Bicentennial Hope Abounds New Voices General Conference Serve Together Hope Posts Holston.org

Bicentennial



As we gather to commemorate the bicentennial of the Holston Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, we stand in a moment of profound celebration. This milestone is not just a reflection of our past but a beacon of light guiding us towards a hopeful future.
 

Over the past two centuries, our conference has been a testament to resilience, faith, and unwavering commitment. From the establishment of our first church under the shade of an oak, to the digital congregations of today, our journey is marked by countless stories of grace, community service, and spiritual growth. Our history is rich with the contributions of both clergy and laity, whose dedication has nurtured our church into a sanctuary of love and service.

Today, as we celebrate this significant anniversary, we honor every member who has played a part in shaping our vibrant community. Your faith and actions continue to embody the teachings of Christ, fostering an environment where every soul finds solace and strength.

Looking forward, we embrace the next 200 years with open hearts and renewed spirits. Our path is lit with the hope of further deepening our faith, expanding our outreach, and continuing our legacy of change and transformation. Together, let us step into the future, guided by the love of God and our shared vision for a world filled with peace, justice, and everlasting grace.
 

 

 

The name “Holston” is taken from an early explorer who settled on the banks of the river that was eventually named for him.  Early native names for the river are “Hogoheegee” and “Cherokee”.  This river, with three forks (north, middle and south) starts with headwaters in the mountainous sections of Bland and Smyth Counties in Virginia and all three forks eventually merge together, with the south and north fork converging at Kingsport, Tennessee.  From there it winds its way down the Tennessee valley, joining other rivers to form the Tennessee River below Knoxville.
 

Archives are Housed at: Tennessee Wesleyan University, 423-746-5226.

library.tnwesleyan.edu/holstonconference
 



Heritage Landmarks of United Methodism within the Conference Boundaries: 


Acuff’s Chapel, Blountville, Tennessee (Site of the first Methodist church built in Tennessee)


Edward Cox House, Bluff City, Tennessee (site of the home of the first Methodist to settle in Tennessee)
 

37 Keywood Marker, Glade Springs, Virginia (Site of the first conference held west of the Allegheny Mountains, May 13-15, 1788)

36 Page’s Meeting House, near Radford, Virginia
 

70 Mount Gilead Church site and cemetery, Maryville, TN


227 Madame Russell Memorial UM Church and Property, Saltville, VA


268 Pisgah UM Church, Tazewell, VA


361 Sulphur Springs Campground, Jonesborough, TN


498 Thomas Amis House, near Rogersville, TN


499 Ebenezer Church and Cemetery and Earnest Fort House, Chuckey, TN


See complete list of United Methodist Historic Sites 


 



 

Timeline of Holston Conference:

