HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — Situated about two miles northeast of Huntingdon near Browning Highway is the historic Long Rock community, and at its heart is a brick church building that has been standing since 1886. It still holds services today.
“Nestled beneath tall cedars on a narrow winding road, you’ll find a place to rest your head and leave your heavy load.”
Those words, written by Linda Vestal for the church’s 100th anniversary, opened Kemmie Warren’s presentation to the Huntingdon Historical Society on Wednesday morning, May 20.
Warren has been a member of Long Rock United Methodist Church since 1951. Her grandparents were charter members. She spoke in front of the Historical Society’s largest crowd to date. Every seat inside the conference room of Huntingdon City Hall was occupied.
She shared stories, photographs, and documents tracing the church’s roots back to the early 1800s.
The church’s earliest recorded member, Isabella Purvis, was baptized in 1873 by Reverend T.J. McGill, a circuit rider on the Paris circuit. Before the current building existed, the congregation met in a log structure that also served as a school.
In 1886, three acres of land were purchased from Mary Prince, Homer Prince, and Eva Prince for $12, and construction of the brick building began. Warren said the bricks were fired on site, and that the leftover bricks were used to build a one-room schoolhouse that still stands on the property today.
When the carpenter hired to build the church, Hezekiah Wilcox, died before the job was finished, the community stepped in to complete it.
“Bricks were made and baked in the kiln and arranged three layers deep,” Warren said, quoting the poem. “And they’re still there.”
Funding for the construction came from donations ranging from five cents to ten dollars. Warren noted that the women of the congregation raised $144.20 toward the effort.
The church takes its name from a large rock on the property where children gathered at lunchtime, their feet dangling over the side as they ate from their lunch buckets. The rock is still visible today, in front of the Long Rock School building near the church.
Warren also told the story of Major James Moore, a Civil War officer and landowner credited with donating the church bell that still hangs today.
“I ring the bell sometimes on Sunday mornings when I can reach the string,” she said.
Over the years the church saw several renovations, but the pews and pulpit are largely untouched.
“We had a little problem one time with the pulpit,” Warren said.
She explained that, at some point the congregation handed oversight to a larger body, which supplied preachers.
One of them, Warren said, was too short to see over the handmade wooden pulpit.
“So, he took it upon himself to saw off this beautiful pulpit,” she said. “That didn’t go over too good.”
The next preacher stood six feet tall and couldn’t use the shortened pulpit either. The congregation built a wooden extension onto the base to compensate.
“If you come to Long Rock, you’ll see a different base on it,” Warren said. “That’s what happened.”
The church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Warren noted that the surveyors’ photos of the two-seater outhouse made the register right along with everything else.
She recalled several personal stories, including when she was baptized.
Warren said that she and several others were taken down to Crooked Creek for the occasion.
“At the time, girls were putting streaks of color in their hair,” she explained. “Of course, I didn’t have anything for a streak but red food coloring. So I thought that would be very fashionable.”
She said when she was pulled out of the water, red food coloring ran down her face and stained the water.
“The poor little preacher thought he’d done busted my head,” she said to laughter in the room.
When asked about her favorite memory, Warren said “I just enjoy it all.”
She recalled childhood days when someone would fetch a block of ice from the icehouse so the children could have cold water during afternoon singing conventions. “It was just always a good day.”
Long Rock United Methodist Church, which has been in continuous service since 1886, holds its annual homecoming on the fourth Sunday in May. The public is welcome.
The Huntingdon Historical Society meets on the third Wednesday of every month at 9 a.m. in the conference room at Huntingdon City Hall. Next month’s storyteller will be Brenda Brown, who will share the history of the Natchez Trace area.
“Long Rock Church challenges time and withstands the changing weather, but its strength comes from the members who continue to pull together.”
