yesterday's tennessee

HISTORY OF THE CORINTH CHURCH

compiled by Tillman Stewart

The Corinth community is one of the oldest in the county, however, it did not take the name of Corinth until a Baptist Church was established just before the Civil War. A definite date cannot be found, but it seems that 1855 is as near as we can get to it. The church got its name from one of the early churches established by the Apostle Paul in Asia Minor.

Nevertheless, people were living in the community when Henderson County became a county on November 7, 1821. A monument in Corinth Cemetery shows that Jane Davis born in 1820 and died in 1823 was actually born before the county was formed. So it is surfice to say that a Davis Family lived in the community when Henderson County became a county. The cemetery must have started out as a family burial plot as it was some 20 years before we find anymore burials in the cemetery.

[Note: Tillman Stewart misread the marker. Jane Davis died September 26, 1923, at age 102 or 103. There are no death dates before the 1890s and no indications that the cemetery is older than that. The land for the church was donated in 1896, and the church and cemetery probably had been started at this location only a few years before, 1892 in the case of the oldest death date in the cemetery.--David Donahue]

Henry Newman, built a bush harbor and held a meeting and from that the church was established. Bro. George Kolywck was a pastor of Corinth and he is a grandson of Henry Newman.

The land between Brown Creek and Big Creek was originally known as the Nation and remained so until the Perryville Branch Railroad (Pevine) was built through and Darden, Tennessee became the trading center for the Corinth community. Darden got its name from Mills Darden, the biggest man in the world (weighing over 1000 pounds)., who lived and died in Henderson County. However, he never lived anywhere near Darden. Here are some of the early families that settled in the community: The Kolywck Family, the founder of the prominent family of Dutch origin left Holland as a stowaway. After landing in the country made his way to the Corinth community between 1830 and 1840. Some 10 years ago Clarence Kolwyck, a native of the community, a prominent lawyer of Chattanooga, worked out a history of the Kolywck Family and sent me a copy, which has been misplaced. Other prominent families who came into the community as early settlers were: the Davis, Maness, Carrington, Reeves, Renfroe, Turner, Cagle, Newsom, Hayes or Hays, Elliott, Holmes, Moody, Wood or Woods, Blankenship, Hill, Arnold, Dickson, Brunt, Derryberry, Sullivan, Campbell and Taylors.

Records of the early pastors of the Corinth Church are not available. The Reverend W. F. Boren of Darden was the first pastor of record and he served there for possibly 25 years. He was pastor of Corinth in 1929 when Auburn Powers made his survey gathering information for his History of Henderson County. The records showed that Corinth had preaching 3 times per month, and had Sunday School on each Sunday with a membership of 42 and the property valued at $1,000.00.

When Darden was established in 1889 a Post Office was also established at Darden. The people of the Corinth community then got their mail off a rural route and the first mail carrier was John L. Sullivan who later became County Register, Lexington Post Master, merchant and political leader. Prior to the established of the rural route people living in the Corinth community had to get their mail from the nearest post office which was Lone Elm some 2-1/2 or 3 miles away and was located about 1 mile north of Chesterfield.

In the 1930's when the Depression was on with the help of federal money gravel roads were built and school buses were sent over the county and since I was Superintendent of Schools then, it was a pleasure to have the school bus pick up students in the Corinth community and bring them to Lexington High School.

Before the Perryville Branch Train was abolished, students from the Corinth community who wanted to get an highschool educatio walked to Darden and caught the train to Lexington. Before the consolidation of schools students of the Corinth community went to Moore's Hill, Duke, Darden and Midway.

The veternans buried in Corinth Cemetery are: John L. Barnhill, PVT. To. L 140 Inf.; Earnest H. Holmes, WWI; Tyson Lee Holt, WWII; Harrison Brunt, WWI; John A Kolywck, Tenn. AAF; Ollie Gilbert, WWI; Will Campbell, WWI.

Like other rural communities Corinth has come a long way. Where once there was log and plain lumber houses, there are now nice homes with all modern conveniences and transportation. A modern church and a well kept cemetery adds to the reputation of the citizenship of the Corinth Community.

Contributed by Private Citizens

First Preacher was Henry Newman and Founder of Church in a bush harbor. The following are preachers since 1933:

Bro. Lee Carrington
Bro. Opal Poe
Bro. George Kolywck
Bro. Cecil Young
Bro. Arvin Rhodes
Bro. Lee Haggard
Bro. Connie V. Burton
Bro. Ervin McDaniel
Bro. John Powers
Bro. John Small
Bro. Harold Hopper Present preacher 1986.

On September 22, 1896 W.H. Davis donated 1-1/2 acres of land to The Baptist Church of Corinth for the purpose of building a church house and grave yard. Noted in file book No. 17 and recorded in Record Book No. 40 on page 86. Registered and recorded on April 22, 1922.

Go to Corinth Cemetery
Return to History of Darden