HARPETH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Charlene Ring

I

1811-1948 A COUNTRY CHURCH

 

Harpeth Presbyterian Church is the oldest institution in the area that would for a time in its history have been considered Beechville.  When Beechville first became a post office address in 1876, Harpeth Church was already 65 years old, its sanctuary already 40 years old.  Its membership and all the neighborhood probably referred to it more often as Stockett=s, however.  It seems a shame it wasn=t called McCutchen=s.  But after all, Stockett=s mill was in sight of the church and the mill was open almost every day -- McCutchen=s  church, only a few Sundays a month at best. 

            By 1787 Samuel  McCutchen and his four older brothers had settled in Davidson County after fighting at King=s Mountain.  Samuel chose a grant of 640 acres along the southwesterly route from Nashville and located at the fording spot on the Little Harpeth River.   He built his home just over the hill to the south.

In 1809 Thomas Stockett  bought from Samuel 2 1/4 acres of land on which to build a mill.  The tract was  south of the river and west of the road.  Because the deed refers to Athe meetinghouse tract@as one of the boundaries,^[i] we know that by 1809 a meetinghouse stood on this spot to the northwest of the river crossing and we can safely assume that it was a simple log structure.  The services of a minister would have been rare but Samuel=s small building stood ready to serve when the opportunity arose.  McCutchen ancestors before and sons after Samuel established Presbyterian churches wherever life took them.^[ii]  On a daily basis the structure must have been a welcome  shelter for travelers who stopped at this shady watering spot on the lonely road between Nashville and Hillsboro. 

One must mentally erase the modern raised roadbed and bridge to see the large shady lawn that would have extended level to the east as far as the remnants of the old stone wall that divided McCutchen=s land from that of his neighbor to the east.  The road would have followed that wall presumably on the McCutchen side at this point.

Gideon Blackburn, a pioneering Presbyterian minister, moved into the Franklin area in 1810. In March of 1811 he was received into the newly created Presbytery of West Tennessee ^[iii] and began organizing Presbyterian churches in the area  while teaching at Harpeth Academy in Franklin along with Bishop Otey of the Episcopal Church.    Sometime in 1811 Gideon Blackburn established Harpeth Presbyterian Church here at the McCutchen meetinghouse before moving on to establish First Presbyterian Church in Nashville.   Altogether he established a total of five churches for the newly formed West  Tennessee Presbytery of the Tennessee Synod while staying in Franklin Bwest then being what we now know as middle.    We can safely assume that he preached at Harpeth more than once. 

Tradition says, but no deed has been found to substantiate it, that Samuel promptly deeded the land on which the church sat to the newly formed congregation.  We can only guess who those founding members were.  A Reverend William Hume reported that he preached at both Hermitage and Harpeth during these early years ^[iv]   He is said to have preached a t Harpeth once a month from 1817 until the time of his death^[v].  The earliest record we have is from 1834.^[vi]  It is a list of subscribers for seating and a pulpit to go in the brick sanctuary then under construction.^[vii]  A number of those old straight-backed pews remain in the church and in private homes. This original pulpit has been moved and updated but has served Harpeth continuously since the brick sanctuary was constructed..  In 1835 a Rev. W. Lapsley was paid to preach one Sunday per month for the coming year.  Was the old log building still in use or was the new one already complete?  We are not sure.

The  new sanctuary was of bricks that had been made and fired beginning in 1830  on the farm  of Samuel=s  eldest son,  Robert McCutchen.   The skilled masons created a simple but sturdy building subtly decorated with Flemish bondwork under the eaves.  The tall pillars that hold up the arching ceiling were set in the earth underneath the floor.  Glenn Jones remembered seeing them bared at the time of the remodeling in 1949 .  He was not sure he remembered any stones underneath them but he was sure that only one post showed  signs of deterioration. He thought they were made from poplar heartwood.   The original floor  was of poplar.  The pulpit originally sat between the two front doors,  possibly on the same rostrum  now in use.  At the opposite end where the pulpit currently sits was a large fireplace.  Windows down each side had large outdoor wooden shutters which could be closed for warmth or protection.  Three of these windows were on the north side and two were on the south with a door  in place of the third window facing the river, probably for bringing in wood for that large fireplace and for the entrance of slaves to the services.                                                                             

 The oldest session book  that survives dates from March 19, 1837.^[viii]  The Rev. Oliver Bliss Hayes was the minister and was employed for the following year.  A list of communicants was given.  Samuel  McCutchen had died in 1816 but his extended family was heavily represented in the membership.  Elders included David Bell, brother of Samuel=s widow, as well as  Samuel=s sons James and Robert.  Robert lived several miles to the west.  Andrew Crockett lived in Brentwood.  Bell lived on Edmondson Pike east of Brentwood.  The church served Scots-Irish immigrants who had known one another throughout their migrations and had settled all across southern Davidson and northern Williamson Counties for miles, including children of several signers of the Cumberland Compact, namely McCuchens, Edmistons, and Crocketts.^[ix]

The members would have been justly pleased with this  simple rectangular building with fine plastered walls and high arched ceilingBa big improvement from their former log structure.  It was the entire church for one hundred, fourteen  years and still serves as the sanctuary, though attached support structures have been added throughout the years. 

As part of those early services, communion was served from a crystal decanter and pewter cups.  Robert McCutchen=s wife Martha Edmiston would have prepared the bread and wine as she did until her death in 1868.  Responsibility for Harpeth communion service rested with that family until the early 1900's when it passed to a cousin, Fannie Ring, and then to her daughter Emma Mai Ring, who continued to prepare the communion meal until 1974.  The decanter and cups were used for many years until Harpeth was given a more >up to date@ set which consisted of a silver-plated ewer with two cups.  It was been given to Harpeth after Cottage Presbyterian Church of East Nashville closed it=s doors in 1904.  From that set, they moved to individual cups in round wooden trays.  Some of the current trays are restored from earlier service and some are matching reproductions.  In 1976 Mary Utopia Rothrock, a grandaughter of Robert and Martha McCutchen, returned the original decanter and its pewter cups to Harpeth along with a note explaining their history. Since then they have again been regularly used in Harpeth=s communion  service.

Other than the pews and pulpit, there was one more important piece of furniture which is still at HarpethBa tall handsome walnut clerk=s desk.  It was given to Harpeth by Ellen Edmiston, wife of James McCutchen.   It is made from a large walnut tree and carefully pegged together and it contains a lock.  It served as the Church Office and storehouse of Sunday School material from early in the church=s history until building additions were made in 1951.  Members whose memories extended back into the late 1800's recalled that it sat between the two doors that led outside (The fireplace had been closed, pot-bellied stoves installed, and the pulpit moved to its current location sometime in the 19^th Century.)  From 1954 until 1999 it sat in the vestibule, the first thing seen by entering worshipers.  Ellen=s brother Major William Edmiston is said to have given the first pulpit Bible^[x], He was an interesting gentleman who had sisters and cousins who married four of Samuel McCutchen=s sons.  Major Edmiston doesn=t seem to have ever joined the church but he regularly supported it financiallyBprobably at the insistence of his wife and sisters.

The Roll in 1837 listed  Elders: David Bell, Robert McCutchan, and James McCutchan,^[xi] Secretary;  Members: John McCutchan, Nancy McCutchan, Elizabeth McCutchan, Mary McNeal, John F. O=Neal, Matilda O=Neal, George W. Highland, Elizabeth Wilson, Elizabeth Bell, Matilda Crockett, John Bell, Martha Bell, James Dixon(?), Catherine McCutchan, W.C. McCutchan, Martha McCutchan , Catherine McCutchan, Mary McCutchan, Eleanor T. McCutchan, Allice Edmiston, Mary Caldwell, Robert Lazenby, Priscilla Edmiston, Jane Hey, (?) Saml. Caldwell, Cather (?)Caldwell, Mary T. Caldwell, Wm(?) Caldwell,   Margaret  Bell,  Alpheus Bell, Andrew

 Crockett, Cyrus G. Hulme, John Bell Sr., Sarah Bell,  Joseph Pinkerton,  Elizabeth Pinkerton, Margaret Campbell, Barbara H. McCutchan, Martha Caldwell. 

On September 24, 1837 Robert McCutchen was appointed to attend Synod of Tennessee at Paris and James McCutchan was to attend Nashville Presbytery at Franklin.  These first minutes were approved at the meeting of Presbytery held in Franklin.

Ministers known from the minutes to have served in these early years were the following:

W.  Lapsley, 1835;

O. B. Hayes, (prominent Nashville lawyer and father of Adelicia Hays Acklen)1836 and 1837; William Anderson  Scott ( Principal of Nashville Female Academy), 1838;

A Mr. Bain and Mr. Robert  Lapsley held a sacramental meeting in the May of 1841. Lapsley was minister for 6 months of 1840

Mr. Killpatrick , one Sunday only in 1840.

James H. Henderson, 1842;

John W. Ogden, 1843-1859; There were 35 communicants in 1844, a low of 16 in May of 1857. 

