Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church-- History


Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church, established in 1834, is the second-oldest PCA church in Tennessee, and is the 60th-oldest congregation in the entire Presbyterian Church in America denomination. We have been in our current sanctuary for over 150 years.

Prosperity Presbyterian Church, which was the mother church to the present day Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church, was located not far from Oakland, Tennessee. It is believed that it was named Prosperity because many of the charter members came from Prosperity, South Carolina. Prosperity was formed on the fourth Sabbath in Dec. 1834 by 29 believers. Later the congregation moved to the southeast corner of the intersection of State Route 196 and Donelson Drive. The Prosperity Church soon became a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS).

Also in about 1834, a Cumberland Presbyterian Church was established in the Hickory Withe community and was called Mt. Pleasant Church. This church was located on Ivy Rd. at the site of the Mt Pleasant Cemetery. The name was later changed to the Hickory Withe Cumberland Presbyterian Church and it moved to the location on Donelson Drive, where the present day Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church is located.

On May 10, 1907, the congregation of the Cumberland Church at Hickory Withe voted to dissolve and the membership was received into the Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church (PCUS). The Cumberland Church had the larger church building and the Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church had a pastor so the congregations united. Jane Mitchell recalls, "I remember my father, Alfred Hodges, telling that one Sunday the congregation of the Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church (PCUS) walked to the Cumberland Church and said, 'Wouldn't we serve the Lord better if we united?' And the rest is history." Some of the prominent families through the years in the Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church were the Weber’s, Russell’s, Luck’s, Morrisson’s, Hodges, and Webb’s.

There was a school located on the west side of the church, and in the 1930’s it was determined that there was a need for the old school to be torn down and a new school built by the Works Progress Administration. The story is told that Will Weber, grandfather of Billy Whitworth’ and Elizabeth Carnation’, was chairman of the  School Board and prayed alone all night asking God’'s will on where the school should be built. The next morning he announced that the front of the school should be at the edge of the church property. It is clear that God was at work because in 1974, Alfred Hodges (at that time a county commissioner) and Mayes Webb (a member of the school board) helped in an effort for the church to buy the school building for use as the church’'s fellowship hall.

For more than 50 years, the Hickory Withe Church shared a minister with the Oakland Presbyterian Church, and would have Sunday School each Sunday but would have worship services only twice a month. In 1980 with the recommendation of the session and 100% vote of the congregation, the church withdrew from the PCUS denomination and joined the more conservative Presbyterian Church in America. We now have church services each Sunday morning and also a Wednesday night Bible Study.  

The name Prosperity was certainly appropriate as God’'s hand certainly has blessed Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church for 175 years and counting.  To God be the Glory.



See a list of the Pastors of Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church since 1834.

Additional history can be found at this brief history of Hickory Withe.