Cades Cove's Three Churches: What Really Split the Valley

Three churches stand about a mile apart in Cades Cove, a valley of a few hundred people in the Great Smoky Mountains. The story you often hear is that the Civil War split them. The church records say something else. We read the Primitive Baptist minute books (as quoted by historian Durwood Dunn), the 1920 Missionary Baptist history, the National Park Service histories and the park booklets: the 1839 Baptist split over missions, the Methodists and the national divide over slavery, the war years when all three churches went quiet, and the line a clerk wrote in 1865: "we was union people." Where the sources disagree, we say so. Watch next: The Lost Families of Cades Cove    • The Lost Families of Cades Cove | Great Sm...   Cataloochee: The Biggest Community in the Smokies Is Empty Now    • Cataloochee: The Biggest Community in the ...   Lost Communities & Ghost Towns of the Smokies (playlist)    • Lost Communities & Ghost Towns of the Smokies   Chapters 0:00 Three churches, a few hundred people 0:34 How we know what happened 1:12 The first church in the cove 2:11 The split that came first 3:30 The Methodists and a national divide 4:17 When the war closed the doors 5:36 A line in the church book 6:40 Where the accounts disagree 7:52 The fights that really divided them 9:08 Three buildings, three dates 10:36 What really divided Cades Cove Sources Durwood Clay Dunn, Cades Cove During the Nineteenth Century, PhD dissertation, University of Tennessee (1976), drawing on the Primitive Baptist minutes (1827-1900), J. W. H. Myers' 1920 history of the Missionary Baptist church and Oliver family records. NPS Cultural Landscape Inventories for the Primitive Baptist, Missionary Baptist and Methodist churches and cemeteries. NPS church pages, nps.gov/grsm. National Register nomination, Cades Cove Historic District. Cades Cove auto tour booklets (Great Smoky Mountains Association with the NPS, 1976 and later editions). Where these disagree (building dates, revival numbers, the two doors, Hopewell), both versions are given in the video. Visiting: the churches and cemeteries are still cared for by descendants and the park. Please be respectful in the graveyards. Check current conditions at nps.gov/grsm. Credits Photos via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses (cropped and zoomed; no endorsement implied): Billy Hathorn, CC BY-SA 3.0: Methodist Church cemetery. Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0: John Oliver cabin; Inside the Primitive Baptist Church; Primitive Baptist Church; Missionary Baptist Church; Inside the Missionary Baptist Church; Methodist Church; Inside the Methodist Church; Stone piers under the Methodist Church. Nancy J. Olds, CC BY-SA 4.0: Inside the Primitive Baptist Church; The path to the Primitive Baptist Church; Primitive Baptist Church from its cemetery; Inside the Methodist Church; Russell Gregory’s gravestone; Missionary Baptist Church; Methodist Church, Cades Cove (two front doors); Inside the Missionary Baptist Church. Jason Sturner, CC BY 2.0: Missionary Baptist Church cemetery. Brian Stansberry, CC BY 2.5: John Oliver cabin; Russell Gregory’s grave, Primitive Baptist cemetery; The Dan Lawson place. Billy Hathorn, CC BY 3.0: Missionary Baptist Church; Methodist Church; Inside the Missionary Baptist Church. David Ratledge, CC BY 4.0: Primitive Baptist Church; Primitive Baptist Church cemetery. Lee Ann Ratledge, CC BY 4.0: Primitive Baptist Church sign; Primitive Baptist Church cemetery; Dan Lawson barn. Sarah Stierch (Missvain), CC BY 4.0: Missionary Baptist Church; Missionary Baptist Church window; Missionary Baptist Church cemetery; Cades Cove; Inside the Missionary Baptist Church. Licenses: creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/2.0, by/2.5, by/3.0, by/4.0, by-sa/3.0, by-sa/4.0. Our edits of CC BY-SA photos remain under the same licenses. Public domain / no known copyright: David Haas, HAER (Library of Congress) (Methodist Church; Cades Cove from Rich Mountain Road; Cades Cove from Hyatt Lane; The Dan Lawson place; Hyatt Lane); Great Smoky Mountains NP Archives via Open Parks Network, no known copyright (6 archival photos, 1936-1979: the Primitive Baptist Church, Cades Cove views, the Oliver cabin; each credited on screen); National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains NP (Methodist Church on Decoration Day; Cades Cove meadow; Primitive Baptist Church on Decoration Day; Early-season snow, Cable Mill area). Map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL (openstreetmap.org/copyright). Ambience: "forest ambience" by nille (public domain) and "stream-river-water-up-close" by jackthemurray (CC0). Music: original. Narration voice is AI-generated; all photos are real (archival and present-day). No AI imagery. #CadesCove #SmokyMountains #SmokiesHistory