W. A. Harrison, assisting minister (protracted meeting? ) summer 1848;

 J. W. Hoyte, 1859-1862.

 J. A. Ewing, of Pennsylvania, Oct, 59--Feb. 1860.

 and W. L. Rosser, 1866.( a Confederate soldier who stayed to serve here after the war)    It is not likely that any of these men preached more than twice a month at Harpeth and occasionally the service was only for each fifth Sunday!  Most of them would have been serving at least one other church at the same time and possibly teaching at an area school as well.  They would have traveled, at first by horseback, later by carriage to reach the church and would have likely spent a night in the  community.    Services may have been in the afternoons, as we know they were later.

In the 1840's there is first mention of  contributions to the Commissioners= Fund (from Presbytery to General Assembly), Foreign and Domestic  Mission Funds,  the Educational Fund, and Stewart College.

During these years the number of communicants moved up and down repeatedly from the mid thirties to the teens.  Most members  dismissed during this period were moving West, it seems, often to the care of The Western Presbytery.  Remember that a Nashville Presbytery was formed in 1834 and Harpeth was now a part of it.  Those early minutes record only occasional baptisms and deaths, one marriage,  and the appointment of ministers and regular attendance at Presbytery.  In October of 1841 Presbytery met at Harpeth.  New members of note in Sept. of 1848 were Hiram Eleazer Ring, Emma Tennessee Motheral  (soon to marry H. E. Ring) and her sister America Motheral.  The Motheral family had supported a Cumberland Presbyterian congregation nearer their home.  The young Ohio school teacher who had stolen Emma=s heart was a devout Presbyterian and must have Ashown her the error of her ways.@  Motherals had been friends, neighbors, and even in-laws with the McCutchens since 1800.

          It is assumed that slaves  attended the services from the beginning.  In 1848 the session minutes record  receiving into membership upon examination a Aa collored woman Eliza  belonging  to Wm. Scruggs.@  This same A Eliza  a colored  woman departed this life March 1852.@  In 1858  Rina and Peggy , servants of Wm. Edmiston,  were received on examination and baptized.  In 1860, 1861 and again in 1865  one colored communicant is listed, no name given. There is no later reference to colored members but black persons from the community were buried on the church property between the building and the river well into the twentieth century.^[xii]

The war years were hard on the congregation.  In 1861 Elizabeth Bell died; In 1863, her husband, David Bell; in 1864, James McCutchen.   Both armies sought shelter in the building after battles.  Wounded were cared for there.  It is thought that America Motheral, a member of Harpeth since 1848, met her future husband, Dr.  Joseph A.   Bowman of Nashville,  while nursing wounded there.  Initials and other whittlings were left on the posts and pews by soldiers. Nearly a year after the terrible battles of Franklin and Nashville, the minutes of Harpeth report the collection of $17.65 to repair the church.  Around that time, Ellen (widow of James) McCutchen  wrote in a letter to a niece, AOur church has been badly treated by the Yanks.  We are having it fixed up.@  She described their current minister, Mr. Rosser, as Aa young rebel soldier.@  He preached Aone Sabbath in the month.@ ^[xiii] In 1866, the Clerk of the Presbytery commented that the minutes of Harpeth were   Asomewhat irregular in form but they embrace in detail proceedings of the church.@  It is almost miraculous that the church could have continued through this period but it did.  The death of James McCutchen seems to have closed an era for Harpeth Church.  James was succeeded as Clerk of the session by his son Samuel Edmiston McCutchen.  He and his mother Ellen are credited with saving papers James had carefully organized relating to the family and to Harpeth Church^[xiv]. 

There are gaps in service records of ministers but here are most of the men who served in the pulpit of Harpeth in the period from 1866 until 1948 when it entered its modern era.

W. L. Rosser, 1866;

A. N. Cunningham, 1868-1871;

A. Enloe, 1873;  In 1873, Ellen McCutchen died; in 1875, her son Samuel E. died.  On July 17, 1873, Elder John B. Murrey was elected to the office of Clerk of the Session, the first time this office was held by anyone other than a McCutchen.

Rev. John Hoyte seems to have visited in Sept. of 1873 and performed a baptism while he was there.  In 1876 he appears  to have been the minister.

W. Boyce Thompson served 1876-1877  In 1877 there were 37 communicants.  For the first time Sabbath school is mentioned with 30 children enrolled.

R. W. Wilson served from 1878 through 1881 He was minister at Bethesda and New Hope churches south of Franklin and probably preached at Harpeth two afternoons a month.  At some point he married Nannie Byrn, a McCutchen descendant who had grown up in Harpeth.  After her death, he married  Mary McClellan, sister of Fannie McClellan Ring of the congregation^[xv].  Since he was  much older than she, he died only a couple of years after that marriage.  Fannie Ring=s husband, Henry, was elected Superintendent of the Sabbath School in 1879.  In 1880 there were 26 communicants and 30 in the Sabbath School.

Bryce Thompson preached some 5^th Sundays.  In 1882 he again became the regular minister but he died within the year.

In November of 1883  J. S. Arbuthnot began a long relationship with Harpeth.  He is the minister remembered by Emma Mai Ring from all of her childhood. She was born in 1887 and attended Harpeth until her death in 1986. But he must have been a bit lax in his organization and McCutchens were no longer there to keep things recorded in proper Presbyterian order.  In 1887 it was noted by the examiner that the session had met only twice since 1881 and had not  reported to Presbytery in all those years.   

We do have a few vivid recollections of the last decade of the nineteenth century.  Miss Emma Mai shared her memories of  Christmas at the church.  According to her, the tree at the church was the only lighted one in the area and the entire community came to see the Children=s Christmas Tree on a night shortly before Christmas Day.  The sanctuary would have been heated (just barely) with large stoves and illuminated with kerosene lamps that could be lowered for lighting.  I suspect this was the only night service held in the dark mid-winter.  A cedar tree large enough to touch the ceiling was  placed in the front of the church and candles were carefully clamped to many of its branches and lit only for the service.  All the decorations were homemade--garlands of popcorn and cranberries and sometimes painted seed pods.  A ladder and a large bucket of water stood nearby in case of accident.  Following a simple pageant of the Christ child=s birth, each child was given a gift and a fruit-filled stockingBsomething only available  at the Christmas.  Miss Emma Mai remembered the wonder she felt at those childhood celebrations and participated in bringing that same joy to later generations of Harpeth and Beechville children.  For many years her brothers took the youth out to get the tree and she supervised the youth in decorating the tree and preparing for the little children.  Until she was in her eighties, she still was Ahonorary@ director of the youth tree decoration.  As long as he lived her brother Ned Ring took pride in providing the biggest and most beautiful oranges and apples he could find. 

 But that is getting ahead.  Henry Ring=s daybooks^[xvi] state that they began Sunday school on April 24 of 1892 and that he paid to Dr. Arbuthnot in 1892 on AApr. 16 John Tucker 2.00. Dr. Byrn 20.00.@  In 1894 he mentions that Dr. Arbuthnot preaches on the third Sunday of each month.  In 1895 and again in 1897,  the Session appointed committees to inquire into the whereabouts of five hundred dollars  left to the church by James  McCutchen in his will,^[xvii]  the interest therefrom to help pay the cost of ministers. An existing receipt shows that John Murrey had paid one hundred dollars of it to R. W. Wilson in 1882.  In 1887 Henry  Ring, Emma Mai=s father, became an Elder.  Rev Angus McDonald and Rev. R. W. Wilson served  in addition to Dr. Arbuthnot in 1899.  In that year trustees were elected for the first time.  Joseph Bowman, son of America Motheral Bowman and ward of the Rings, John Tucker, and George Kinnie were elected and instructed to meet with John Murrey about the funds that had been bequeathed to Harpeth by James McCutchen at his death in 1864..  Henry Ring was now Clerk of the Session.  No result of the investigations was ever reported in minutes.

 In fact records are missing from 1899 until 1914! Nashville Presbytery history fills in some of this period. Harpeth=s minute book exists but there are many blank pages, indicating that these minutes were not misplaced but never recorded.   In 1900 R. W. Wilson was at Harpeth as Supply while serving as Superintendent of Monroe Harding Children=s Home ^[xviii]. There is also reference to a Mr. Ham as interim.  Memoirs of members such as Emma Mai Ring and Pauline Parker make clear that members met at the church on Sunday afternoon whether or not there was a minister and had a lesson and at some periods singing.

