GIBSON COUNTY, TN - SKULLBONIA - Walnut Grove Meeting House (before 1873)
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                          WALNUT GROVE (before 1873)

Walnut Grove, which was originally named El Bethel, originated in the home of
Mr. Billy Goodman.  It began by meetings in his house for worshipping and later
grew so that a log building was erected on Fielding Goodman's farm for this
purpose.  About the time the first land was given by Susannah Yeargin to the
Methodist Church, the log building was moved to about the middle of the old part
of the present graveyard.  About 1873, when the deed was recorded, a two story
frame building was built and the name was changed to Walnut Grove because of the
grove of walnut trees that was around it.  The upper story was built and used
for a Granger's Hall for a time afterwards.  Later it was used for a Masonic
Lodge until the Masons were organized in Milan.

The first burial in the cemetery was B.G. Goodman's small child, about 1876.

In the late nineties the upper story was taken out of the building, but the
stairway was still left in the back and until about 1916, when it was changed to
the present building plan.


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