The Dancyville United Methodist Church and Cemetery is located on Dancyville Methodist Church Road in Dancyville, TN in Haywood County. Dancyville Methodist Church Road can be accessed from HWY 76 and is approximately 1000 ft south from the intersection of HWY 76 and Dancyville Road.
Dancyville, named after Isaac Dancy, an old settler, is a post village, thirteen miles south of Brownsville, so said “Goodspeed's History of Tennessee,” published in 1887. Goodspeed continues, "It was established in 1837 by Fennel T. Carpenter and John Southernland, who were it's first merchants."
Legend has it that when these merchants bought their first merchandise in St. Louis, they were asked where it should be shipped. There was no post office and the community did not have a name. When the merchants told this, they were asked if there were any kind of businesses in the community.
They answered, "Nothing except a blacksmith shop run by Isaac Dancy". The wholesalers replied, "We will call it Dancyville and ship the goods there."
So that is how the boxes were addressed - Dancyville, Tennessee - and they went by boat down the Mississippi and up the Hatchie River to Lowery's Landing. From there they were hauled by ox cart to Dancyville.
The Dancyville Methodist Circuit was comprised of four churches with the Dancyville Church being the largest, centrally located and where the parsonage was located. South of Dancyville at the Fayette County line was Taylor's Chapel. North of Dancyville was Spring Hill Church and a few miles west of this church was Ashbury Church. The Dancyville circuit lasted until 1973. The Church is now part of the Stanton, Dancyville and Spring Hill Circuit. The Dancyville United Methodist Church survives as the oldest United Methodist in West Tennessee.
The deed to the Dancyville United Methodist Church is dated April 1, 1835, and registered on June 8, 1835. The property was sold by Byrd Link to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church and states, "The property is for exclusive use for building thereon, a house of worship, for use by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and no other denomination whatsoever."
The congregation was organized, and the first building, a log structure, was built in 1837. In 1850 the log building was replaced by the one that is in use today. It is made of hand-hewn and hand-sawed timber cut on the grounds. The weather-boarding was cut with old slash saws in the following manner. A log was placed over a huge pit and one man in the pit worked one end of the saw and the other worked above the put. Up and down they would saw and, in time, off would come another plank.
The church is of Greek Revival style design, without columns, one story, white frame structure, with long, tall, windows and green shutters. The bell tower is octagonal-shaped, trimmed with louvered shutters. The tower is capped by a steeple that tapers into a thin stem upon which sets a simple white cross.
In the early 1950's, a basement with Sunday School rooms, assembly room, bathrooms and a modern kitchen was built.
The Dancyville United Methodist Church is one of the rare survivors of Antebellum church architecture in the rural portions of West Tennessee.
The Monuments in the Cemetery date from 1830 to the present. The fence around the Cemetery was erected circa 1908-1909 at a cost of $900 and replaced a wooden picket fence. Some of the burials are one War of 1812 Veteran (Pvt. Burchett Douglass, see below), thirteen Confederate Veterans, one Spanish-American War Veteran, seven World War I Veterans, eight World War II Veterans, one Ex-Slave (believed to be Solomon Shaw - buried in Plot 21), and one Gypsy. It also contains many of the early settlers of the area. It is still in use.
Either on or adjacent to the grounds are three historical markers. The first one was erected in 2000 by the citizens of Dancyville and the Haywood County Historical Society. It is located between the cemetery fence and Hwy 76 and commemorates an 1841 gubernatorial debate between James K. Polk and James C. Jones. Mr. Jones defeated the future president for governor of Tennessee.
The second marker was placed by the United Methodist Church Memphis Conference Commission on Archives and History in 1980. It is located next to the church and tells of the establishment of the church itself.
The third marker is located between the church and the cemetery next to the fence. The marker honors Burchett Douglass who was a veteran of the War of 1812, founder and president of the bank of Fayette County, and a notable Tennessee politician. It was erected in 2000 by the descendants of Burchett Douglass, the Haywood County Historical Society and the Society of the War of 1812 in the State of Tennessee.
Compiled from the following sources:
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