History

Chestnut Grove United Methodist Church

            The earliest account of a Methodist church existing in the Berkley community was before 1880. The date that the first church was built is not known.  However, it was built on the Charlie Herrin farm.  The church, built on the side of the mountain just below the Herrin Cave entrance east of the road, was named Mount Carmel.  No deed made by Charlie Herrin and his wife can be found.  Possibly, a group of people just got together and said, “Let’s build a Methodist church.”

            Those God loving people went to work, cutting trees, hewing logs, and splitting and hewing shingles for a roof.  The church probably had a dirt floor and lamps with flares hanging on the walls.  It was heated by a wood-burning stove in the middle of the church and had split logs with wooden peg legs for seats.

            It is assumed that preachers were Circuit Riders, riding horse-back from church to church on the circuits assigned to them.  This history of Mount Carmel was told to Mrs. Jimmy Power (Lillian) by her father, Alonza I. Williams and a cousin, Charlie C. Brazelton, to whom the history was told to them by their fathers.

            On September 10, 1880, W. W. Esslinger, Sr. and his wife, Martha C. Esslinger, deeded one acre of land.  The deed states; “. . . for and in consideration of the love we bear for the cause of Christ and for an endless desire to promote His heritage on earth, do give and grant and by these witnesses convey unto H. H. Hayden, William Moon, and Levi Hinds, trustees and to their successors in office for the use and benefit of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and also for the building of a public school so long as the public may seem proper to keep the public school upon the premises . . .”

            Mount Carmel, the log church, was torn down and all contents moved to the said acre of land.  According to the deed given by W. W. Esslinger, Sr. and his wife, Martha, the name of the church was changed to Wright’s Chapel.  This building was finished in 1881.

            The first minister, The Reverend R. F. Mountain, was put on trial as a minister when the North Alabama Conference was first organized in 1870.  He was assigned to Limestone Circuit, Huntsville District, which included Wright’s Chapel in 1881.  Other ministers who served were J. H. Leslie and C. C.O’Neal.

            Wrights Chapel was on the Limestone Circuit until 1884.  According to the records, Wright’s Chapel was then put on the Vienne Circuit, which included New Hope and probable part of Marshall County from 1884 until 1888.  The ministers who served were R. T. Blackwell, J. T. Coleman, W. B. Andrews and J. T. Millican.

            In the Conference year 1888-1889, the church was assigned to the Gurley Circuit, where it remained until 1927.  The Gurley charge consisted of Gurley, Nelson’s Chapel, Beech Grove and Chestnut Grove.  Each church had one sermon a month.

            The first minister to serve the Gurley Circuit was the Reverend J. T. Millican in 1889.  E. B. Norton, J. C. Persinger, W. K. Simpson, I. B. Sargent, D. W. Ward, Charles Walford, J. H. Leslie, W. J. Reed, E. H. Price, W. E. Aldridge, W. T. Gaston, W. W. Rutland, J. H. Vann, W. H. Pettus, C. W. Reed, S. T. Daniels, Z. R. Carpenter, A. W. O’Bryant, C. L. Herring, and J. L. Vance also served during this period.

            In the early 1890’s the land given the church by W. W. Esslinger, Sr. fell into the hands of William H. Norment.  A new frame building was built on this same acre of land.  The new building was begun in the summer of 1905.  The church was built by John Shelton of Gurley with the help of the men of the church.  It was used before, but not completed until 1908.

            In the summer of about 1905 when the protracted meeting was taking place in the log church, Marvin Esslinger relates that one evening before the service started, a wagon pulled by two big horses and loaded with lumber, turned onto the church property.  Marvin was so excited about the pretty horses that he ran in front of them.  If his mother had not jerked him back, he might have been seriously hurt.

            After the frame church was built, the children from the nearby school were allowed to play in the log building, which actually served as a gymnasium, even though it was not known as such at the time.  Marvin told that the boys knocked out the dobbin between the logs and burst it to get sticks with which it was reinforced for kindling to build fires in the school’s wood-burning stove.

            A pupil of the log church school, J. R. Sullivan, later owned and operated an art gallery in Rossville, Georgia.  The oil painting in the Historical Room was painted and given to A. I. Williams by J. R. Sullivan.

-- adapted from a history of the church by Lillian (Williams) Power, former Historian

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