page_title: Earnest Farms Historic District
section_title: Ebenezer Methodist Church
hierarchical_section_title: Earnest Farms Historic District / History / Ebenezer Methodist Church
caption_attribution_description: English: The Ebenezer Methodist Church in Greene County, Tennessee, USA. Ordained by Bishop Francis Asbury in 1795, the church is home to the oldest Methodist congregation in Tennessee. The church pictured is the third to occupy the site, and was completed in 1899. The church and its cemetery are now part of the Earnest Farms Historic District, with Henry Earnest being the cemetery's earliest burial (1809). Coordinates: N 36.19015, W 82.69318
context_page_description: The Earnest Farms Historic District is a historic district consisting of four historic farms and associated structures near the community of Chuckey in Greene County, Tennessee, United States. The farms include the Elmwood Farm, the Broyles Farm, the Crum Farm, and the Jim Earnest Farm, all of which were initially developed by early pioneer Henry Earnest and his descendants in the late-18th and 19th centuries. The district includes the Ebenezer Methodist Church, which is home to the oldest Methodist congregation in Tennessee, and the Earnest Fort House, which is one of the oldest houses in the state. Elmwood Farm has been designated a century farm and is one of the oldest farms in Tennessee, having been cultivated continuously since 1777.
  Henry Earnest settled along the banks of the Nolichucky River in 1774 and built the Earnest Fort House on a bluff overlooking the river in 1782. Earnest donated the land for the Ebenezer Methodist Church, which was completed in 1795 and ordained that same year by Bishop Francis Asbury.
context_section_description: Sometime in the early 1790s, the Earnests and several other area families formed a Methodist society.  Methodist circuit rider Francis Asbury delivered a sermon before 200 people at "Squire Earnest's" in 1793, and mentioned that a society of 31 members had been formed.  The Earnests eventually donated a parcel of land (between the river and the Jim Earnest Farm) for the construction of a meeting house.  On April 27, 1795, Asbury dedicated the new meeting house, marking the beginning of the Ebenezer Methodist Church.  The current Ebenezer Methodist Church building, built on the site of the 1795 meeting house, was completed in 1899.
  The church is a one-story framed structure, with a metal gabled roof.  The exterior walls were originally weatherboarded, but this has been replaced with vinyl siding.  The building has a gabled, metal roof and a concrete block foundation.  The church's louvered bell tower is two stories, and contains a bell purchased from the Cincinnati Bell Foundry.  The interior includes the original wooden siding, hand-painted doors and pews, and a stained glass window.  The church's cemetery, which also listed as a contributing property in the historic district, contains the burials of several Earnests and other families associated with church, and at least two slave burials (known only as "Zona" and "Corby").
caption: Ebenezer Methodist Church
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