Acuff's Chapel, Blountville, TN
Posted by: 
vhasler
N 36° 32.078 W 082° 21.634
17S E 378204 N 4044110
Acuff's Chapel was the first Methodist meetinghouse in Tennessee and the first west of the Appalachian Mountains. The nearest church was one hundred miles to the east, and there were none west of Acuff Chapel.
Waymark Code: WM4ZR3
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 10/19/2008
Views: 15
See also TN Historical Marker Waymark WM4Z9J "Acuff Chapel" for a summary.
From the UMC historical website:
"In 1773, Timothy Acuff (1732-1823) left his native Virginia to homestead on the frontier. He and his wife, Anna Leigh, settled in what is now Sullivan County, Tennessee (then part of North Carolina).
In 1785, a Methodist class was formed, mostly of emigrants from Virginia, and in 1786 Acuff and his fellow class members built a chapel on land given by Timothy and Anna Leigh Acuff.
The commitment of pioneers like Acuff and his neighbors was essential to the spread of Methodism on the frontier. As one historian remembered: "Among the first emigrants from Virginia [were Methodists]... In some cases a few Methodist families located in the same neighborhood, and immediately gathered themselves into a Society. Occasionally local preachers, exhorters, and...class leaders... formed part of...the new settlement, and thus regular religious services were instituted, and Methodism was actually planted, before the itinerant preacher had visited the locality." W.G.E. Cunnyngham, quoted in R.N. Price, Holston Methodism (1904)
Acuff's Chapel was the first Methodist meetinghouse in Tennessee and the first west of the Appalachian Mountains. The nearest church was one hundred miles to the east, and there were none west of Acuff Chapel. Since there was only one other school within a hundred miles, the chapel was also used as a school for some seventy-five years.
Timothy and Anna Leigh Acuff had a son, Francis, who became a Methodist preacher, but died unexpectedly at the age of twenty-five, just a few years after the chapel was built.
The sanctuary built by the settlers was made of logs, about 20 x 30 feet with a gallery. It was a familiar sight to Francis Asbury, who preached there several times on his regular travels through eastern Tennessee."
Type of marker: Heritage Landmark
UMC Historic Site #: 0
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