An historic church in northwest Greene County was the site Tuesday of a Greene County Commission meeting, but there were only three items on the agenda. One of them was the rededication of the church — Cave Spring Memorial, which was built in 1867. The congregation goes back even further – the church started as Mount Zion Presbyterian Church in the 1830s with brush arbor meetings. A new sign provided by the Greene County Highway Department declares it the oldest Presbyterian congregation west of the Mississippi River.
Amy Westermann is on the church’s board.
"This building goes back to 1867, right after the Civil War. The original building was a log structure, and it actually served as a hospital during the Civil War," she said. "We have people buried in the cemetery who originated mostly from the English colonies on the eastern part of the United States. Remarkably, most from eastern Tennessee. And they emigrated here as part of a large group led by my ancestors, the Renshaw's. So, my fourth great grandfather was George Alexander, Milton Renshaw. He was the individual who actually started ministering here at this church. And he is buried over there in the cemetery."
She acknowledged people in the small crowd gathered outside the church along Farm Rd. 81 on a sweltering hot day who help care for the church and the grounds.
The church is built along Asher Creek, and there's a cave near the building, thus the name, according to Westermann.
The sanctuary is downstairs now, but up a flight of stairs is the original sanctuary, complete with a choir loft, and an old iron stove, which is no longer used.
Westermann said Cave Spring Church has been on the historic register in Greene County since the early 1980s. She said she was "deeply honored" that the commission took the time to rededicate it as an historic site.
"We...as a community have really sought in the most recent years to revive interest and renewal by getting folks to come back to the church. We hold periodic services, which we call our second Sundays of the month, and we do that October through May. And we do want to preserve the site," she said. "We want to make sure that the generations to come understand how important it was originally to the folks who settled here, who came from east Tennessee and pioneered that very long way. And those of us who grew up here and remember coming to services and remember walking the cemetery grounds and decorating the graves. So, it means everything to this community."
