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Among the early English speaking settlers of the Hamblen County area, the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterians came in larger numbers, while Lutherans, Episcopalians, Moravians and Quakers were in the area in smaller numbers.

The bulk of the early Catholics would settle in the Nashville area, while the Jewish presence was rare in the pioneer period.

The earliest Baptist ministers would often be bi-vocational in order to support their ministry, while the circuit riding Methodist ministers were paid by their conference and weren’t as dependent on a second vocation.

The early Presbyterians eyed education in the preparation for their church leadership.

In 1785 Tidence Lane would promote the beginning of Bent Creek Baptist Church, Hamblen County’s first church, while in 1803 Bethel South would become Morristown’s first church. In the early 1800s Bishop Francis Asbury would hold services at Read’s Chapel, a neat pine building just east of Morristown. This church would be supplanted by Liberty Hill Methodist Church in 1844. Economy Methodist Church, two miles west of the early town had been opened in 1819 with Revolutionary War vet James Landrum being the first preacher.

Property for the Russellville Methodist Church would be deeded in 1825, while construction of Morristown’s First Methodist Church was just beginning at the coming of the Civil War. St. Paul Presbyterian Church would be organized in 1804.

This is just a very brief list of the early churches in our area, but will indicate the importance of religion in our early settlement. Early settlements would likely soon include a blacksmith shop, a mill, a store and a church, which would often also serve as the early school. The story of many early churches would come about when local citizens would feel the need for worship and fellowship and would gather to build a church.

Eddie Seals still has a Liberty Hill Methodist Church memory from his younger days.

“I was at the home of my grandfather, Bill Wilson, on Liberty Hill Road just across from the church. I was waiting on the school bus to take me to Fairview Marguerite School where I was in the 5th or 6th grade, so it would have been in 1960 or 1961. I heard a loud cracking and breaking of wood and then a big boom from the sound of the church bell. I ran into the house and told my grandfather that I had heard the bell fall at the church and he asked if I was sure. I told him that I was before I got onto the school bus. Later I would find that I was correct that the bell had fallen and crashed a large hole into the porch”.

Eddie has witness the beginning of the end of a historical Morristown artifact.

The bell had rested in the bell tower of the Liberty Hill Methodist Church that had served congregations since 1844 and which had survived nearby Civil War battles.

Wanda Cross Seals and her younger sister Ann would remember their father Ray Cross holding them while they pulled the rope to ring the bell, as the weight of the bell could lift a smaller child from their feet.

Youngsters always looked forward to taking their turn ringing the bell to announce the beginning of the church service. As a youngster, Ann would remember riding her stick horse around the flagpole at the front of the church while waiting for services to start.

The large ancient beam that held the bell had finally been unable to support the heavy weight, causing the bell to crash through the belfry and onto the church floor and causing another crack in the bell. An earlier crack had already been repaired once, leaving wise heads to decide that it’s time was up, and the bell was stored away. That incident was a signal to the church members that their 119 year-old wood-framed church building had reached the end of its lifespan. In fact, the church fellowship room which had been added to the rear of the church still had its original dirt floor.

It was apparent to the current congregation that it was time for the old church to be replaced by a new building. The old church would be razed with only the bell, a few sections of it’s original hand-hewn timbers and the pegs that held the together – along with a very unique relic from the Civil War – a church pew shot through with a Civil War Minie ball.

The church had its beginning in 1844 when John Rice would give a plot of land for the future church, and money would be collected for its construction. Milton Shields would be a major promoter of the church. Having earlier come down from Greene County to build a paper mill and a furnace near the Holston River, Shields would have his workers leave his plant for a day to join community members in erecting the four walls of the new church.. The columns that supported the interior and ceiling were all dressed by hand. A large section for a cemetery was to the side of the church.

One reason for Morristown’s growth would be the two early roads that would intersect in the current Morristown. The road heading east to a young Knoxville would be called a number of names that would include Stagecoach Road, Highway llE, Main Street and Andrew Johnson Highway. The north/ south road would be called Buffalo Trail, Cumberland Street and Highway 25. An early branch road from Buffalo Trail would be called Liberty Hill Road, apparently as a reference to the then not- so-distant Revolutionary War fervor. Liberty Hill Methodist Church would take its name from that road.

An early impact on the church would be the coming of the Civil War. A dozen smaller battles and skirmishes would be fought in the Morristown area, but the biggest impact near the church would likely be Confederate General Vaughn’s fighting retreat and Union General Gilliam’s “Stampede” in late October and early November 1864. It’s likely that the Minie ball which struck the rear of the church came from the close by Liberty Hill road to penetrate the rear church wall and the pew.

Anther existing reminder of the church’s long history is the large cemetery containing those from the pioneer era up until the current time. Of those included would be about 70 known Civil War soldiers, several of whom had fought in the area of the church. Included among those soldiers would be Pvt. James Carriger, who would later become the namesake for a Morristown high school, along with Isaac Sullenbergr who would be an ancestor to “Sully” Sullenberger,” the heroic pilot who landed an airliner in the Hudson River and saved 155 passengers in the process.

With the hospital being used as a “hospital” during the war, a number of unknown soldiers are buried in the cemetery.

With the original Liberty Hill Church being deemed not practical to be restored and with room needed for a growing congregation, the old building was razed and a new modern structure opened its doors in 1965, while the heritage of the church remains.