The Rev. G. B. Harris, Jr. wrote a record of his ministry at Harpeth which extended from 1906 until 1921^[xix].    According to him, after the departure of a Rev. Lackey who had been preaching at Harpeth, Capt. William H. Harrison, a member of the church, listened to his preaching at West Side in Nashville and invited him to preach at Harpeth the following Sunday afternoon.  He did so, to a congregation of about 25, and was asked to preach on alternate Sunday afternoons.  He could not do so at this time.  A letter to Henry Ring indicates that Lewis Collins served Harpeth in  1906. Collins= letters and comments from church members indicate his interest in youthBa quality not always evident in some of these earlier ministers.   In early 1907 Harris was again asked and did preach at Harpeth from April of 1907 with some regularity.  He tells that they usually A began services in the Spring and held regularly until Winter, when no more services were held until the following spring.@  When he was not the Stated Supply he would hold the Aprotracted meeting@ in the summer.  AI was met at the end of the (then new) Bellemeade car-line,  by old >Uncle Chester,= an old darkey who used to drive me back to Nashville, in the West Side days.  I would take dinner. . ., at Capt. Harrison=s and then drive on to Harpeth, and after service, the old darkey would drive back to the car-line.@ Harris served as a Chaplain in WWI during which time he visited and preached at Harpeth 3 times.  Next he served at Wartrace, much farther away. but he still managed to preach  at Harpeth every 5^th Sunday.  He concluded  AI have been connected with Harpeth Church, now , at various times, since April 1906Bmore than 15 years.  I was the regular Stated Supply, or Acting Pastor from April 1907-1909, and from July 1913-Sept. 1917, Bin all a period of 6 years.  In the 10 years from 1907 to 1917, I did practically all the preaching that was done in the church.@  His service included 143 sermons, 4 Communions, 3 baptisms, 3 funerals, 2 marriages, 1 ordination, 4 members received, and 162 visit ^[xx].

Mr. Millard, who was minister at New Hope and Bethesda, is mentioned as preaching in  1912 .

In 1913, J. T. Rothrock , then living in Memphis, wrote to thank Fannie Ring for her hospitality during his recent visit to ABeachville.@ where the letter indicates he had held a Aprotracted meeting@ as revivals were then called.  Rothrock first married Utopia Ada Herron, and after her death married her cousin  Tennessee Byrn.  Both women were grandchildren of Robert McCutchen. 

As rural population continued to shrink during these years, Harpeth was affected.  At least one member, Frank Ring, now slept in a cemetery in France.   W. C. Alexander, pastor of Glen Leven Church in Nashville and a relative of some Harpeth members helped out at a time the church almost closed by preaching there on Sunday afternoons after his Glen Leven services.  In 1925 he officiated at the marriage of Suzanne Elizabeth Ring to Edward Uehling and in 1929 he baptized their son Edward at Harpeth^[xxi].  This may have been a favor to relations as well as ministry to the congregation.  In 1930 Henry Ring died, leaving J. H. Allen as the sole elder. 

In September of 1931 Dr. Alexander moderated Harpeth=s meeting when the Rev. W. L. Smith was called as pastor for a salary of $250.00 per year.  Mr. Smith noted six years later when he was still receiving the same salary,  AThis is $15 per member, which is very good, considering the few who can give.  Our spiritual birth rate is low tho, only 3 %@^[xxii]  Mr. Smith also served  Bethesda and New Hope churches in Williamson County.  He preached every other Sunday afternoon at Harpeth having supper in one of the homes from 1931 through 1946.  The membership during his tenure grew from 20 to a high of 31, usually staying around 25. Session minutes were regularly kept.  Sunday school, Bible school, and women=s Bible study classes were held regularly.   This small congregation managed to bring in more than 40 children to Bible school every summer during these years.  Emma Mai Ring had by now been teaching at nearby Grassland School for many years and she no doubt had a hand in finding and bringing those children.  Mr. Smith was a humble man, by his own admission, not a strong speaker.  Members recalled that he spoke not from the pulpit but down front, on the level of his congregation.  Ned Uehling, who often attended during his years as a Vanderbilt student, recalled that Mr. Smith was Aa tall thin, soft spoken gentleman. . . .an intelligent man and his wife was a graduate of Columbia University, a fact occasionally mentioned by [my] grandmother or [aunt] with perhaps a twinge of envy.@  

The >30's were marked by the building of the new US highway across the church=s front lawn.  At first there had been no bridge, only a ford, which had been the reason for the locating of the church on this site in the first place.  At a later time the road was gravel and there was a  simple wooden bridge^[xxiii].  This road followed the far eastern boundry of the property near the stone wall and was roughly level with the churchyard. The bridge was only slightly raised.  The new US highway was to take a much greater right-of-way, to raise the road and the bridge far above the churchyard.  In 1933 the following five trustees were elected to research the property lines: James H. Allen, Samuel A. Robinson, Robert Heron, William Carter, and George Kinnie.

 In addition to the coming of the road, there was a problem with a neighbor who was Acamping out@ on the church grounds trying to establish his right to the property.  Mr. Smith=s correspondence shows that considerable effort was expended in 1933 defending against this threat^[xxiv].  G. B. Harris=s accounting of his service was compiled to show that the church had indeed continued to meet actively during those years.   The original Adeed@ from Samuel McCutchen to the church had never been recorded and was never found.   Much work had to be done to establish the lines legally^[xxv].   In 1937 Ned Ring and Earl Carter became Elders.   In 1938 the leaders were discussing the necessity of building up the driveway to meet the new higher road and they met on a Saturday in January to do the work.  In 1939 the trustees were instructed to represent the church in settling its land boundaries and its damages incident to the new bridge and highway construction. 

In 1946, Rev. Smith left Harpeth, Bethesda, and New Hope to accept a call in Kentucky. 

C. N. Ralston next filled this Sunday afternoon position at Harpeth while dividing his Sunday mornings between Bethesda and New Hope.  Harpeth=s membership was dwindling but Ralston is credited with having the vision that Harpeth should be prepared for a new role as a suburban church.  He recognized that the area around it was already beginning to change as Nashville grew southward. And he carried that vision to the Presbytery.     Ralston himself was in poor health  but he managed to inspire action.  Lewis Steele had grown up at Bethesda and still had ties in that church and community .  He was now a successful businessman and an Elder in Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville.  He and his wife Annie  began spending their Sunday afternoons teaching Sunday School at HarpethBand doing a bit of Amoving and shaking@ in the background.

II

NEW MISSION FOR AN OLD CHURCH

In the fall of 1948 Ralston, assisted by Lewis Steele, presented a plan that had been developed to the Session and members of Harpeth. Ralston resigned and the Rev. Priestley Miller, formerly a Methodist minister,  was called to be Harpeth=s first full time pastor.  He accepted the call and his service began Oct. 3, 1948.  Behind the scenes it had been arranged that a group of laymen in Nashville would supplement his salary.  The Presbytery and Harpeth agreed for a six month Atrial@^[xxvi].  That was the beginning of a twenty-year marvel.  The Presbytery met at Harpeth  for Miller=s installation on November 11 of 1948. The bulletin, no doubt the first at Harpeth, stated that WOC would soon be organizing and that Young People and Young Adults of the community would meet at the home of Battle and Sara Rodes on Saturday evening Dec. 4 for fun and recreation. 

Madison P. Jones and his wife Mary and their sons Glenn and Madison  were the first new members after Miller came.  Madison, known usually as Percy, had been among the businessmen agreeing to support Harpeth.  Jones had helped found  McCarthy Jones and Woodard Steel Fabrication in Nashville and was then its president.   Interestingly, he now owned the former McCutchen farm and occupied that home which had sheltered so many of Harpeth=s staunchest members. Mary Jones invited a group of about thirty community women to lunch in her home and had a lady from Glen Leven church explain the work of the Presbyterian WOC (Women of the Church).  She accepted the presidency of the group and they got busy!  The church had only a very dirty and worn sanctuaryBno Sunday school rooms, no kitchen, no restroom!  This group held bake sales, ice cream suppers, box suppers, and rummage sales to make money.  They donned work clothes to scrub and paint the old original gray pews gleaming white.  It was a time of close Christian working fellowship for a loyal few.  Through the years Mary Temple Jones served in all offices of the WOC and ably recorded the church=s annual history.  She  was a great visitor for the church bringing in many new members.

Earlier in 1948, Harpeth reported a membership of twenty-two with four elders.  As Miller began his work there were eighteen attendees in three Sunday School classes, children taught by Earl Carter, youth taught by Emma Mai Ring, and adults taught by Pauline Parker.  Madison Jones started a second adult class which met in his home. 

Other members who came in early were the Lewis Steele family who had been attending for several years, Bob and Helen Goodpasture, Bob and Roberta Alexander, and the Keenan Foster, B. K. Hibbett, and John Jeffords  families. 

Though the Battle Rodes family never formally moved their membership from West End Methodist, they were deeply involved and supportive.  They had a large room in their home, across Hillsboro Road from the Jones home.  They called it AThe Great Hall@ and in addition to entertaining their friends, they offered it to many organizations.  The Harpeth women took their sewing machines there and sewed massive drapes for its openings, earning money for renovations and making the hall a more comfortable place for the many church  functions that would be held there while the little building was being renovated.

