Walnut Grove Methodist Episcopal Church South
Riceville, TN

Mouse Creek Perennial Farm
Walnut Grove Methodist Episcopal Church South
276 Country Road 67
Riceville, TN 37370
423-462-2666
mousecreek@tds.net
www.mousecreekperennials.com/chapel.html

The Walnut Grove Church is believed to have been erected in the summer of 1855. According to records obtained at the McMinn County Courthouse, William Wear and Phillip P. Owens sold a parcel of land in the old Tenth Civil District for the purpose of erecting a building “for the worship of Almighty God.” The trustees of this church included C. W. Rice, J. W. Brown, W. Carter, William Combs, Wear and Owens. The deed was written the third day of September 1853, but was not acknowledged until October 4, 1855. It is probable that during this two-year period the church was under construction.

For 134 years the little white church sat on the J. P. Womac farm in a grove of trees, surrounded by corn, tobacco and hay fields. Resting beneath the boughs of stately cedar trees in a small cemetery are the forefathers of the Walnut Grove Community. Early Methodist records show that the Walnut Grove Church was part of the Decatur Circuit, which was organized in 1837, and Jacob McDaniel was appointed pastor. The First Quarterly Conference was held in Decatur , December 11, 1858. P. P. Owens, C. W. Rice, and J. W. Brown were among the official members present.

March 27, 1925, the Methodists deeded the church to the community and trustees J. W. Brown, Marcus Brown and S. N. Womac with the understanding that the church would be used for a community center and religious worship. The church ceased to have a particular religious affiliation, although it was used by many different denominations such as Baptist, Methodist and Church of God for Sunday school meetings and revivals.

By the early 1940s the church had been practically abandoned. A former member, Myrtle Sanders, remembers attending two funerals at the Walnut Grove Church in 1940. Mrs. Sanders recalled, “At the time of the funerals, most of the pews had been removed and the church was so dirty that everyone had to stand.”

For the next 50 years the church sat deserted. Vandals had broken out windowpanes and fired shotguns at the doors. The tin roof had rusted and was partially blown away by spring storms. The right side of the building had fallen from its stone pillars and the sills lay decaying in the earth. A portion of the rain soaked pine tongue and groove flooring was slowly rotting away. The building was in its final stages of deterioration.

After building their home in 1978 on Walnut Grove Road about one mile north of the Walnut Grove Church , Erbin and Ruth Baumgardner became interested in the old church building. In the spring of 1989, the Baumgardners acquired the church building and moved it in August 1989 to their property. The restoration took nine years and was completed in July 1998.

Most of the stones on which the building sits are from the original site. The rafters were replaced and a new tin roof added. The original building had oak shingles, many of which were found in the attic of the church. The wall structure of the church is of four by six beams secured by wooden pegs. The ceiling and floor joists are two by eight by twenty-four feet. The window frames and front doors are put together with wooden pegs.

In restoring the building, a great deal of attention was placed on keeping the structure original. Approximately one-fourth of the heart pine tongue and groove flooring had to be replaced. The tongue and groove ceiling also had to be replaced. The crown molding on the outside roofline was reproduced to match the original molding. Although the church had a chimney, we did not add this feature during the restoration. During the renovation, part of the hand-made brick chimney was found above the ceiling. The two front pews are original and the four other pews are from the Concord Methodist Church of Meigs County.

For more than one hundred years the Walnut Grove Church has stood as a religious symbol to Almighty God. It is our desire that this beautiful old church will be a blessing to those who enter it, and a witness to God’s love for mankind through Jesus Christ.

A special thanks to Larry Baumgardner, who oversaw the restoration and who carefully disassembled and reworked each window; to David Wilson, whose woodworking skills are evident in the restoration of the doors, and the recreation of the molding; Kirby Sweatt, who carefully replaced rotted timbers with new, and installed the new tin roof; and to every friend who had a part in saving this historic treasure.

Erbin and Ruth Baumgardner