  • 1783 – First pastor, Jeremiah Lambert, appointed to serve a circuit called “Holston” which was composed of all the settlements on the Watauga, Nollichucky, and Holston Rivers in what is now Greene, Washington, Carter, Johnson, Sullivan and Hawkins County in Tennessee, and Washington, Smyth, Russell, Lee and Scott Counties in Virginia. At the end of this year, there were reported 76 members on the circuit.
  • 1788 - Madam Elizabeth (Nee: Henry) Russell is converted in Saltville, VA. Also, the conference was held at Keywoods, in the neighborhood of Saltville, with Bishop Asbury presiding.
  • 1790 – Bishop Asbury passed through the area, holding conference at Nelson’s in present day Johnson City, TN
  • 1793 - Conference was held at Nelson’s again.
  • 1795 - Land was given for Page’s Meetinghouse near Radford, VA
  • 1795 – Conference was held at Earnest’s on the Nollichucky (near Greeneville). Madam Elizabeth Russell freed her slaves.
  • 1796 – Conference was held in the vicinity of Jonesborough.
  • 1801 – Bishop Asbury held conference at Ebenezer near Greeneville, TN
  • 1801-1803 - The Great Revival (sometimes referred to as the 2nd Great Awakening). Preaching by Lorenzo Dow, John Adam Granade, and many others in Holston, led to vast conversions to saving faith through grace.
  • 1802 – Bishop Asbury preached at Page’s Meetinghouse, Virginia
  • 1808/09 – Chinquapin Camp Ground established in Giles County, VA 
  • 1810 – Jonesville Camp Ground established in Lee County, VA
  • 1813 – First Sunday School was organized by Rev George Ekin
  • 1819 – Sulphur Springs Camp Ground established in Washington County, TN
  • 1821 - Richard Neely was appointed to Paint Rock Circuit on Huntsville District and preached that year on invitation of Richard Riley at his home to a group of Cherokees, the first preaching by Methodists to Cherokee people. This work would come under Holston at a later date.
  • 1824 - Holston Conference is formed and meets for the first time in Knoxville, TN. Formed from parts of the Tennessee, Virginia, western North Carolina, and South Carolina. Later the conference would include a portion of northwest Georgia.
  • 1826 – Turtle Fields, the first Cherokee preacher was appointed to preach in a Methodist Church
  • 1830 – The Methodist Protestant Church was established.
  • 1836 – Emory & Henry College is established in Emory, Virginia
  • 1838 – Trail of Tears began removing the Cherokee from Holston and other territory.
  • 1842 – Asheville, NC Female College comes under control of Holston Conference
  • 1845 – The Methodist Church splits into a “northern” and “southern” branch. Holston is made part of the Southern Church (The Methodist Episcopal Church, South). Because Holston is a border conference, they had to vote on which side to adhere to.
  • 1849 – Hiwassee College was established.
  • 1850 – The Southern church established the first lay presence at annual conference with one from each district.
  • 1856 – United Brethren in Christ establish a presence in Holston under John Rubush
  • 1857 – Athens Female College was established by Holston Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1865 the northern branch of Holston took it over. It becomes Tennessee Wesleyan later.
  • 1862-64 – Holston Conference expelled members who were union sympathizers.
  • 1864 – The Methodist Episcopal Church (the northern branch) reorganizes a Holston Conference in Knoxville, TN under the direction of Parson William G Brownlow, reconstructionist Governor of Tennessee, and a member of Holston clergy.
  • 1865 – Grant University was established in Chattanooga, TN by the Holston ME Church (Northern branch)
  • 1866 – Laity granted equal representation in the annual conference (southern church). This was the year the Tennessee Conference was formed for the United Brethren at Otterbein Church. This year also saw the establishment of the Freedman’s Aid Society as a mission to emancipated people.
  • 1870 – The Methodist Episcopal Church, South works to establish the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (later renamed the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church) as a separate church for their black members of the southern church who wish to remain Methodist.
  • 1877 – Sullins College was offered to Holston Conference (South) in Bristol, VA. The United Brethren established Edwards Academy at Greeneville, and later moved it to White Pine, TN.
  • 1879 – Martha Washington College was established in Abingdon, VA. It would later become the source of women students for Emory & Henry College when that college was made Co-Ed in the 20th Century.
  • 1880 – The East Tennessee Conference was established as a separate conference for black members formerly of Holston Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (northern branch)
  • 1881 – Morristown Seminary (later Morristown College) was established
  • 1885 – Weaverville College in North Carolina was established. Centenary Female College was established and offered to Holston Conference in Cleveland, TN
  • 1889 – The Epworth League is formed to begin ministry with youth in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Church of the United Brethren granted clergy rights to women this year as well.
  • 1890 – The Western North Carolina Conference was founded, taking Holston’s North Carolina Churches
  • 1892 – Epworth Leagues were founded in Holston
  • 1893 – The Southern Holston Conference began sending missionary pastors into the coal fields
  • 1894 - Mary Westcoat was assigned to the Knoxville Mission, a ministry of the Missions Division of the United Brethren in Christ
  • 1895 – Mrs Elizabeth Reeves Wiley helps to establish the Orphan’s Industrial Home and School at Greeneville, TN which becomes Holston Home for Children
  • 1902 – Rev. Robert Sheffey, famed circuit rider in Virginia, dies at Trigg, VA
  • 1913 – Lake Junaluska was opened as an assembly ground for Methodists in the southeast.
  • 1920 – Youth Assemblies began being held at Emory & Henry, Martha Washington, Hiwasee and Centenary College
  • 1920 – Pittman Center established as a mission to the people of the Appalachian Mountains by the Home Missions Board of the ME Church.