The men organized the cleanup, tearing out the old poplar floors which had holes that would catch a woman=s shoe heel and having a new floor put in.  They  cleaned,  repaired, and painted the walls that had the residue of many floods that had risen to pew level.  They cleaned out the coal bin that had been kept in one corner for the pot-bellied stoves, the heat source that had replaced that original fireplace. They installed modern heating.   They removed the bedraggled wooden shutters from the windows and the large sign from above the front door and they groomed the churchyard.

For the Easter service April 17,1949, Keenan Foster donated Harpeth=s first bulletin.  He and his family lived around the corner on Old Hickory Boulevard and he worked for Clement Paper Company.  On August 17 regular use of bulletins began.  They featured a photo of the cleaned up but as yet basically unchanged building.  Until his death Foster produced Harpeth=s bulletins. 

In October a Hammond organ arrived.  Helen Goodpasture and the Alexanders had led in the fund-raising for it. Harpeth=s ladies made and donated items that were sold in a Fall Market at Roberta Alexander=s Hillsboro Knit Shop in Nashville.  This organ replaced an old reed organ that had been in use since the late 1800's.  Miss Pauline Parker remembered Sallie Byrn Kinnie playing that organ, while Pauline stood beside it singing with an afternoon Sunday School that sometimes included only Mr. Ring, his son Andrew,  and Mr. James Allen.  Miss Parker took the old organ to her school and had it refurbished.  Her niece now owns it.

By fall Bob Goodpasture had completed a brick terrace and walk in front of the church.  Glenn Jones remembered the men sitting on this patio (probably smoking) and brainstorming about what the church needed.  By now the Bill Halley family were attending and the first Rally Day had been held. There was prayer meeting on Wednesday nights, and fellowship suppers were held on the first Thursday.   Men of the Church and other groups met on other Thursday nights. 

 On November 20, just a year after Priestley Miller=s installation, a Building Fund was begun, the first gift coming from the children and youth. There were now 16 attending Youth Fellowship.  In the winter they had a box supper to make money for the Building Fund.     Every first Sunday offering would go to the Building Fund.   The ladies had an Easter Food Market at Roberta Alexander=s shop. A well was dug on the property before the building construction began.  A Dr. McNeil of Scotland led a revival in the summer.  Due to crowding, the adult Sunday School classes took turns meeting in homesBJones or Rodes.  In November Emma Mai Ring, Mrs. R. W. Ratliff and Lewis Steele were securing furnishings for the new rooms.  Bessie and Margaret Sawyer joined that fall, as did the Hydes.  The youth put on a Christmas pageantBled by their president Sally Rodes.  It was the first of many original pageants Sally would provide for Harpeth holidays, in her youth and later when her own children were there as participants. 

Work on the wrap-around addition was ongoing throughout 1950 and was completed in February of 1951.  An open house in March included the setting of a cornerstone.  Membership was now fifty-eight.  This new addition provided a fellowship hall to the south of the sanctuary, bathrooms, a kitchen, a nursery, a connecting hall behind the sanctuary and an office and Pastor=s study to the north of the sanctuary.  They had plumbing and a real heating plant.  Keenan Foster gave an air conditioner for the pastor=s study.  Upstairs there were several Sunday school rooms.  The men involved remembered until the day they died moving the upright piano up those steep narrow steps.  All this space called for an expanded Church School staff.  While they were doing all this,  they were recognized for leading the Presbytery and perhaps the General Assembly in per capita giving! ^[xxvii]

There was summer fellowship on the lawn followed by singing inside afterward.  A committee to raise money for new pews was formed.  Most church families bought one and in return took an old one home.  B. K. Hibbett, chairman of the committee, bought four and succeeded in getting several businesses to pay for one.  In August our sign, the one that stands beside the office entrance now, was erected at our highway entranceBa gift of the Nashville Ornamental Iron Works, arranged by Bob Goodpasture.  On Dec. 30 of 1951 the bulletin had a new cover showing the wrap-around addition, the front terrace and brick walk.    

In 1952 the March membership count was up to sixty-eight.  Fellowship suppers were moved to Wednesday evenings before prayer meeting and singing.  Bob Goodpasture was working on landscaping.  On April 13 the new pews were used for the first time.  On April 27 the choir sang for the first time at Harpeth.  You see, a bonus that came with Priestley Miller was his ability as a tenor and choir director and his wife Mary Evalyn=s talent as accompanist.  He directed the choir and occasionally sang tenor solos until his death.  Mary Evalyn continued as organist for some years after.  The WOC met at the church  twice a month.  Seven of our youth went to NaCoMe. (our church=s Tennessee retreat ground named for the three Presbyteries it servedBNashville, Columbia, and Memphis). The WOC began its ongoing practice of providing some scholarships to NaCoMe.  They raised money by serving lunches at the nationally known purebred cattle sales held every year at the Jones Harpeth Valley Farm. They also began a White Cross group that met at the church to roll bandages and make clothes  for the Korean mission field or for the Martha O=Bryan Settlement House.  They provided suppers for the youth group.  Sally Rodes wrote and directed her third Christmas pageant.  At year=s end the membership had grown to 80 and the indebtedness had been reduced by $7,000. 

 In 1953 they began having flowers in the sanctuary every Sunday.  Membership grew to 100.  A night circle of young married women was organized.  The debt for the first addition was paid off and plans were being made for a vestibule and bell tower.

 By 1954 the membership was one hundred twenty-five.  The Joe Dickinson family, the Moores, Burroughs, Everharts and many others joined.  A second sewing machine had been bought for the church and White Cross produced fifty-two garments and one hundred, seventy compresses.  The first of many Gay Nineties events was a picnic supper on the church lawn.  For it senior citizens from Martha O=Bryan Center in Nashville were transported to Harpeth for an evening of entertainment and very good eating.  This event continued until the early >90's with a large bus eventually being required to bring the expanding group.  The bell tower was completed .  It=s bell was donated by Battle and Sara Rodes in honor of their daughter Sally=s graduation from college.  Sally once again directed the Christmas pageant.  Screens were placed on each side of the pulpit in front of the choir for a neater appearance.  Coat racks were installed in the new vestibule.  The ladies asked permission to put a 50x50 fenced playground southwest of the building so that children could play in a protected area during the service.  Amazingly there was opposition by one of the prominent grandfathers but thewomen finally prevailed.  There was frequent mention of the noise coming from the nursery located immediately behind the sanctuary or through open windows from the playground in summer.   Women who took their turns keeping the nursery have some lively stories to tell about trying to keep this noise in check.  New homes were being built in the neighborhood and the session was talking  of bringing in these families and of needing once again to expand the facilities.  A supper on the grounds raised money for our first choir robes.  Another supper on the grounds and lunch at a  Jones=  cattle sale funded playground equipment.  The WOC donated toward improving the landscaping.  Bob Goodpasture was busy  building the low brick wall that still defines the borders of our drive.  TVA was acquiring its easement along our river bank. 

By 1955 membership had grown to one hundred, fifty five.  Sadly one of several floods got up to the pew racks inside the sanctuary.  Bob Goodpasture, who was a landscape architect for the state, was instrumental in getting the state to build the levee that we still have.  We had extended west to our property line and could not expand until we acquired more property.  Lewis Steele was able to get an additional 1.61 acres paralleling our property at an actual cost of $5000.  Ned Ring resigned as clerk of the session, having held that office for more than fifteen years.  Alex Steele was chosen to succeed him.   Keenan Foster died and the adult Sunday school class that met in the parlor was named for him; his picture hung in the parlor for many years.   His death brought to an end his production of the bulletins; Harpeth finally had to buy its own mimeograph machine! 

In 1956 James Carter, who had grown up in Harpeth in its smaller days entered the ministry and was studying at Austin Seminary in Texas.^[xxviii].   In the following years several young men considered going into the ministry.  Mr. Miller was out of service for several months following the first of several heart attacks.

By 1957 the membership had reached one hundred, sixty-four.  McKays and Hicks were among the new families.  We had outgrown our first addition of educational and recreational facilities and a new building program was under way.  We were desperate for air conditioning but could not get a permit.  WOC had two day circles and were planning to re-start a night circle.  In 1958 they provided a nursery for the day circles, bought items for the new church kitchen and the brass vases for the sanctuary.  Some of the women were still involved in Auxiliary White Cross sewing.  They worked joyfully to provide whatever was asked for the mission fieldBfrom hospital gowns and  clothing to bandages.  And they poured their hearts into dressing Christmas dolls for little girls at Martha O=Bryan^[xxix]. 

The theft of the church=s typewriter in >56 brought home the fact that our building was very vulnerable.  A lockbox was rented for papers. Through the years there have been sporadic breakins, usually for office or electronic machines and to search for the cash that was not kept there.  One thief took the antique pulpit chairs, however. In spite of these break-ins a key was kept under a stone by the office door for many yearsBand this system proved our neighborhood trustworthy.  None of the thieves used the key. 

