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The History of First Church
Tremendous thanks to Damaris Witherspoon Steele, First Presbyterian Church Historian, for her contribution of this timeline, which is excerpted from her three-volume history entitled "First Church."
1785 - Rev. Thomas B. Craighead arrives from Princeton, to come to the Cumberlands to begin a school. He is the first minister to arrive in Nashville and establishes Presbyterian as the first denomination to be represented by a minister.
1801 - Rev. William Hume arrives from Scotland to lead the outpost of the westward movement in the Cumberland country as a missionary to the natives. He is credited more than any other minister for sustaining its earliest ministry.
1814 - Gideon Blackburn (with a committee of six women and one man) goes to the county court house to formerly charter the church, which already had been in existence about 28 years.
1820 - Rev. Allan Dirchfield Campbell joins the faculty of Cumberland College as a professor. That same year the Nashville Presbyterian Church also called him to be its minister.
1832 - Church burns to the ground
1833 - John Todd Edgar called as pastor of church
1841 - Prominent members of First Church found Second Presbyterian Church
1848 - Fire destroys the 12-year-old church, but no records are destroyed as in the previous fire.
1848 - New Egyptian Revival building (current downtown church) designed by William Strickland
1851 - The Egyptian Revival church is dedicated on Easter Day.
1862 - Nashville and church are occupied during the Civil War; the church's minister Joseph Bardwall goes south along with many members of the church.
1865 - Church is released by the Union back to congregation in April. The church had been used as a hospital during the war.
1865 - Robert Franklin Bunting, a renowned war hero among Confederate chaplains, is called to be minister. He wrote the first history of the churchóinterviewing oldest members.
1894 - A.G. Adams Church, named for the esteemed elder of First Church and Sunday School pioneer, marks the start of Martha O'Bryan.
1894 - Rev. James I. Vance begins his first of two tenures.
1900 - Rev. James I. Vance accepts call to church in Newark, New Jersey; Rev. William T. Anderson called as pastor of church.
1900 - First mention of pew Bibles
1901 - 1,074 members, 16 elders, 14 deacons
1902 - Earliest minutes of bimonthly meeting of the joint board of elders and deacons.
1909 - All 19th and 20th century elders were appointed for life and served as long as they could be active. Policy was changed in 1945.
1910 - James I. Vance returns for his second pastorate at end of 1910; he is also made chairman of the Board of Foreign Missions.
1914 - Second location of the Martha O'Bryan House is a small frame cottage on Joe Johnston Avenue near the site of the old Nashville stockyards.
1914 - 100th anniversary of the church
1915 - Church divided on the need for an assistant minister or a new Sunday School building; church ended up with both.
1916 - WWI, and the sons and husbands of First Church march overseas.
1919 - After WWI, "Pew Rents" (custom of asking the pewholders to give the amount of their rent in addition to their other contributions) are done away with.
1920 - James I. Vance leads the assembly that established what is now Rhodes College.
1928 - Southern Presbyterians give over 1.5 million dollars to foreign missions with 484 missionaries in the field. This work is centered at FPC where the congregation has built its new Sunday School building to house the Board of Foreign Missions on the top floor. James I. Vance remains the Executive Secretary of the mission board.
1934 - Dr. Thomas C. Barr becomes the first "associate" minister in the history of the old church.
1936 - Dr. James I. Vance retires.
1936 - November - Dr. Thomas C. Barr succeeds Vance.
1936 - Moore Memorial Church (which was founded by FPC former members) becomes Westminster Church.
1939 - Rev. James I. Vance dies in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, at his summer home.
1940 - First Director of Music: Frederick Baumgartner
1942 - Dr. Thomas Barr's pastoral relationship is dissolved effective September 14, 1942. The congregation is deeply divided over this decision. Two months later Presbytery minutes show that The Trinity Presbyterian Church is established (with 275 charter members) headed by Reverend Thomas C. Barr.
1943 - Search committee finds Dr. Walter Rowe Courtenay who was voted in by the congregation.
1944 - First talk of FPC moving to the suburbs
1945 - Rev. Courtenay set up a rotation system for all church officers, although this was a monumental change for the church, FPC was the last Presbyterian church in the city to put in a rotation system; officers were still all-male.
1946 - 11:00 service at FPC broadcast over WSM Radio
1948 - Decision being reached to buy property on Franklin Pike for youth work and chapel.
1948 - Martha O'Bryan moves to east Nashville.
