By Bettie Marlowe, Cleveland, TN
“What if” questions still are being asked concerning the “holiness” movements in the East Tennessee area and particularly Bradley and McMinn counties at the turn of the century.
Bob George, president of Bradley County Historical Society, in his paper on The Evangelical Association Mission in Cleveland, tells of the seven years the German holiness group existed in Cleveland. He asked: “What if this group had been successful in the South instead of being aborted? Would this have affected the Pentecostal holiness movement in the early 20th century, possibly changing the entire path of the Charismatic revival?”
In 1890, the pastor of the Cleveland Evangelical Association church, J. H. Kiplinger, wrote a letter to the newspaper editor (The Weekly Herald), inviting the community to worship with them: “As pastor of our church in Cleveland, I would say to its citizens and especially to non-churchgoers, you are heartily invited to attend our church services. Come and bring your children to Sabbath school and take part in it yourself and we are sure you will never regret your adventure. If you have no Sunday suit, come with what you have. Bring your children barefooted if they have no clothes. It’s the best place in the world to teach them how to give—clothes and other things necessary for soul and body. Our church seats are not too good nor beautiful for the poorest man, woman or child in the city. All we ask of you is to be clean, well behaved and spit no tobacco juice on the floor or walls.”
A year later, the Evangelical Association split—problems of doctrine and language. In 1894, Kiplinger reported, “Only three families were still associated with the Evangelical Church in what had once promised to be a fruitful home mission field.” He moved to Missouri and the building (on what is now Central Avenue) was sold to a group that formed the First Christian Church. It remained in the same location until the 1960s when it was moved to N. Ocoee Street. The building was eventually torn down.
And why Cleveland? Bradley County Historian, the late Dr. William Snell, indicated that Cleveland was a boomtown in the 1880s, rivaling Chattanooga and Knoxville in size.
And if the Evangelical Association was so successful, why was it closed? No reason is found.
Bob George said he felt the Evangelical Church in Cleveland was started for all the right reasons and was closed for all the wrong reasons. In any case, he added, “We know that holiness is very important in the South—Cleveland was the center for the development of the Church of God.”
Dr. Daniel Woods, associate professor of history at Ferrum College in Virginia, and teaching pastor at Martinsville, VA, Church of God, said he found it easier to say what did not happen (within the holiness movement). “It’s like putting together a 1,000-piece puzzle with 26 pieces.” With only 10% finished, he said, he may have to rethink the whole picture. He traced the movement’s chronology beginning in 1882 when F. W. Henck of Baltimore married Mary Curry of Beniah (known earlier as Bellfonte or Curry Spring, a crossroads near Charleston). They moved to Boston where Mary had attended school earlier. Henck attended Boston University and served as pastor of a Methodist mission for two years, then returned to Mary’s homeplace. He later left the Methodist Episcopal Church and found fellowship with the East Tennessee Holiness Association. He served as president of the group until his death in 1893.
It was about this time an Ohio Wesleyan student, Daniel Awrey, moved into the area and Beniah eventually became his home base. He conducted meetings at Union Grove, Birchwood, and in other neighboring counties, and in 1895, accepted ordination as an elder in the Congregational Methodist Church.
B. H. Irwin entered the picture in 1895 and began holding meetings and organizing Wesleyan Methodist congregations. He later organized the first Fire-Baptized Association of Southern Iowa.
The revival at Shearer Schoolhouse on Camp Creek in North Carolina in the summer of 1896 turned attention to the sweeping holiness movement. And it was about this time that A. J. Tomlinson traveled through the Camp Creek area and met W. F. Bryant and R. G. Spurling. In Bradley County, the Curry sisters (Mary and Dollie) opened the Bellfonte Holiness Industrial School and the Beniah Post Office opened May 5, 1898, with Mary C. Henck as postmistress.
In 1899, Mary Curry Lawson deeded her farm to the FBHA to build a “Fire-Baptized School of the Prophets at Beniah” for the purpose of teaching evangelists, missionaries, and their children. But with the moral failure of leader Irwin, the organization crumbled and in October 1900, the Lawsons repurchased their farm for $100 (for back taxes, it was assumed).
