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Circuit riders who volunteered to come to the rough western frontier were the first preachers to bring the gospel to what is now Jackson. The Tombigbee Country was the mission field for Methodist evangelists such as Lorenzo Dow in the early 1800’s, followed by Matthew Parham Sturdivant, John French, Josiah Wilson, and others. Methodists did not wait for a congregation to assemble and then call a preacher; the Methodists sent the preacher on an extended circuit and hoped he could gather congregations along the way. Fully half of those brave circuit riders died before they were thirty years old, and worked for less than $100 a year.
The first church in Jackson is described in Anson West’s “History of Methodism in Alabama, “published in 1893:
“It was in 1842 when a Methodist Society was organized and a place of worship was improvised at that place. In that year, Mrs. A. C. Taylor, the wife of Walter Taylor, joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and she immediately had a dwelling house moved to a suitable lot, and such changes made in the building as was necessary to adapt it to a public worship, and furnished it with a pulpit and seats. She then induced the nearest itinerant preacher she could find to place it into his Circuit. On Monday, once a month, the Circuit Rider, as he was then called, preached in that house so promptly improvised by the zealous Christian woman.
Walter Taylor was the son of David Taylor, one of the first five commissioners when Pine Level, later to become Jackson, was incorporated in 1816. Walter attended the University of Alabama and graduated from a college in Augusta, Kentucky, “then the seat of a flourishing Methodist institution,” according to historian T. H. Ball. He and his wife, Amanda Caroline, raised six daughters and a son, and in addition to organizing the first church, also provided room and board for a teacher, and set high standards for future church members.
That first little church building provided by the Taylors was located near the present City Hall on Commerce Street, and near Pine Crest Cemetery. A larger frame building was erected in the 1890’s, close to the present Chamber of Commerce building. (Pine boards from that early church were used to build the enclosure for the baptismal font in 1992) During many of those early years, Jackson was on a circuit, with preaching services only once a month. After the Baptist church was organized in 1854 and the Presbyterian Church in 1872, people frequently attended whichever church held services.
Shortly after the turn of the century, a new frame church was built on the corner of College and Rose Streets, the present site. Fire destroyed the building in 1928, as well as most of the church records. (Within a short time the Baptist Church across the street also burned.) Construction on the present brick building began that same year, and was completed in 1929. Additions and alterations to that building have followed the steady growth of the church through the years. In 1949-50, the sanctuary was remodeled. The Fellowship Hall, kitchen, heating and air-conditioning, the chapel, and additional Sunday School classrooms in a three-story addition were a major project in the mid-1950’s.
The first parsonage was located on Forest Avenue. Later, the parsonage was located beside the church on College Avenue. A building program for a new parsonage and education building was begun in the early 1960’s. The two-story education building was built where the parsonage had been and the new parsonage was built on Chesley Avenue
The church staff offices were moved from the back of the sanctuary building to the first floor of the education building in the early 1990’s. a Christian Life Center was constructed to meet the growing needs of the church during the 1990’s, with a large multi-purpose room, a kitchen, restrooms, parlor, and classroom space. Additional land for more parking was acquired.
Written by Barbara Hundley
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