HAYWOOD COUNTY TN - CHURCH - Christ Episcopal Church ********************************************************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Jane N. Powell ********************************************************************************************************** The Episcopal Church was organized August 25, 1832 and the name chosen was Zion Church. Charter members were Mary T. and Egbert H. Sheppard, Mrs. Jane D. Johnson, Eliza H. Perkins and Sarah Grove. The Rev. John Chilton, first priest ordained in Tennessee, was the first rector and services were held in the Court House until a building could be erected. Mr. Chilton lived south of town and a frame building was built there in 1837 and named St. Gregory's Chapel. It was used week days as a school and sometimes for church services on Sunday. Mr. Chilton died in 1840 leaving the church a plot to be used as a cemetery. Zion Cemetery was in used until about 1900. Bishop Otey visited Brownsville in 1848 and baptized two people in the Hatchie River. In 1852 the Rev. James Rogers, a native, returned to become rector. In 1854 funds were sufficient to build the lovely Gothic Revival building on N. Washington Street. In 1857, The Rev. Charles Collins became rector and served three separate times until 1890. In 1856, Prof. John Paul Wendel of Hesse, Germany arrived and for 36 years influenced enthusiasm for music in Brownsville. He was also organist of Zion Church as was his daughter, Miss Minna Wendel, for many years after his death. Miss Minna, Jun 1858-10 Aug 1946, lived on Bradford Street in their family home at the site of the 1999 location of Oak Haven Apartments. She and her mother are buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Brownsville. Miss Minna was an extremely fine needle-woman and used #200 thread (very, very fine gauge) to work button holes in garments for infants. The Rev. Joseph Ridley, D. D., at one time president of U. T. at Knoxville, was rector from 1869 until 1877. During his tenure the church increased and a rectory was build. In the 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic in West Tennessee three vestrymen, Lewis Bond, Edward and Wesley Willis, died. Many others left and never returned, greatly reducing the membership. Families in the early days of the church included: Ashe, Bond, Haralson, Jett, Johnson, Moore, Nixon, Oldham, Peete, Perkins, Rogers, Sheppard, Thornton and Wood. The name of Zion Church was changed to Christ Church in 1895 since there were two other Zion churches in Haywood County.