Woods says that what was known about Awrey and his associates suggests the happenings in the Southern Appalachians are interwoven with the origins of the Church of God. There are at least five organizations in Cleveland that can claim kinship and share in the movement’s early history. A. J. Tomlinson united with the Holiness Church at Camp Creek—with the declaration that it was the Church of God—after receiving “a revelation through prayer” on June 13, 1903.
One hundred years later the question is asked: “How does the fire-baptized movement contribute a bridge?” Historians seem to agree with Woods that what was known about Daniel Awrey and his associates in the late 1800s suggests the happenings in the Southern Appalachians are interwoven with the origins of the Church of God. One thing also noteworthy is the part women played in the spread of the firebaptized message, especially the Curry sisters at Beniah, and later, Sarah Smith.
According to early records, the firebaptized movement grew out of the radical wing of the holiness movement in the late 19th century—a protest against the (perceived) compromise of the holiness standard in the National Holiness Association. Begun in the Oklahoma Territory in 1885, it spread across the Midwest and into the Southeastern United States, and in 1898, it was organized into a national body—The Fire-Baptized Holiness Association of America. By 1899, the association boasted congregations in thirteen states and two countries. Its Live Coals of Fire monthly paper began publication in 1899. Then, probably as a result of the fall of its leader (B. H. Irwin), the movement faded. However, the fire and power of the movement surfaced in what is known as the Pentecostal movement. Familiar names show up in this Pentecostal transformation: Charles Fox Parham, Billy Martin, Joe Tipton, Sarah Smith, M. S. Lemons, R. F. Porter, J. C. Murphy, W. F. Bryant, G. B. Cashwell, Richard G. Spurling, Milton McNabb, A. J. Tomlinson, and William J. Seymour (Azusa Street in Los Angeles)—not necessarily in that order.
How did the people in so many different places connect? How did this “revival” flow so extensively in this area? We have to remember that these people all had the Bible, were all studying the Word, and were all intensely seeking God. Add to this the visible connections such as the railroad and rivers (in the Bradley, McMinn, and Monroe counties), and it’s easily seen how this could happen.
In Monroe County in 1884, a Missionary Baptist licensed minister, Richard G. Spurling Sr., feeling dissatisfaction over certain traditions and creeds, called a meeting at the Barney Creek Meeting House to study religious matters. He said, “As many Christians as are here present that are desirous to be free from all man-made creeds and traditions, and are willing to take the New Testament, or law of Christ, for your only rule of faith and practice; giving each other equal rights and privileges to read and interpret for yourselves as your conscience may dictate, and are willing to sit together as the Church of God to transact business as the same, come forward.” Eight people came forward to form what was called the Christian Union, with Spurling as moderator and his son, Richard G. Spurling Jr., chosen as pastor.
In 1896, Martin, Tipton, and McNabb, all from Monroe County, went into Cherokee County, NC, and began what now is the renowned Shearer Schoolhouse Revival, preaching the born-again experience and sanctification. The revival awakening, according to Church of God historian, C. T. Davidson, swept the country and spread into adjoining counties and nearby states. “In other states, cities, towns and communities pursuance of the Wesleyan doctrine of sanctification…was brought to life, more vividly than ever,” Davidson wrote. And much credit and honor are due the denominational churches for the great work they accomplished for God in that they kept godliness alive among the people. In the meantime, Spurling often visited the meetings and revivals going on in Cherokee County, NC, and tried to get the people to consider organizing as they “really needed God’s law and government.”
About this time, Bryant, along with a few others, was also impressed about the need for government, so on May 15, 1902, they met at Bryant’s home in Cherokee County and were organized by Spurling as the Holiness Church at Camp Creek. It was to this group A. J. Tomlinson came. A colporteur with the American Tract Society, he was doing missionary work in the Appalachian mountains and moved to Culberson, North Carolina, in 1899 to work in that area among the poor.
Davidson tells of a chance meeting. In the Burger Mountain vicinity (now known as Fields of the Wood), Tomlinson stopped at Shoal Creek to let his team drink. Two boys sat on the foot log spanning the creek and each had a rifle and string of squirrels. He told the boys his mission was selling Bibles and Testaments or giving them to those unable to pay. The boys were Luther Bryant and Milt Anderson, and Luther suggested Tomlinson meet his father because his father “was very religious.” The Bible salesman followed the boy to his home where he met the Bryant family—and another chapter began in the holiness movement.
