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It’s dangerous to make such a statement, but I don’t think anyone living knows hardly as much or has worked as hard to preserve the history of Grainger County as has Ken Coffey.

And for any history bug, knowing that little Hamblen County was born out of Grainger, Jefferson and a chunk of Hawkins Counties, that knowing their stories would be important in knowing of our not so distant past.

Friend for many years, I’ve learned well that Ken has a nose for a good story and when he passed the news that Claiborne County still has a standing church who’s building was started when the present state was then the Southwest Territory in 1795, and finished shortly after when Tennessee, with its then population of 77,000, became a state.

With Ken and myself, along with our mentor Bill Henderson, now beginning to pack a bunch of years behind us, it’s a joy to know that some super younger historians are coming along right behind us, and with their use of new technology, they’re learning more that we could ever research from books.

Our only remaining advantage is having much earlier talked with older folks who actually knew people that had witnessed a good bit of Tennessee’s story.

With the younger folks in mind, I contacted Dakota Carmichael, still in his 20’s, who has long ran a computer blog where he has put actual film showing the sites of our earlier times.

Dakota has so focused on his interest that he’s already earned a prestigious award from the Museum of East Tennessee in Knoxville. A call to Dakota showed that he was eager to put his feet on the very tracks of our ancestors and gain more knowledge from Ken Coffey.

We met Ken at the Bean Station City Hall and, after a stop at the site of a unique Thorn Hill Civil War occurrence, we headed to Claiborne County.

Originally established in 1801 from parts of Grainger and Hawkins Counties, Claiborne County still has signs of Daniel Boone’s trail into Kentucky. After arriving at Lone Mountain Road in southeast Claiborne County, we came to the neat and modern Springdale Missionary Baptist Church.

Across the road from the church sat the old church that had opened on the same year that Tennessee had become a state.

Having reached a rundown condition, the old church had been turned over to the modern Springdale church, which had taken great pains to restore the old church to near its original glory with the help of its members and a well known businessman.

Danny Coffey was on the grounds of the old church to welcome us. We would soon hear that the old Big Springs church had been started by the pioneer minister Tidence Lane.

With William Bean traditionally being generally considered to be the first permanent English-speaking settler in the present Tennessee in 1769, others would soon follow, and among them would be several preachers who preached among those settlers.

Tidence Lane has been credited by the Baptist as earlier starting the Buffalo Ridge Church, Tennessee’s earliest church, in 1779. That church would soon be followed by the New Bethel Presbyterian Church in 1782.

After serving at Buffalo Ridge for 5 or 6 years, Lane would move further into the Tennessee country where he would establish the Bent Creek Baptist Church in 1785. Tradition holds that those first meetings were under a shade tree, where Lane would preach from a log, with some of the congregations sitting on split trees.

That early church would later become the First Baptist Church of Whitesburg. Lane would pastor the Bent Creek Church for 21 years until his death in 1806.

He, along with his wife Esther and several children would be buried on his property. That property would eventually become a cow pasture and the family would be moved to a special plot at Whitesburg Baptist in 2017.

While showing us around the area, Danny would tell of the Big Springs Church being the oldest still standing house of worship in the county and was nearly falling into ruin before being handed over to his Springdale Church.

The Springdale members would set a goal to restore the old church as closely as possible to original appearance 227 years ago, and we were seeing what had been a good and impressive job.

Danny would mention that at the time of the church’s construction, the location was in the backwoods of the settlements in East Tennessee, and that the structure had originally been on land belonging to Robert King, which had been purchased for the church by Elisha Chissum. Drew Harrell and Tidence Lane had spent the winter of 1795 and 1796 on the site to see to the erection of the structure, and hewn marks in the logs made by Harrell and others so many years ago were still distinct.

The early logs had been chinked by mud to slow down the winter winds. Among several unmarked gravesite, several stones had been etched with the names of the original founders which would include those of Ramsey Day,James Rice and Issac Lane, who had helped form Claiborne County..

A tour inside the 30’ by 30’ building left a feeling of the travel and planning involved for the roughly 50 worshipers would enter the two doors to fill the two rows of pews that faced the minister’s podium.

The meeting allowed fellowship and spirituality for the worshippers after their hard and lonely toil.

Bare rafters were above the sanctuary and worn smooth boards covered the floor.

A trap door into the low basement was at the rear of the church, where an ancient child’s shoe had been found several years ago.

Also at the rear of the church was a list of the church founders.

With the Cherokee wars having ended in 1794, the early church members were still wary.

Herchel Ritter had earlier told Ken that the small high windows had been placed in the church for a member to stand and watch for Indians during the service.

Danny told that the watchman had been Herchel Ritter. By 1800 the church was flourishing and in that year the church was officially established as the Big Spring Primitive Baptist Church.

With the coming of the Civil War, both the Union and Confederate armies would use the church as a base of operations and as a hospital, with the worshipers meeting at times at the Tye’s Branch School.

Meetings would be held at the church well into the 1900’s until the physical condition of the church would deny meetings. With the church and grounds now back in good order, the Springdale Church is now using the church again for special events, while the congregation of the modern church has to only look across the road to see the progress that has been created by their faith.

A study of history can be heavily impacted when we can put our hands onto the very handprints of those who came before us.