| On November 2, 1823, four years after the
Cherokee Indians ceded their land to the United States and only forty
days after the State Legislature passed the act transferring the county
seat of McMinn County from Calhoun to the new village of Athens, the
Reverend William Eagleton organized a small group of Presbyterians, most
of whom came from Blount County, into Mars Hill Presbyterian Church. The Legislature granted the young church two acres in what is now Cedar Grove Cemetery. The members met in a brush arbor, in the Academy, and probably in the nearby Baptist Church, until 1838 when a brick sanctuary was completed on Lot No. 19 on North Jackson Street in Athens. A new vestibule was built in 1876, joining the 1838 sanctuary, until a slate roof proved too heavy for the old building. A new sanctuary was in use by 1878 and continues to serve the congregation to the present day. The church's bell, forged in 1837, is still rung for services. Since that time, north and south wings have been added and a new manse built. Our members are said to be warm and friendly. Our church affirms "with the earliest Christians that Jesus is Lord," believes he is its hope, and confesses "that the church, as Christ's body, is bound to his authority and thus free to live in the lively, joyous reality of the grace of God" (Book of Order G-1.0100d.). |