In October of 1958 the first part of the separate educational building was completed.  It included a kitchen and fellowship hall, men and women=s restrooms, and classrooms upstairs. ^[xxx] Bids were opened on the second part.   A brick walk was laid between the old and new buildings and the driveway and expanded parking lot were oiled, thanks to Bob Goodpasture.  This marked exactly ten years under the leadership of Priestley Miller and dramatically demonstrated the growth of Harpeth=s ministry in this period.

By 1959 the membership had reached two hundred..  Alex Steele, Jr. was a communicant; Bob Ring finished college and moved his membership here.  Alex Bright was hired as sexton.  He had lived in the neighborhood all his life and told of caring for horses of attendees at Harpeth=s protracted meetings when he was young.  Alex served Harpeth with loyalty and dignity for many years.  As long as he was able he was groundskeeper, janitor, brass polisher-- and on Sunday and other special occasions he was truly Sexton in his neat white coat.   Further he helped to forge a tie of fellowship with his congregation, Greater Pleasant View Baptist Church. 

In 1959, the WOC presented the church with the brass tips for the candelabra and white paraments for the communion table, pulpit and bible.  The Young Adult class started a library of reference materials to be used by teachers. 

In 1960 work moved forward with completing the Educational Building.  Membership rose to two hundred, forty-eight.  The Sugg, Bradley, and Williamson families joined.  The Senior Highs furnished the worship center for the Educational Building with a wooden cross^[xxxi], runners, and bookshelves.  Albert Merville donated the Abeautiful Reredos for our pulpit. . .@Bthe wooden paneling and lighted cross behind the pulpit.  Other denominations were buying land in the neighborhood and we were moving ahead with our expansion. 

In response to the possibility of civil rights activity coming to our door, the session voted that Ashould we have Colored visitors for Church Services that the Ushers be requested to seat them at the front of the church.@  They also voted that only literature approved by the session be distributed on the church premises. We did have such visitors several times without incident except that we lost a small number  of our members who did not wish to accept them . 

On October 15, 1961, Harpeth celebrated the one hundred, twenty-fifth year in its building, the thirteenth anniversary of its reorganization under Priestley Miller, and the Centennial of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.^[xxxii]  We were one of the one hundred churches over one hundred years old featured in  the book  Look to the Rock commemorating the PCUS Centennial.   Harpeth marked the occasion with  a special afternoon service followed by an Open House .  Phase 2 of the Educational Building had been completed adding 5 classrooms as well as space for other purposes.  This freed space in the first addition for a secretary=s office and a library.  Libby Fryer organized the library largely funded then and later  by the WOC .  She also researched and presented a history of Harpeth to the WOC.   Communicants included Harry and Richard Halley and Sally Temple Jones, children of families who had helped with the revitalization of Harpeth.  The passing on June 24 of Ned Ring was noted; he had been a ruling elder since 1937 and was Clerk of the Session from 1938 until 1955.

As 1962 began a slight drop in membership and attendance was noted and the session was canvassing Williamson County=s first subdivision as it had been doing in southern Davidson County.  March 7, 1962 saw the publication of the first edition of  The Harpeth Newsletter.     In 1965 it became Harpeth News Bulletin, around 1980 The Harp, by 1986 Harpeth Notes.   Name and format have changed from time to time but a newsletter has continued to be published. 

WOC sponsored a horse show at Charlie Anderson=s farm on Old Hickory Boulevard to raise money for carpeting the sanctuary; they had presented new lighting some months earlier.  In 1963 the ever cautious Harpeth did not embrace the new Covenant Life Curriculum for Sunday school until it had been carefully studied by the session.  Session sent a resolution to the Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly with a copy to the National Council of Churches stating Harpeth=s opposition to the Supreme Court Ruling on Prayer in Schools. 

The church offered its facilities and other assistance to the Battle Rodes family when they lost their home to fire.  They had shared their Great Hall  and beautiful grounds for many services and they would welcome us again once they had rebuilt. 

In the early fifties Harpeth=s Christmas Tree had been held at the Great Hall.  But when the educational building was completed the program  moved there.  For fifteen years Margaret Sawyer, as teacher of the Primary Sunday School class, directed her classes in a small program of music and recitation given in the fellowship hall on a night shortly before Christmas. She especially remembered a candle pageant (probably because of the added stress of mixing children with fire).  This program was a continuation of the community tree that Harpeth had provided since before 1900.  Ned Ring or Glenn Jones or some other adult took the youth on an outing in the neighborhood to find the perfect cedar.  Miss Emma Mai Ring was still honorary leader of the trimming of this tree as she would be through 1969.   She had been Youth teacher and leader as long as anyone could remember.  She  guided them in making old fashioned decorations and trimming the tree which was placed beside the pass-thru into the kitchen.  Just as  Miss Margaret=s  program concluded,  Mr. Lewis Steele helped the children Asing in Santa Claus@ with one more and then another and another  verse of  Jingle Bells.  Alex Steele usually had the Astarring role.@ Porter McKay helped on at least one occasion and, being less portly than Alex, nearly lost Santa=s pants.  Sunday school teachers prepared stockings and  gifts for the children.  At least once they were given oranges that had peppermint sticks inserted in them for straws!  As in earlier times, not just the children=s families of the congregation but many others from the community came to this program to catch the spirit of Christmas from the children=s joy. 

In the early >60's Men of the Church was a very active organization.  Eula Bolajack prepared dinner for their monthly meetings in the fellowship hall.  They participated in the canvassing of new neighborhoods.  They held an annual church picnic and entertained with a February ALadies Night Out@ where Albert Merville provided the entertainment by bringing hats from his Nashville shop and calling up each lady in the audience to be fitted with one of the hats to general acclamation from the crowd.  A couple of hats were given as door prizes.  It is a tribute to Albert=s talent that every woman always felt complimented by his choice of hat. 

Gay Nineties suppers were now held in the new Fellowship Hall..  The fellowship between the visitors and members was a warm part of the evening but eventually the crowd became so large that only Harpeth members who were serving could be there.

In 1965 there were 18 college students; their activities were reported in the newsletter.  At Christmas there was a breakfast for them and a dance for them jointly with the current Senior Highs.   Priestley Miller=s youth Apossum hunt@ had evolved into a fall hayride for the youth in Bob Ring=s Dodge farm dump truck.

In 1966 women first became eligible for the offices of deacon and elder.  In 1969 Annie Steele>s allowed her name to be placed on the ballot for deacon but she was not elected.  Harpeth was not quite ready for so much progress. 

Lewis Steele retired after almost twenty years as Sunday School Superintendent.  He would not in any way slow down in his support of Harpeth=s work or his interest in the children.  Every Sunday morning he continued to go through the halls with the hand-held chimes announcing the end of Sunday School and he was known to reduce whole pre-school classes to helpless giggles with his visits.  Being tickled and called a Apolecat@  by Mr. Steele was a high honor in that circle.

In 1967 Boy Scout troop 43 was organized at Harpeth on June 30 with 8 charter members; by year=s end they had grown to 17.  Leaders  Scott Paschall and Leonard Mika of our congregation were grateful for the church=s assistance in bringing scouting to this area for the first time.  Though that troop disbanded, another came to take its place .  

On January 23, 1969, Priestley Miller died suddenly of a heart attack.  His service was held at Harpeth on January 25. Former Governor Gordon Browning,  Sacred Heart singers,      members of the State Pardons and Parole Board on which he had served, and countless others swelled the crowd to overflowing.  Harpeth had never had to think of a Pulpit Search Committee; they were not even sure where the light bulbs were kept!  Priestley Miller was choir director, too! 

Leonard Mika was Clerk of the Session at that time and his wife, June, was church secretary.  Much day-to-day detail fell on their shoulders. 

Dr. T. B. AScotty@ Cowan served as interim.  A Scot by birth, retired and living in Franklin, Dr. Cowan drew visitors and had a great rapport with young adults.  Programs continued remarkably steadily.  The Sacred Heart Singers, in whose organization Mr. Miller had been active for many years, had been meeting annually at Harpeth for some time.  In the summer of 1969 they held in his memory the first of many Priestley Miller Sacred Harp Singings. 

Before his death, Mr. Miller had been talking with Ruth Steele of the congregation about his dream of starting a kindergarten at Harpeth to serve our area.  To carry out his wishes,  Priestley Miller Kindergarten was organized and opened with Ruth Steele as director and lead teacher in the fall of 1969.  It had an enrollment of twenty children  ages three through five.  Four-and five-year-olds attended five days a week for $18.00 per month.  Three-year-olds attended three days a week for $12.   

Mary Evalyn Miller continued to serve as organist and assumed the choir director=s duties after the death of her husband until another director could be found.  Monnie Hatcher directed for a while and then Lela Hamilton, our paid soprano, assumed the role from 1970 until 1974 when Mary Evalyn Miller resumed the dual role which she held until her retirement in 1981.

