richland Park.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wynnewood State Historic Site — 18 mi
  A National Historic Landmark log inn at the Bledsoe's Lick springs, beside a Mississippian mound center and tied to the domestic slave trade.

More markers nearby

• Zollicoffer's Headquarters — 0.6 mi
• Richland — 1.2 mi
• Camp Trousdale — 1.9 mi
• Scattersville Community — 2.4 mi