1949 - House and 50 acres of land purchased from John Cheek for $116,000. It was to be used for a weekday school for young children, Sunday evenings for youth meetings and used for a summer day camp.
1949 - The Oak Hill School started as the "Oak Hill Country Day School," a nursery school and kindergarten
1955 - Final agreement between session and minority group for relocation of church to Oak Hill premises
1955 - Groundbreaking for Educational Building
1957 - Life Magazine featured the Six Best Easter Sermons, FPC's own Walter Courtenay is listed as "one of six notable American pastors."
1957 - Sanctuary dedicated in November
1961 - Oak Hill School started from existing kindergarten
1965 - Arch McNair named Minister of Pastoral Care
1965 - Courtenay had a weekly newspaper column in Nashville Banner by 1965.
1966 - FPC grew to 2,362 members.
1970 - Clara Harris is named new Headmistress of Oak Hill School.
1970 - Courtenay considering retirement, he bought a farm; church builds a house for the Courtenays
1971 - Rev. Cortez Cooper from Georgia called as new senior pastor; installed in November
1971 - Proposal of new organ and choir to move to the balcony
1973 - PCA formed by about 100,000 who withdrew from the PCUS over issues of biblical interpretation, race and the role of women in the Church
1978 - Oak Hill School's Clara Harris is replaced with Mrs. Betty Moore. Tension erupts over control of curriculum between Cooper and the faculty, board and teaching staff.
1970s - The church grows rapidly under Cooper's dynamic leadership, but conflicts begin to arise around issues of theological differences he has with the PCUS. One sign of this theological narrowness is the decision to forbid the June Ramsey Class to meet on Sunday morning in the Cheek House.
1981 - January - Cortez Cooper resigns as senior pastor.
1981 - Session records that 521 communicant members, all active, left FPC with Cooper to start Christ Presbyterian Church PCA.
1981 - Rev. Andrew Bird called as interim pastor and the June Ramsey Class reinstated
1981 - September - Call for Dr. William T. Bryant as new senior pastor
1983 - Historic reunion of the PCUS and UPUSA to form the PC(USA)
1983 - New staff hired; two associate ministers and one new Director of Christian Education
1983 - "Yoke Ministry" created between FPC and the Downtown Presbyterian Church
1984 - Construction begins on new library wing with administration offices.
1984 - Beginnings of local mission and outreach work
1986 - First woman associate minister is hired - Laura Hollinsworth, who serves as an intern.
Late 80's - Large growth of church occurs.
1990 - Start of Wednesday Night School of Christian Living
1991 - First Mexico Mission Trip
1990 - Summer - 140th Anniversary of the Downtown Presbyterian Church Egyptian Revival building
1991 - Columbarium first suggested
1993 - Endowment Fund started
1993 - Oak Hill Day Camp accredited
1994 - Inquirers Class started by Bill Bryant for prospective members
1994 - Sissy Wade replaces Betty Moore as new Headmistress of Oak Hill School.
1994 - Bill Bryant resigns to lead The Outreach Foundation, a missions support organization of the PC(USA)
1994 - Dr. Jack Lancaster is named interim pastor.
1994 - October - Pastor nominating committee chosen
1995 - September - Rev. Lancaster's heart condition causes him to resign immediately.
1996 - March - Dr. Wade Huie to serve as second interim pastor.
1996 - Crud Day established for the youth of the church (especially 6th graders in Confirmation Class)
1996 - June - Tom Tyndall called as pastor by a unanimous nominating committee
1996 - August - Tyndall installed as pastor
1998 - Ted Martin installed as first Minister of Recreational Ministries
1999 - FPC ordained its first woman minister in Sandra Randleman
1999 - Informal summer worship service held in summer as a third service. The service is well attended, but a source of controversy in the church.
2000 - September - Tom Tyndall resigns after conflict over his leadership.
2000 - November - John David Burton named interim pastor
2001 - January - Sissy Wade resigns as head of Oak Hill School.
2001 - May - Roland Perdue named second interim pastor
2001 - July - Jack Stanford joins Oak Hill School as Interim Head
2001 - August - Oak Hill School completes
$5 million school facilities renovation and expansion
2002 - March/February - Dr. Todd Jones is called to serve as Pastor
2002 - April - Todd Jones preaches his first sermon at FPC on Easter Sunday
2002 - July - Claire Wilkins joins Oak Hill School as Head of School. |
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