Lebanon in the Fork: Buildings and Burials

An undated photo of the Lebanon congregation's building before it was destroyed by fire in 1981. Note and compare the tombstones.

"Lebanon in the Fork Presbyterian prospered as a congregation, taking in many of the families who had come to settle at the Holston-French Broad fork. The original church building was constructed of unhewn logs and modestly extended only 20 feet square. By 1793, the congregation had increased so much that a larger structure had to be erected, reaching out 40 by 60 feet with well-hewn logs and having a well-ordered interior.

Elizabeth Carrick's tombstone.

For a long period the new church was the most imposing meeting house in the region and the original building was converted into a session hall. A cemetery was developed and among the first burials was that of Samuel Carrick's wife Elizabeth Moore (Rev. Carrick was the church's minister; more will be noted of him in future posts).

Her funeral, in September, 1793, took place on the day of a threatened attack by Indians on James White's Fort Knox and all the male settlers, including the Rev. Samuel Carrick, were called upon to bear arms in defense. This left only the women to of the Lebanon in the Fork congregation to take the remains of Mrs. Carrick down the Holston River in a canoe, for burial at the cemetery. Such were the pressing dangers of the day that Samuel Carrick could not be present at his wife's funeral."

Billy Kennedy, The Scots-Irish in the Hills of Tennessee, Pgs. 143-144