St John's Episcopal Church | |
Nearest city | Columbia, Tennessee |
---|---|
Coordinates | 35°34′27″N87°8′20″W / 35.57417°N 87.13889°W |
Built | 1839-1842 |
Architect | Leonidas Polk |
Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 70000615 [1] |
Added to NRHP | July 8, 1970 |
St. John's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church in Ashwood, Maury County, Tennessee, United States. Built from 1839 to 1842 by Bishop Leonidas Polk, it was an active church in the Antebellum South. It was ransacked and later used as a hospital for the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. Services resumed after the war, but they were discontinued due to low attendance in 1915. It is now closed, except for an annual pilgrimage.
The church is located six miles southwest of Columbia, Tennessee. [2]
The land belonged to Colonel William Polk. [2] [3] One of his sons, Leonidas Polk, served as the rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, which was based in his own house, Ashwood Hall, from January 1, 1834 to August 9, 1838. [2] Due to poor health, he was assisted in his ministry by James Hervey Otey. [2]
In 1839, Leonidas Polk decided to erect the church building. [2] [3] It was built where once stood a tall cherry tree, which was felled and used to make wood structures inside the churches such as the balcony or the reredos. [2] The building was designed in the Gothic Revival architectural style. [2] It was modelled after a church in Devon, England, as well as the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. [4] Built by African slaves owned by Polk and his brothers, it was completed in the summer of 1842. [2] It was consecrated on September 4, 1842. [2] [3]
The first permanent pastor, Stephen Patterson, was installed in July 1845. [2] The congregation included both whites and blacks. [2] A new rector, E. H. Cressy, was installed in 1848. [2] The church bell was only placed in the tower as late as 1849. [2] By 1858, James Hildebrand became the new rector. [2] Mary Elizabeth Martin, Gideon Johnson Pillow's wife, and their son, attended services. [4]
On March 31, 1862, in the midst of the American Civil War of 1861-1865, Union Brigadier General Don Carlos Buell broke into the church building and ransacked it, breaking the window glasses. [2] By 1864, it was converted into a hospital for the Confederate States Army. [2] Days before the Battle of Franklin of November 30, 1864, General Patrick Cleburne (1828–1864) was passing by St. John's and he remarked to his aides something like, "This is such a beautiful church that it would almost be worth dying so one could be buried here." [2] Meanwhile, Leonidas Polk was buried in a crypt inside the church in 1864. [2]
In 1872, Richard N. Newell, a former Roman Catholic from England, became the new rector. [2] [3] However, services were discontinued in 1915 due to low attendance. [2]
In 1945, upon request from the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, Leonidas Polk's remains were taken from the church and he was re-buried at the Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans, Louisiana. [2]
No longer an operating church, it is only used once annually for services. The attached graveyard is the burial site of four Episcopal Bishops of Tennessee.
It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1970. [1]
Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and founder of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, which separated from the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. He was a planter in Maury County, Tennessee, and a second cousin of President James K. Polk. He resigned his ecclesiastical position to become a major-general in the Confederate States Army, when he was called "Sewanee's Fighting Bishop". His official portrait at the University of the South depicts him as a bishop with his army uniform hanging nearby. He is often erroneously referred to as "Leonidas K. Polk," but he had no middle name and never signed any documents as such.
James Hervey Otey, Christian educator, author, and the first Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, having established the Anglican church in the state, including its first parish churches and what became the University of the South.
Alexander Peter Stewart was a career United States Army officer, college professor, and a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He fought in many of the most significant battles in the Western Theater of the war and briefly took command of the Army of Tennessee in 1865.
James Patton Anderson was an American slave owner, physician, lawyer, and politician, most notably serving as a United States Congressman from the Washington Territory, a Mississippi state legislator, and a delegate at the Florida state secession convention to withdraw from the United States. He also served in the American Civil War as a general in the Confederate States Army, serving in the Army of Tennessee.
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church is a historic church in Innis, Louisiana, United States. The church was built in 1848 and was consecrated by Bishop Leonidas Polk. It is the oldest brick edifice in Pointe Coupee Parish. Past communicants include Major General John Archer Lejeune and Dr. Tichenor. It is also home to a cemetery with a monument to a Confederate Unknown Soldier, erected in 1901. This church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 24, 1974.
Saint Paul's Church is a historic Episcopal church in downtown Augusta, Georgia, adjacent to Riverwalk Augusta. A member of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, Saint Paul's conducts its worship services using the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The church, located on the corner of 6th and Reynolds Streets, is the oldest church congregation in Augusta. It was established in 1750 by the Church of England at the site of Fort Augusta. There have been five churches on the site. The current church building, which combines features of Federal architecture with those of the Georgian and Greek Revival styles, was designed by Henry Ten Eyck Wendell and dedicated in 1920. It can seat up to 600 people.
St. John's Episcopal Church is a historic Gothic Revival church in Montgomery, Alabama, United States. It was designed by the New York City architectural firm of Frank Wills and Henry Dudley. The church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 24 February 1975.
Brigadier-General Lucius Eugene Polk was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. He was a nephew of Leonidas Polk.
St. John's-In-The-Prairie, now known as St. John's Episcopal Church, is a historic Episcopal church in Forkland, Alabama.
The Pointe Coupee Artillery was a Confederate Louisiana artillery unit in the American Civil War made up primarily of men from the parishes of Pointe Coupee, East Baton Rouge, Livingston and other surrounding parishes as well as a large number of men from New Orleans.
The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America was an Anglican Christian denomination which existed from 1861 to 1865. It was formed by Southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States during the American Civil War. When the Southern states seceded from the Union and established the Confederate States of America, it was not unusual for Protestant churches to split along national lines also. The Episcopalians were different as their separation was made only after the Confederacy was created and ended within six months of the South's surrender when Southern Episcopalians reunited with their counterparts in the North.
St. Peter's Episcopal Church is a historic church located at 311 W. 7th Street in Columbia, Tennessee.
Henry Champlin Lay was a bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
The Church of the Holy Cross (Episcopal), which housed St. Mark's until 1954, is a historic church at 875 Cotton Street in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. The first services of the Episcopal church in Shreveport were celebrated by the Rt. Rev. Leonidas Polk, the Bishop of Louisiana in March 1839. That liturgy is considered the founding day of St. Mark's Church. Prior to this church building, the church was located on Fannin Street. St. Mark's moved into a new church building at Fairfield Avenue and Rutherford Street in 1954. That church became the cathedral of the Diocese of Western Louisiana on July 7, 1990.
St. Mary's Episcopal Church is a historic church building in Weyanoke, Louisiana.
Joseph Pere Bell Wilmer was the second Episcopal bishop of Louisiana.
Ashwood is an unincorporated community in Maury County, Tennessee, in the United States. Most of the community has been annexed by the city of Mount Pleasant.
Ashwood Hall was a Southern plantation in Maury County, Tennessee.
Lucius Junius Polk (1802–1870) was an American politician and planter from Tennessee.
Oliver Sherman Prescott was a prominent American Anglo-Catholic priest and activist who was active in the foundation of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and baptized by Harry Croswell at Trinity Church on the Green in that city. Prescott attended Trinity College, Hartford from 1840 to 1842 and Yale College from 1843 to 1844; he was graduated from the General Theological Seminary in New York in 1847 and made a deacon that year at Trinity Church in New Haven. He considered himself a protégé at the General of Professor Clement Clarke Moore.