On April 5, 1970 James Douglas Blair was installed as the second full time minister at Harpeth.  A Nashville native, he had graduated from Peabody College and Columbia Seminary.  He came to us with his wife Ann and daughter Allison  from Huntsville First Presbyterian Church.             Now a manse was needed for the first time because the Millers had lived with Mrs. Miller=s father.  A home in River Oaks subdivision 2.7 miles from the church was found and bought for $42,500.  Ironically, just at this time ministers were being counseled to establish equity by owning their own homes.  The Blairs expressed this wish and accordingly, the manse was sold in 1976 and the funds derived have since then been made available as loans to our ministers in financing their own homes for the duration of their service at Harpeth.                       

In May of 1970 Juanita Lundell, a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church,  became  church secretary, a post which she filled ably until her retirement in  1994  Juanita not only carried out the duties of secretary and bookkeeper efficiently but she was a pleasant, wise, and discreet mainstay of Harpeth=s daily workings throughout the service of several ministers and during the interims.  A talented craftsperson, she led a bi-monthly Arts and Crafts group for many years. 

New red robes were bought for the adult choir. The children=s choir became known as Little Harpeth Singers.  It was very active under the leadership of Ann Blair and later Anne Carothers.   Mabeth Blackburn accompanied.  They often joined with Franklin=s First Presbyterian Church for activities or productions such as AOne Hundred Per Cent Chance of Rain@ and for summer camp at Hillmont.   The Blairs revitalized the Youth Group which took on challenges like leading Easter Sunrise service.   At times a youth choir was active as well.

The Nursery was now open for our fellowship suppers as well as for WOC meetings.   Changing lifestyles began to affect our evening meetings.  Fellowship suppers were moved from the first to the second Wednesday night in an effort to boost participation  .  The Men of the Church brought their cook Eula Bolajack back and renewed their evening meetings.  Albert gave another ALadies Night Out@ hat entertainment after a lapse of a few years.  For several years Men of the Church continued their annual summer picnic and Christmas dinner for the ladies but by 1976 the men were experimenting with Tuesday morning breakfasts and there is no further mention of their annual projects. 

Mrs. J. B. Murray held the post of librarian working hard to make it a useful service for all the congregation as well as a resource for teachers.

 The Women of the Church began regular visitation to nursing homes, a practice which continued for some time.  Evening circle was dropped since a nursery was available for day meetings.   The few professional women did not object.   In the late >70's circles began to meet only once a month and Circle 3 assumed an irregular format as a study group.     In 1975 Mary Temple Jones and Emma Mai Ring were made Honorary Lifetime Members of the WOC. In 1979 Annie Steele received the same honor.  Women began delivering Mobile Meals, a service later shared by some of the retired men and continued until today.   In 1974 the women refurbished the kitchen and acquired Harpeth=s first dishwasher.     In 1976   Mabeth Blackburn, Grace Snyder, and Barbara Williamson led the efforts that turned the classrooms adjoining the sanctuary into a lovely parlor.  Barbara also refinished the original clerk=s desk which had served as the Achurch office@ from the 1830's until the additions of the 1950's. The women continued to carry out all their traditional service projects, including White Cross sewing, NaCoMe scholarships and Christmas toys for Martha O=Bryan  An ever growing project was  the feeding of sometimes over one hundred Gay Nineties who continued to come by bus each fall from Martha O=Bryan.  In 1974 the Gay Nineties presented a plaque to Harpeth in appreciation for twenty years of entertainment. 

             Mary Ann Warren became Superintendent of the Sunday school and organized the first Junior Church. Then in 1974 she became our first staff  Director of Christian Education.   After eighteen  months she resigned and Ruth Moore was hired.  Ruth filled that part-time position for four and one half years.  Vacation Bible School began to take on more of a Aday camp@ format.  Various versions of summer Mothers Day Out programs were offered.

             Mrs. Porter McKay had started the Covenant Sunday School Class; Bill Halley began teaching it around 1964 and continued for many years until 1996.  This class gave inscribed Thomas Nelson RSV Study Text Bibles to rising fifth graders in the Sunday School. 

            The Joy Gift services benefitted from the talents of Sally Rodes Lee.  As a teen she had followed the lead of her mother in creating pageants for Harpeth services.  Now married with three children she brought her own family to Harpeth.  Every other year, she wrote and produced a stirring pageant, one of the most memorable being the Bicentennial pageant in December of 1975Bwho could forget the little Pilgrim Town Crier ringing his bell and calling, ANo-o-o-o Christmas!@

In 1972 Ruth Steele resigned as kindergarten director and Charlene Ring assumed that role. In the fall of 1974 when public kindergarten was first offered in the area, our kindergarten class was dropped and we became Priestley Miller Preschool.  In December of 1976, Charlene Ring resigned as Priestley Miller Preschool Director and teacher due to the impending birth of a child.  Margaret Hill became the third director and church member Nancy Cowsert joined the staff. Mrs. Hill was well qualified to guide the program as it grew into the additional space that would soon be available for it.   During the ministry of Doug Blair, the church held a nurturing relationship with the preschool, clearly seeing it as a ministry of the church.  Many families came into Harpeth from first contact with the school. 

In the fall of 1972, Harpeth=s first pictorial directory was produced.  A second one in 1977 was produced in color and shows many new faces.   New subdivisions in the area were canvassed with positive results.  New members necessitated a monthly get-acquainted coffee between Sunday School and church.  

More feet meant more tracks.  In 1974 Theresa Witherspoon came as housekeeper to assist Alex Bright with indoor cleaning.  Theresa was a radiant Christian lady (and by the way, a talented musician) who brightened Harpeth during her years of service.  Alex died in May of 1978, having served Harpeth with dignity for thirty years.  Many Harpeth members attended his funeral at Greater Pleasant View Baptist Church and were thrilled to hear the musical tribute given there by Theresa Witherspoon.  Theresa continued until bad health prevented her working.  Cleaning services have  never been able to replace those two fine servants of the Lord. 

            In 1973 volunteers were still placing two flower arrangements in the sanctuary every Sunday.  Since fewer and fewer were able to provide appropriate cut flowers from their yards, the arrangements were usually bought.  Mr. Blair led us finally to decide that those funds could be more appropriately spent in benevolences.   The use of artificial arrangements continued for several years.  As another sign of the times, for a while we succumbed to the fad of the plastic communion cup, also.  In 1974 Miss Emma Mai Ring relinquished the responsibility of preparing the communion meal, a role that had been held by  her family since the beginning of Harpeth Church. 

 On July 4 1976 there was a Bicentennial Celebration which included a program on the history of Harpeth given by Charlene Ring and  featuring reminiscences by many of the older members.    Following the sermon, Mr. Battle Rodes rang the bell which he had given in honor of his daughter Sally back in 1954.  It rang in unison with bells throughout our country in commemoration of our nation=s independence.   A picnic beside the river closed the celebration.

In line with long range planning an additional three acre tract was purchased in 1976, adding to the back of the property.  With what remained of the original lot after the 1940's road taking, we now had a total of 6.712 acres^[xxxiii]Band room to grow.  In February of 1978 members were asked to make Building Fund pledges.  The Building Committee presented their recommendation in July.  The project would connect the two existing buildings with a hall and two classrooms and would add  a new kitchen and multi-purpose half gym. At the end of the month Bud Swift, who had been chairman of the committee died suddenly.  Then Doug Blair resigned effective October 1, 1978.   Both he and his wife had provided strong leadership during their ministry of more than eight years.  Their son Jimmy had been the first minister=s child born to our congregation.  We had watched him and his sister Allison grow and felt we were losing our own.  The Building plan was complete and its implementation was under way in July.  On October 8, 1978, Sherwood Harvard, retired from Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville, came to serve in this interim.  He and his wife Bec provided enriching and enthusiastic leadership.

Roger Allen Nicholson, first preached at Harpeth on August 5, 1979 and was installed that evening.  He held a Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Theological Seminary and his wife Pamela was a graduate of the School of Christian Education in Richmond.  With their two sons, David Allen 6 and Michael Andrew 4, they  moved into Murray Estates aided by a loan from our Manse Fund.   They began their ministry with energy and enthusiasm.   But their scant three years with us was filled with many challenges.                           

A rash of burglaries brought problems.  And in early September,  a flash flood wiped out a large section of our levee allowing  water to enter the sanctuary and rise to the level of the pew seats. Playground equipment was strewn all across the grounds.   Thankfully regulations had required us to build the newer additions with higher foundations.  They did not receive damage.  There was a history of pre-levee floods but this was the first to enter the building since 1955 when the levee was built.^[xxxiv]  We had to literally roll up our sleeves and scrub.  Having just moved from Mobile, Pam Nicholson knew how to battle the moisture and mold problems.   No sooner had the levee been repaired the following April, than the City of Brentwood >s sewer line construction came marching right down the Little Harpeth passing along our riverbank.   We were unnerved to see the levee disturbed again but the project turned out well and had the benefit of allowing us to connect to the sewer at no cost.

 At the end of the year, the >79 budget had not been met; pledges were low for >80   Rising interest rates were affecting both personal and church finances and making  the funding of our new building a greater  challenge every day.

