This Easter morning service exactly 130 years ago was
nothing akin to the type of Easter service typically held at churches in the
modern day. However, it also seems entirely appropriate to celebrate the
homegoing of a clearly beloved community member on the day of the Resurrection. Best wishes to
all my readers for a blessed Easter!
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Interior of Palmer Chapel at Cataloochee
Souce: npplan.com
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"Rev. P.P. McLean held a memorial service in memory of
Eli Collins at Witchers Chapel Sunday April 21st 1889.
The morning broke in full splendor, solemn quietude
pervaded the land. Before 9 o’clock the stillness was broken by the call to
Sabbath school. At 10:15 we repaired to the place appointed where the men of
God should stand forth and speak in memory of a sainted brother. The services
were opened by appropriate singing after which the minister arose and said, “We
might, as one of old, ask what it is that has caused this large assembly to
come to the house of God this beautiful Sabbath morning. We presume it is
because a servant of God has been called home to rest.”
A very appropriate hymn was then announced which was
followed by scriptural reading suitable to the occasion. Then was read the life
incidents of the deceased brother, followed by another hymn sung by the
minister. He then announced the text and proceeded to its discussion which was
clear, able, and forcible, making vivid to the minds of his hearers things that
have been passed far down the vale of time.
The audience was large and attentive. A collection
amounting to $3 was taken for foreign missions. Reception of members into the
church, three. The services were concluded by appropriate singing and prayer.
Anonymous"
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Notes:
Witcher’s Chapel was located in close proximity to the
area which later became Judson and was almost certainly named for the Methodist Episcopal minister William Witcher, who at one time resided in Macon
County.
The Witcher’s Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church South was
located on the south bank of Alarka Creek and on the former Parch Corn Flower/Flour reservation (which Thomas Wentworth Pledge Poindexter was living on prior to the
Cherokee removal) – which later became part of Judson. In September 1858,
Elizabeth Poindexter, widow of T.W.P. Poindexter sold, for $1, a half-acre parcel
to the trustees of the Witcher’s Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church South
(consisting of Joel Sawyer, Edward DeLozier [her son-in-law], John Anderson,
and James Ingram) for the purposes of constructing a church house for both
school and church purposes. The building served for several decades as a church,
school, and meeting-house for the community.
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Newspaper announcement of service times - Witcher's Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church South
Source: Swain County Herald, 24 January 1889
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The name “Witcher’s Chapel” disappears from the
written record (in the records that I have been able to access) after 1891. It is possible
that it later became the Judson Methodist Episopal Church.
Eli Collins (ca. 1807 – 1889) was originally interred
in the Judson Public Cemetery. At the time of Fontana Lake’s impoundment, his
grave was identified (though was apparently only marked by a fieldstone). No discernible
remains were found, therefore, it is likely that a symbolic shovelful of dark
earth was dug and placed in a new container, and reinterred in Lauada Cemetery.
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Judson, NC (1938). Thanks to Don Casada for identification of the church and cemetery.
Source: NARA Southeast
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Sources:
Ancestry.com, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Cemetery
Removal Records
Macon County, NC Register of Deeds
National Archives and Records Administration,
Southeast – TVA Records
Swain County Herald, 25 April 1889