  • 1921 – Youth petitioned the Annual Conference (of the M. E. Church) to establish an assembly ground.
  • 1922 – Women were granted full lay rights in the ME Church, South 1925 – The famous Scopes “Monkey Trial” took place in Dayton, TN
  • 1927 – Elizabeth Brown organized the first church camp in Holston, held at a YMCA’s Camp Cherokee near Bristol.
  • 1930 – Assembly Ground land was purchased at Gatlinburg.
  • 1930s — The Town and Country movement begins, building up congregations in the rural areas of the denomination. The Lord’s Acre Sales and annual fundraising (including applebutter making) are introduced as ways to increase missional funds within local churches.
  • 1932 – Sallie Crenshaw was ordained into the East Tennessee Conference (Black) and later would be the first woman received into the ordained ministry of Holston Conference. This same year the Holston Assembly Grounds would host their first camp.
  • 1935 – Great Smoky Mountain National Park was established. The first female under episcopal appointment in the majority white M. E. Church of Holston was Parolee Pritchard, sent by the Holston ME Church Bishop to a charge in Lee County, Virginia. She stayed three years.
  • 1937 – Appalachian Trail was completed
  • 1939 – The Methodist Church forms as a merger of the north, south and Methodist Protestant branches. Holston’s Clara Perry came up with a new name for the women’s work: “Woman’s Society of Christian Service” or “WSCS”
  • 1939 – The first Youth Institute was conducted at Morristown College for members of the East Tennessee Conference
  • 1939 – Wytheville District began operating Camp Moxley at Elk Creek in Grayson County.
  • 1940s — Big Stone Gap District began conducting youth camps at Jonesville Camp Ground in Lee County, Virginia
  • 1944 - Conference Inter-Board Council was created. Bob Lundy was sent to Oak Ridge to establish a church in the Secret City. The Rural Life Program began (establishing minimum salaries and pilot charges).
  • 1947 – Buffalo Mountain Camp was begun near Johnson City, TN.
  • 1949 – The Evangelical United Brethren rescinded clergy rights for women
  • 1952 – Camp Lookout was established on Lookout Mountain south of Chattanooga. Camp Ahistidi opened up near Damascus, Virginia.
  • 1953 – Holston Conference Archives were moved from Church Street Church in Knoxville to the library at Emory & Henry College, with an archivist hired to tend to it.
  • 1954 – The Conference Office was built in Johnson City and occupied by program staff.
  • 1955 – Big Stone Gap District purchased land near Stoney Creek in Scott County which became Camp Fort Blackmore in 1956
  • 1956 – Women received the right to be ordained in the Methodist Church. This was the year the Holston Methodist Federal Credit Union was formed.
  • 1957 – Camp Laurel was purchased by the Tazewell District in Bland County, VA. This year land was secured in Blount County, TN for the first Asbury Center (“Asbury Acres”), which would open in 1960.
  • 1959 – Land was given to three districts near Townsend, TN to establish “Camp Wesley Woods”. This year the hospital at Oak Ridge became transfered to the Holston Conference to operate.
  • 1962 – Acuff’s Chapel (historic) was bought by the Annual Conference and began being restored, at Blountville, TN
  • 1966 - Edward Cox House (historic) at Bluff City was bought and restoration was begun.
  • 1967 – The Holston Conference met at Lake Junaluska for the first time.
  • 1968 – The United Methodist Church forms as a merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The Central Jurisdiction is abolished and the conferences are desegregated.
  • 1970 – Camp Dickenson opened in Wytheville District near Fries, VA
  • 1972 – Holston became its own area with its own bishop, the Reverend L. Scott Allen, the first African-American to hold that office in the Southeastern Jurisdiction. The Conference Pastoral Counseling Center was established with the Reverend Bill Balch as the first director.
  • 1973 – United Methodist Women is named as the successor group of all previous women’s organizations within the United Methodist Church
  • 1975 – Pages Meeting House was deeded to the Conference at Radford, VA
  • 1976 – The Reverend Brenda Fogleman Carroll and the Reverend Mary Virginia Taylor were ordained and made members in Full Connection as the first women to be ordained elder in Holston Conference history. Both women became leaders within the conference. Taylor became a bishop of the church.
  • 1985 – Resurrection Youth Retreat was started as an annual event in the Smoky Mountain area.
  • 2014 – The Thomas Amis House was approved as United Methodist American Historic Site No. 498 at Rogersville, Tennessee. See https://thomasamis.com
  • 2015 – Camp Bays Mountain is purchased to replace Buffalo Mountain Camp which had been hosting Camp in Johnson City since 1949 and was destroyed by landslides in 2012
  • 2016 – The Henry Ernest Fort House and Ebenezer Church and Cemetery were made United Methodist American Historic Site Number 499. These historic places are in Greene County, TN in the Chuckey Community.
  • 2017 – The Conference was organized into 9 districts with new district names.
  • 2019 – The Holston Conference Archives was moved to Sherman Hall on the campus of Tennessee Wesleyan University at Athens, TN. Hiwassee College ceased operations on May 10.
  • 2020 – The Covid-19 virus becomes a global pandemic and churches across Holston, as well as across the country and around the world are ordered to shut down for several weeks, leading to several months. On-line means of communication, such as Zoom calls, live streaming and other means are used to communicate as the work of the church continues amidst this deadly threat.
  • 2022 – An “Invitation Team” was appointed to work together on issues related to denominational division and moving forward together across different perspectives as a united conference.
  • 2023 – Several churches disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church due to differences over policies related to human sexuality. A called conference was held April 22 of this year at Central UMC in Knoxville, TN to ratify these decisions. A commitment to Discipleship was offered as a unifying vision for those remaining.