But the church life went on.  Cleaning up inside and out in addition to making changes to older educational spaces and furnishing the new classrooms kept members busy.  In the fall of >79 the first of several flea markets was undertaken by the WOC to raise money for the new addition and the remodeling of affected old areas of the building.  Almost $3800 was raised.  Over one hundred guests came to the last Gay Nineties dinner to be squeezed into the old Fellowship Hall.  Harpeth had willing cooks but serving that group from the tiny old kitchen required much creativity.  The newsletter was revitalized as The Harp.  Sally Lee contributed historical items to the paper and she wrote another great Christmas pageant, this one around Bethlehem=s history.  At year=s end, Buck Jones, and new member Ralph Bowles spoke stirringly on stewardship. Nicholson said Adollars and cents are important, the building is important, but more important than that is whether or not we as a people are going to use our dollars and cents and our building old and new to the glory of God.@  

In March of 1980 classes moved into their newly assigned spaces.  On Easter a reception after church formally opened the new Fellowship Hall.  The WOC organized and equipped our new kitchen and church suppers were replaced by monthly lunches following worship.  The women worked with Church Women United and the Women=s Emergency Shelter but contributed to White Cross monetarily only.  The younger members= life styles did not admit days of communal sewing at the church.   We shared our new facilities with the Sacred Harp Singers in April, the West End Y for the summer, and new Scout troops year-round.  John MaGuirk led in the founding of Scout Troop 93.  Lee Martin helped and his wife Beverly led  a Girl Scout troop that met here, too.  Classes for adults were going on all the time-- bible, of course, but others-- for example, CPR, art, and  flower arranging . In September the preschool expanded to three classes and the Fellowship Hall was formally dedicated. In November the first churchwide Thanksgiving Dinner was held; Turkey, dressing, and roll cooks were assigned and attendees brought sides and desserts.  Always held in the week before Thanksgiving, this dinner has become an annual event with occasional changes in format.

By scraping, we lowered our mortgage to one hundred, forty-four thousand but the rate was thirteen percent!  Lewis Steele wrote an article in The Harp encouraging every Christian after caring for his family to leave at least 10% of his estate to Harpeth or some other church ministry. 

            1981 began with a 12^th night Dinner at the Battle Rodes home.  Youth were very active throughout this year using every means to fund their mission trip to Mountain TOP.  It would be the first mission trip by Harpeth youth.   In thanks for the WOC=s providing their regular Sunday night suppers, the youth fed the WOC one Sunday night! The WOC worked tirelessly, contributing to the building fund and to new landscaping done by Harry Halley who had grown up at Harpeth and studied horticulture in college.  Ruth Moore resigned; several members either resigned or moved themselves to the inactive list in reaction to more Aliberal@ directions in the denomination.  Roger had led us to use homemade bread for Communion rather than the traditional unleavened.  Now we were asked to add Adescended into hell@ back into the Apostles= Creed!  No old members could remember its ever having been said at Harpeth.  Much discussion and research revealed that some random Southern churches left it out for no explained reason. 

 Mary Evalyn Miller retired as organist after thirty-three years of service.  She told that she first played for Harpeth when she and Priestley met with nineteen of Harpeth=s members in Miss Emma Mai Ring=s home in 1948 for him to receive his call.  She had served without pay for the twenty years of her husband=s ministry and in the ensuing thirteen years had often served the dual role of organist/director.  The church gave her a car as a parting gift.  Annette Sparks was hired for the position.  

1981 wound down with the annual Youth hayride in the back of Bob Ring=s farm dump truck, an attendance of one hundred, twelve at the Thanksgiving dinner, a ninty-fourth birthday dinner for Miss Emma Mai Ring who was still teaching Sunday School, and a Money Tree at Christmas for our housekeeper Theresa Witherspoon. 

As in 1981, 1982 opened with an Epiphany Supper at the Rodes home.  In February Ray Luther came as organist/choir director; choir practice changed from Thursday to Wednesday night.^[xxxv]  By fall he was promoting the purchase of a new organ citing flood damage and obsolescence.  Beth McKay and Carolyn Stalcup were leading Children=s and Youth Choirs.  In April we hosted the Sacred Harp Singers and Presbytery met with us for only the third time in our history.  We had five members currently serving on Presbytery boards and committees.   The recycling concept was first mentioned in that Lewis Steele was leading us to collect aluminum cans.  Among new members in 1982 was Mary Ann Sugg returning to Harpeth after 15 years as a social worker in New York. The May covered dish luncheon honored recent graduates Tom Gorman, Kathy Nixon, and Dana Williamson.  Luda Davies and Gwen Swift, young women who had grown up in our church, having led a preschool class successfully, took on the Youth Group with enthusiasm.  There were frequent meetings at the Rodes Party Barn, a walk for Hunger, the annual Ring Halloween Hayride,    Williamson County Recreation used our facilities for their summer program.   Brentwood Covenant and Franklin First churches joined us in a 4 night format for a family Vacation Bible School.

Interest on our mortgage had risen to an astronomical sixteen percent!.  Roger Nicholson resigned to work as coordinator of Campus Ministries in Richmond, Va.  His last sermon was July 11, 1982.  He had led us through a difficult time. 

Many people filled Harpeth=s pulpit until Oct. 4 when Rev. Randall Boone became interim minister and was welcomed with a covered dish lunch.  He had been at a church in Auburn, Kentucky,  and was studying for his doctorate at  Vanderbilt Divinity School.  Added to the usual congregational and service activities was a coffee and doughnut time between Sunday School and Church.  We  shared in the joy of Lewis and Annie Steele when their younger son Donald was installed as minister of a Presbyterian Church in Charleston, West Virginia.  Their older son Lewis, Jr. was already a church musician, as was his wife. 

Adoption of the new Sunday school curriculum necessitated different age divisions in Sunday School. Adults were being educated throughout 1982, sometimes uncomfortably, about the Plan for Reunion of the Presbyterian Church in the United States with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.    We would lose our Mission Board located in Nashville and other things we held dear.  Voting by individual congregations passed up through the presbyteries and synods of both denominations and in the spring of 1983 we became reunited. ^[xxxvi]

In April of 1983, our Pulpit Committee recommended that our interim minister, David Randall Boone be called as our next minister.  The Presbyterian Church does not usually allow this practice.  Mr. Boone took a leave of absence from April through October to do research for his doctorate in England and Scotland and to meet the six- month requirement between interim and pastoral status.   David Fraser served as interim for this period.  Also in April, our church was featured on the Heritage Foundation=s Spring Tour.  We had hosted the Williamson County Historical Society the previous September when Sally Lee led a program of contributions by Rings, Joneses, Alex Bright, and others. 

Our Scout family extended to include Webelos and the Scouts requested storage space.  A Fall Flea Market contributed $1500 to the Building Fund.  The Stewardship Campaign was the best ever.  It needed to be; our debt was still extensive and interest rates were still high. 

In addition to their usual causes, Presbyterian Women, as they were now called, led by Judy Gaither,  made permanent needlepoint Chrismons   (gold on white decorations depicting Christian symbols connected with the birth of Christ) for the sanctuary Christmas tree, replacing styrofoam ones that had been in use for several years.  The women formed an Altar Guild, and planned and delivered meals as needed.  They began hostessing all occasions, including the wedding reception for long-time member Margaret Sawyer on Oct. 15.  Wednesday night prayer meetings were resumed.  Covered dish meals were held monthly after Sunday service.  Central heat and air, a sound system,^[xxxvii] and pew bibles^[xxxviii] were memorial additions to the sanctuary.  Among new members were Court and Laura White.  There were several resignations, at least one in protest of the coming reunion with the Anorthern Presbyterians.@  At almost age  96 Emma Mai Ring gave up teaching Sunday School as she had been doing since around 1920.

A highlight of 1984 was the celebration of the 50^th Anniversary of Lewis and Annie Steele on April 13.  The service of worship included organ music by their daughter-in-law Ann Labounsky Steele.  Bagpipe music by Annie=s Scottish cousin Donald McArthur led the congregation to the fellowship hall for a reception given by the Presbyterian Women and decorated by our talented Nancy MaGuirk. 

PW held a successful Spring Fashion Show -Luncheon-Bake sale and a Fall Flea Market.   They added Hospital Hospitality House to their service projects and kept a food and clothing closet which served both Davidson and Williamson County needs.  They sewed new pew cushions.^[xxxix] They hosted the Gay Nineties from Martha O=Bryan and packed boxes for fifteen needy families at Christmas.

Wednesday night suppers were tried once more, this time with prepared food provided for two dollars.  The youth were serving breakfast every second Sunday including Easter.  NaCoMe camps were widely attended.  A Children=s Story Hour was held on Wednesday afternoons in the summer.   Anne Carothers painted a mural in the Youth meeting room.  Vacation Bible School consisted of four evening family sessions held at Covenant Presbyterian Church.  Our facilities were being used by the Williamson County Recreation Department.  In October the building note was finally HALF paid.  The men canvassed Cottonwood and River Rest subdivisions.   They lost three strong membersBJulian Wells, Roy Kennedy, and Alex Steele, long-time Clerk of the Session and Santa. 