The Holiness Church at Camp Creek, in Cherokee County, had been organized for some thirteen months when a special meeting was called for June 13, 1903, at the home of W. F. Bryant (at the base of Burger Mountain). Tomlinson was invited to join them to study the Bible and he went early and spent Friday night with the family. Tomlinson said that he “came with the understanding we were going to search the Bible to see if we could find the Church of God just like David said we would find it.” On Saturday morning, after prayers and breakfast with the Bryants, Tomlinson felt an urgency for additional private prayer and he went to the top of the mountain to pray. He said he was not sure how long he stayed on the mountain, but he was sure it was at least an hour or more. When he came from prayer on the mountain, it was said his countenance was aglow.
His writings in his diary tell what happened: “I came back down the mountain and entered the meeting. Questions were asked, Bible answers were given. They said they took the whole Bible rightly divided as their only rule of faith and practice. I said, ‘Well, if you take the whole Bible rightly divided, that makes it the Church of God. Why do you want to call it the Holiness Church at Camp Creek?’ I then asked if they were willing to take me in with the understanding that it is the Church of God… so I stood right there in front of the fireplace and Brother Spurling… took the Bible and gave it to me and said, ‘Will you take this as the Word of God, believe it and practice it, obey its precepts and walk in the light as God is in the light?’”
Five accepted the obligation that day—three were ordained—and Tomlinson was chosen to serve as pastor of the little twenty-member church. But it wasn’t until 1907, at the second Assembly, that the name, Church of God, was officially taken.
As pastor of the Church at Camp Creek, Pastor Tomlinson also did revival work in Tennessee, and in 1904, he was chosen as pastor for two more congregations—Union Grove and Luskville. He also preached at Ducktown and Drygo. He began publishing The Way, with M. S. Lemons’ assistance. It evolved later into The Evening Light and Church of God Evangel with a subscription price of 25 cents per year.
The House on Gaut Street
From the diary of A. J. Tomlinson, we read of his move to Cleveland. On November 26, 1904, he purchased a house which was where he lived until his death. He was able to buy the house for much less than it was actually worth because it was supposed to be haunted and no one would live in it. His family came in December—his wife, Mary, and children, Homer, Iris, and Halcey—however, no ghosts ever bothered the Tomlinsons, they had no chance with the activities that went on in the two-story cottage.
The house became a hospitality center of Cleveland. Located on the railroad, it was a stopping place for hobos who came to town. They knew they could always get something to eat at the Tomlinson house and a bed would be provided if they wanted it. Students who came to the Bible schools were fed and housed at the house on Gaut Street as well. When the publishing arm of the Church grew, it was moved from the home to across the street but the workers could still eat at the Tomlinson’s table. Sister Tomlinson even kept a big can of homemade cookies behind the kitchen door for the children of the neighborhood and they were always welcome. The home served as a church, a prayer center, and a revival center. Meetings were held daily and when revival filled the house to overflowing, it moved to a tent and filled the city with prayer and rejoicing.
It wasn’t until March of 1906 that a regular place for services was rented on Middle Street (Dooley Street). It was sold after four months and services continued in homes (or a tent if weather was suitable).
The first Assembly of the Church was held January 26, 27, 1906, at the home of J. C. Murphy in Cherokee County. A snowstorm hit but did not deter the meeting from happening, there were 21 people present. In this meeting, it was declared, “We do not consider ourselves a legislative or executive body, but judicial only.”
On October 19, 1906, Tomlinson wrote in his diary, “A son came to our house about 6 p.m. Mary wants to name him Milton.”
The second annual Assembly was held January 9-13, 1907, at Union Grove. It was at this meeting that it was decided that the name of the Church was Church of God. The minutes gave two scriptural references: 1 Corinthians 1:2 and 2 Corinthians 1:1.
It wasn’t until January 12, 1908, that Tomlinson testified to the experience of receiving the Holy Ghost baptism under the preaching of Cashwell. The “bridge” had been built.
A. J. Tomlinson wrote, “Hold steady, beloved, God is with us and wonderful things are being done through and by the name of the Holy Child Jesus, the head of the Church. Hallelujah!”