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A HISTORY OF
THE CORBIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Compiled by:
R. Springer Hoskins
(1927 - 2007)
(Original History written by J.E. McShane.
Most Recent History written by Rev. John Manon)
A HISTORY OF THE CORBIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
That the Corbin Presbyterian Church officially came into existence in 1892 is a matter of record. When and by whom the seeds of Presbyterianism were first planted along the swampy banks of Lynn Camp Creek, near where its waters empty into Laurel River, is difficult to determine from known church records and documents. Almost equally vague is the early history of the little settlement that evolved into the present City of Corbin.
According to one written report, a small settlement existed here as early as 1883, when the Louisville and Nashville Railroad completed the extension of its track from Livingston, Kentucky in Rockcastle County to the Tennessee state line at Jellico, an area rich in coal.
Corbin, which was not incorporated until 1895, had been known as Lynn Camp in its earlier years, and the local post office was under that name. The name change came about because of a directive by the Post Office Department. According to oral tradition, the name Corbin was suggested to then-Postmaster James Eaton by a minister named James Corbin Floyd, whose denominational affiliation was not recorded.
Eight years later, in 1891, the L&N Railroad "purchased a sizable parcel of land in Whitley County, near Corbin, Kentucky, formerly known a Lynn Camp, and shortly thereafter commenced the construction of a round house and certain other facilities...".
Work on the round house was not completed until 1893, but "despite the fact that the L&N's facilities at Corbin were rather meager, the town commenced to growing a startling manner and a number of buildings were erected. It is said that no less than 12 saloons lined the town's main street and the Shotwells and the Whites, then in the midst of their feud, frequently enlivened the civic scene with a little plain and fancy shooting."
Although Presbyterians had been prominent among the pioneers who settled Kentucky, their numbers, for various reasons, had remained small and never reflected the degree of influence they exercised in some of the early settlements or the affluence they attained. Presbyterians, in fact, became a decreasing percentage of Kentucky's population as the 19th century progressed.
However, during the latter part of the 1890's, following the Civil War and coinciding with Corbin's railroad-inspired period of early growth, it became "obvious to good Presbyterians that the devil was gaining in Kentucky. It was time to wake up!
Dr. Edward O. Guerrant, a prominent Presbyterian minister in Louisville, reported to the synod of Kentucky that of 100 counties in the state (at that time) sixty were without a single Presbyterian church. Of the more than one million persons then living in the Bluegrass state, scarcely 10,000 were Presbyterians. Guerrant was particularly concerned about the lack of Presbyterian churches in Eastern Kentucky. In 1881 Guerrant was called upon by the Synod of Kentucky to resign his position as pastor of Louisville's First Presbyterian Church and move to Mt. Sterling to become synod evangelist and lead the Presbyterian efforts to organize new churches and strengthen old churches in the Appalachian area of the state.
Presbyterians "felt a special call to the mountains" as was demonstrated by a resolution adopted by the Presbyterian Friends of the Mountain Whites" at a Scotch-Irish Congress held at the first Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Ohio, in 1893.
This resolution identified the white residents in the mountains of Kentucky and surrounding states as being "largely of Scotch-Irish descent", an arguable statement of fact. Continuing, the resolution stated that "the fact that these people are of Scotch-Irish descent implied that their ancestors were of Presbyterian faith and order," an implication that "imposes high and solemn obligations upon the several Presbyterian churches of this land to labor to bring them up to the full measure of blessing and privilege which the other members of our race belong."
These actions and the expressions of concern among brethren of the Presbyterian faith coincide, chronologically at least, with efforts made in three Southeastern Kentucky communities ... Pineville, Middlesboro and CORBIN!
Pineville, the town at what was originally known as Cumberland Ford where the early settlers moved westward through the Cumberland Gap had to cross the Cumberland River, was the first of the three to be in the site of new church development by the Presbyterians. Although Pineville was settled in the 1780's, it was almost 100 years later when Dr. Guerrant "planned to hold a meeting at Pineville the first Sabbath in May (of 1889) to organize a church, if the way be clear". The first minister arrived at Pineville on May 30 "to take up the work" of organizing the church. With Guerrant's help, the reverend Henry Miller was able to organize the new Presbyterian congregation on July 10, 1889.
Miller almost immediately began to plan for a new church at Middlesboro, located a few miles south of Pineville at the foot of Cumberland Gap. Four months later, on October 2, 1989, Miller was able to write in one of his reports that he had organized "the First Presbyterian Church, US, at Middlesborough" with 16 members on August 1, 1889.
Three years later, the Reverend W. Butler Harrison, who was preparing to leave Pineville after serving as pastor only three months, wrote on August 17, 1892, that "Our standing at Corbin is on sandy soil." Harrison, who had been holding services in Corbin in addition to his duties at Pineville, said, "The Congregationalists are jealous, claiming we have some of their members. The Methodists are trying to form and organization and several of our members are at the heart of that denomination. The Baptists are thinking of coming in. Beside this, the population is almost transient..... the Campbellites have a resident pastor. If we are going to do anything we must act promptly. The people are poor but will do what they can. They are anxious for regular preaching. It is a wicked place," Finally, he pleaded for the work in Corbin to continue: We cannot afford to abandon the place for it is growing and will continue to be a point of considerable importance."
In a history of the Corbin Presbyterian Church that was compiled in 1944, it states that the church was organized by the Reverend W. A. Slaymaker, then pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Stanford, Kentucky, "between May 27 and September 7, 1982." The latter date appears to be the most accurate since Reverend Harrison's letter of August 17 indicates that no church organization existed then and September 7 was the date of a meeting of the Transylvania Presbytery.
