The area (first known as Lower Pine
Hills) was first visited by Methodist circuit riders in the early 1800s.
Around 1812, “Father Abraham” Pipes and his family settled in the area.
He became a book agent and served as a Methodist minister. By 1839,
Rev. Parrish was preaching at the Methodist mission at Lower Pine Hills.
In 1850, there was a Methodist church by the Smyrna cemetery.
The log church, pastored by Rev. John Honeycutt, served both blacks and
whites. When a post office was established in 1851, the name of the
community was changed to Downsville after Gen. Q.S. Downs.
The church was incorporated
on March 14, 1855 as the Downsville Circuit. Shortly after W.B. Mattox
gave land to the church on September 3, 1866, a building was constructed.
This original church later burned down. On April 26, 1890, J.T. Reynolds
gave some property to the church. Rev. Collier led the church in
building a sanctuary that year. Most of the furnishings were made
by the pastor himself. The church originally had a tall steeple,
but when it was damaged by a storm it was never rebuilt to that original
height. The bell from that steeple still hangs in the current steeple.
Until 1910, the pastors lived
in a parsonage at Downsville. From 1910 to 1947, the pastors lived
at Calhoun or Marion. In 1947, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ballard donated
their apple orchard to the church and a parsonage was built on the location
that year. The pastor at that time was Rev. D.L. McGuire.
In 1953-54, the current sanctuary
and education building were built. The old facilities were turned
around and used as part of the new structure. The church was dedicated
on March 29, 1959.
A new parsonage was built in
1982-83, with the dedication service on February 13, 1983. In 1986,
donations allowed for the installation of stained glass windows in the
church. They were dedicated on June 22 of that year.
The Downsville congregation
has historically been mission-minded. One project was to support
one fifth of the salary of Joe and Dot Davis, missionaries in the Belgian
Congo. Work teams from the church have traveled across the globe
for mission work. |
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