As in 1984, bad weather hampered meetings for several weeks at the beginning of 1985.  Suppers were being held on second Wednesdays.  We began serving dinner and breakfast and providing at least two hosts one night a month at St. Patrick=s Shelter for the homeless in Nashville and continued with this program until August of 1993. We also worked with the Store Front Ministry in downtown Nashville. 

           Vacation Bible School took the form of  a very well attended Harpeth Day Camp June 5-7.  It included field trips to Cumberland Science Museum and other places.  The Little Harpeth Singers were again meeting jointly with the children=s choir of First Franklin for performances and activities, including camp at Hillmont.  The Youth gave a Mother=s Day breakfast, had a retreat at Land Between the Lakes, and floated the Ocoee.

All ages took advantage of NaCoMe.  The Worship and Music Staff went to Montreat.  We hosted the Stillman College Choir in our homes after their stirring performance.  Little did we know what a blessing we had received when Pete and Mary Smith and John and Amy Algee joined our congregation. 

In June of 1985 we celebrated the fact that we had finally burned the note on our 1979-80 addition.  In the fall the Fellowship Hall was dedicated to Lewis, Annie, Alex and Ruth SteeleBto be known henceforth as Steele Hall.  On November 1 a new organ was installed,  Ray Luther, our organist, having overseen its selection.^[xl]   When he became ill, he asked that gifts be given for the organ.  On November 10 our minister Randy Boone and Patricia Tarpey were married at Harpeth.  Pat had been singing with our choir for some time.  She had sung professionally and was a skillful maker of costumes.  She was working with ASCAP at the time of their marriage.  She and Randy both sang in Nashville=s Symphony Chorale and added much to the quality of Harpeth=s music. 

On Feb 2, 1986 our new organ was dedicated with a recital by Martha Hobson.  We were back to having our potluck meals after church with only an occasional Wednesday night supper.  The Sacred Harp group met once more in Priestley Miller=s memory.  Our oldest member, Emma Mai Ring,  died on April 4.   She had been born into this congregation on December 3, 1887.  

For the first time we tried changing the worship hours in the summerB9:00 for Sunday School and 10:15 for worship.  As part of Tennessee=s Homecoming 1986, Harpeth celebrated its 175^th year.  A plaque was placed on the wall facing the river in remembrance of those who were buried in unmarked graves on our grounds.  Framed cross-stitch pictures showing the history of our building were placed in the Narthex. Men were continuing their monthly Prayer Breakfasts.  They made wooden toys for Martha O=Bryan.  Jim Krahenbill who had come in the fall as associate pastor to allow Randy Boone more time to work on his doctorate, was an accomplished woodworker and with Pete Smith led these projects.  Pricilla Stevens became our librarian.

 In August John Burson began substituting as organist because of the illness of Ray Luther.  The Carothers family moved away and Patricia Boone took the place of Anne Carothers leading the Little Harpeth Singers.    Mabeth Blackburn and Beth McKay continued to work with the group.  On December 4 Ray Luther died of leukemia.  In his time at Harpeth he led us in obtaining a fine new organ, thrilled us with the music he could bring from it,  and held the choir to high standards, purging our files of music he deemed unworthy of our talents.  Early in 1987, John Burson became organist and Pat Boone accepted the position of choir director.    A new piano was given by the choir and other members in memory of Ray Luther, Gene Buchanan and Harry Moore.  It was dedicated on July 19 with a recital by John Burson. The choir received new black robes^[xli] which were worn with the white surplices we had used as summer robes for several years.

Vacation Bible School seemed to have settled into the form of Harpeth Day Camp.   There was a Harpeth River Walk for all sixth grade and above in June, one of the few modern times Harpeth members  have ventured over the levee to explore that defining boundry that continues to do so much to shape our history.   Junior Church expanded to include third Sunday with the second and fourth.  Mary Ann Warren was again Sunday School Superintendent.  Priestley Miller Preschool, under the leadership of member Donna Blewett,  asked for and was granted space for a fifth classroom.  Greater Pleasant View Baptist Church was included in our Community Easter Services and they invited us to their homecoming at which  Randy Boone preached.  Jim Krahenbill had extended his service through May so that Boone could have more time to work on his dissertation.

Harpeth began delivering pies to the homes of our visitors as an outreach to prospective members.   There was again an outdoor Communion Service in August.   All the regular service projects were in full swing.  The session and trustees were studying whether to incorporate and finally did so following the plan of the Book of Church Order and the laws of the State of Tennessee.   A November Five Year Plan for Congregational Development was adopted after extensive questionnaires and small group meetings.  We met our 1987 pledges of  $109,650. 

But by January of 1988 we were reporting a pledged shortfall relative to the Challenge Budget due to some families moving their membership and others just not pledging.  Harpeth, in spite of the protests of some session members,  even asked the Presbytery to help fund our shortfall!  By February we had gotten more pledges.  When Fall came the Stewardship Committee used the APony Express@ to contact the members for pledges. 

On January 24 of 1988 there was a farewell coffee for Mack and MaBeth Blackburn who were moving away after serving Harpeth in so many ways for almost twenty years.  Both were leaders:  Mack had represented us at Presbytery and General Assembly, shared the beautiful roses he grew, played his violin for Christmas carol sings;  Mabeth had sung in the choir, played for the children=s choirs and subbed as the adult choir accompanist, worked tirelessly in the Presbyterian Women. 

In addition to all the service projects we usually did, we became involved in the Partnership Program with South Africa.  We hosted several ministers of both races who came to Nashville and Petros Dube, a black minister from South Africa preached at Harpeth Oct. 23.   We hosted the choirs of both Stillman and Maryville Colleges. 

On March 27,1988, Harpeth held its first 8:30 Service, patterned after the New Testament example in that worshipers would meet somewhat informally around a meal, hear the Word preached, and celebrate Communion every Sunday.   Through June attendance averaged twenty-two.  From that small start, the early service has grown through the years to overflow Steele Hall.             The sanctuary acquired a new massive Communion altar,^[xlii]  the older Communion table being moved to Steele Hall for the 8:30 service.  The sanctuary service now used acolytes; the minister wore a clerical collar and often performed as a cantor as part of the service.  It is interesting that while Randy Boone led us toward a more Ahigh church@ eleven o=clock service, he was the first minister frankly  did not wish. AMr.@  Or even ADr. Boone@ later.  Whether it was the man or the times, from this period on, our ministers would be addressed and referred to by their first, informal names.

As they had for several years, the Presbyterian Women baked cookies to send to college students for Valentine=s Day.  Children planted a vegetable garden to help provide the meals we took to St. Patrick=s Shelter.  At a Fall Festival on October 29 the Sacred Harp Singers participated in Hymnfest in the afternoonBthe first time they had joined in our program, though we were always invited to join with them when they met here each April. 

In the fall we adopted a plan to repair and improve our physical plant within eighteen months using a Capital Improvements Fund.  The Acloister-like@ covered brick walkway leading from the drive to the central side entrance was designed by member Scott Wilson and built by the church and the preschool. 

In February of 1988 the Boones had a baby girl, Katy.  The pastor=s salary was raised ; the congregation was invited to his PhD graduation from Vanderbilt and, on October 30, he resigned to accept a position as pastor of Knox Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati.  Our Thanksgiving Dinner on November 16 was a farewell to the Boones.  John Burson added interim choir director to his responsibility as organist.  Jim Krahenbill became interim pastor, with the exception of delivering sermons.  At the end of 1988 our membership was two hundred, sixty-three.

It was during this period that Krahenbill made the little stools that are still  used during the Children=s Sermon.  He led the younger youth in painting them.  Kim and Robert Early shared the primary responsibility for sermons until our next minister was installed in July.  Troop 93 was very active.    They placed a plaque on the building recognizing that they meet here.  But Session minutes reflect growing dissatisfaction with Scout behavior and leadership.  The Harpeth Valley  Sacred Harp Singers marked the 20^th anniversary of the death of their founder, Priestley Miller,  on April 1.

On July 16, 1989, James Blakney Hawthorne came to Harpeth.  He held an Masters of Divinity  from Columbia Seminary in Atlanta and had served almost five years at First Presbyterian Church of McMinnville.  He and his wife Mary Jane had a two and one half year old son, Jamie.  Mary Jane had background in preschool, sewing, and music,  and she immediately became active in all parts of the church=s program. The Session examined with him our Five Year Plan developed in 1987and formally adopted in 1988.  They found that we were not on track.  Acreage and the limitations of our location in the flood plain set serious obstacles in the path of Harpeth=s dreamers.  

Hawthorne began in September leading the  Presbyterian Women=s Bible study, a practice he continued throughout his stay at Harpeth.  Later he led  Kerygma stud