Churches of Shelbyville

Shelbyville has seven white and four colored churches, as follows:

Presbyterian, organized in 1815, and brick church erected in 1817. In 1856 the building was sold to the Catholic congregation and the present brick building erected at a cost of $10,000. In donating to the county the land upon which to locate a county seat Clement Cannon set apart a tract of ground upon which any denomination could have the privilege of erect ing a house of worship. The Methodists took advantage of the free ground, and in 1820 erected a frame church. The building was destroyed by a severe storm in 1830. The congregation then abandoned the Cannon ground and erected a brick church in 1833, at a cost of $3,000. This building they sold, in 1881, to the Christian congregation and began at once the erection of the handsome brick edifice which is as yet incomplete, but in which services have been held for many years. This building has already cost about $12,000.

The Baptist Church was organized in 1845, when a brick building was erected on the Cannon ground, the site of the old Methodist Church, at a cost of about $3,000. This church was destroyed by a wind-storm in 1870, and was rebuilt, at a cost of about $5,000.

The Catholic Church was organized in 1855, and in 1856 the congregation purchased the old Presbyterian Church building, and the same is in use at present.

Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized and a church erected in 1856. The building was destroyed in 1880. The congregation then purchased their present brick building from the Northern Methodists, which church was organized after the civil war, but disbanded.

The Episcopal Church was organized in 1853, and until 1861 held services in the Odd Fellows' hall. In 1860 the erection of the present brick church was begun. The ground was donated by William Gasling and the church was built by Hon. Edmund Cooper, as a memorial church to his first wife. The building cost $2,500.

The Christian Church was organized in 1881, at which time the congregation purchased their present church from the Methodist Episcopal congregation.

The colored churches are the First and Second Missionary Baptists, the African Methodist Episcopal South and the Union African Methodist Episcopal.

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Source: History of Tennessee, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1886.