The first organized church in Corbin appears to have been the Congregational Church, which had a building at the corner of Main and Seventh Streets. It was here that the early Presbyterians held their services, although Reverend Harrison wrote on August 17, 1892 that there was some friction developing among the local church groups. According to one written account, the friction reached its peak when the Presbyterians went to the church one evening to hold services and found they had been locked out. Meetings of the congregation were held in homes from that time until they built their first sanctuary on Laurel Avenue.
The charter members of the Corbin Presbyterian church were listed as "Mr. and Mrs. Huston, Mr. and Mrs. N.S. Ray, Mr. and Mrs. R. Day". In 1944, a church history stated that Mrs. Day is now Mrs. A M. Offutt, only living charter member at this time". Mr. Offutt was one of the earliest elders of record in the Corbin church.
The pulpit of the church was vacant in 1893 but the Reverend Henry Miller came to Corbin as Stated Supply in 1894 and continued in that role until 1896. About the time of his arrival the trustees purchased a lot on Laurel Avenue for $75.00. The deed was dated November 7, 1894, and the "present church as built on this site shortly thereafter." This white frame sanctuary still stands in 1992 and is the oldest church building in Corbin.
In 1896, the Corbin and Pineville churches jointly called the Reverend Williams Kenneth Forsyth to fill their pulpits. A native of Rosshire, Scotland, where he was born in 1866, he immigrated to America and was graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina before studying at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. Following his call to fill the pulpits of the Corbin and Pineville churches, Forsyth was ordained by the Transylvania Presbytery on July 12, 1896.
Corbin and Pineville were the only churches the young Scotsman was ever to serve. He became ill in 1899 and was forced to resign. He died two years later in Greensboro, North Carolina. Shortly before leaving Corbin, Forsyth had seen the congregation grow to 45 members.
In 1915, a new "mountain Synod for mountain people" was organized under the name Synod of Appalachia. Corbin Presbyterian joined two other Southeastern Kentucky Churches... Pineville and Middlesboro, in transferring from the Synod of Kentucky to this new "mountain synod". At that same time, these churches transferred their membership from Transylvania Presbytery to Knoxville Presbytery. Highway travel was very difficult in this area in 1915 and passenger train service was such that it was much easier to get to churches in the Knoxville area than churches in the Transylvania Presbytery. Thus, attendance by Corbin Presbyterian ministers and elders at meetings of the presbytery and other church functions was facilitated by the change.
According to earlier church historians and available records, the congregation of the Corbin Presbyterian church was increasing almost continuously from 1892 into the early 1920's. In 1918, it was recorded, the church had 135 members but had declined to only 83 when Reverend Davies left the pastorate here at the end of 1922. For about the next half-century, church membership fluctuated going from the 1922 low to over 100 on several occasions and dropping again in the 1930s to about 85.
The early 1970s, however saw membership stabilize somewhat and begin an era of slow but steady growth. This era also saw a time of considerable growth in the church budget. Perhaps this period of growth was a slightly delayed response to the act of faith and foresight taken by the congregation a few years earlier.
With communicant membership of 104 and the church requiring financial assistance from Knoxville Presbytery in meeting the pastor's salary, the congregation voted in 1963 to purchase several lots on Master Street as the site for a new church building. For the year 1963, total church receipts were $11,090, of which over 15 percent was allocated to benevolences.
In June of 1964, a contract in the amount of $71,170 was awarded by the congregation for construction of the new church on Master Street. The first service was held in the new building on July 4, 1965, with Reverend Rex Knowles of Center College, Danville, delivering the dedicatory sermon. The building committee was composed of Samuel S. Cannon, chairman; Mr. and Mrs. Earl Kidd, O.L. Little, and J.E. McShane.
About this time, according to Session Minutes, the Corbin church was experiencing, as were many other small churches, a continuing decline in attendance at evening worship services. On January 4, 1966, the session took note of the poor attendance and voted to discontinue evening services. "until the first Sunday in March, when they will be resumed, if conditions warrant." Apparently it was the women of the church who had been the mainstays of the evening services, for the Session voted for discontinuance because of "the present understandable hesitancy of unaccompanied women to venture on the streets after dark..."
Evidently the conditions remained unchanged, however, for later Session minutes show only that the pastor planned special Sunday evening services on March 13 and 20 of that year.
Shortly thereafter, the church began holding monthly Family Night Suppers on Sundays and accompanied these with programs of special interest and/or concern to the congregation. These programs continue to be held on a regular basis.
In the early 1970's an event occurred which gave some officers and members of the church cause for concern. The session had received a routine query from Knoxville Presbytery asking if the Corbin church might be financially sound enough that Presbytery's annual contribution toward the minister's salary could be discontinued, making these funds available to other churches which might have a greater need. After considerable discussion and debate over whether the church was able to take this step, the Session decided to take a "leap of faith", as one elder who was active at that time recalls, and to give up the subsidy from Presbytery. The congregation responded with their own "leap of faith" and a budget reflecting the end of over ten years of financial assistance from Knoxville Presbytery was fully subscribed.
In fact, church records support the statement that Corbin Presbyterian Church in its 100 years of existence has never failed to meet and, most times, surpass the financial support requested of it for Presbytery, Synod or General Assembly benevolent causes.
About this same time, construction of the new interstate highway system was well underway and I-75 was already virtually complete from Corbin north to Lexington. Railway passenger service was rapidly passing from the scene. A combination of these factors, coupled with the fact that Corbin, for some years had been the only Kentucky church remaining a member of Knoxville Presbytery seemed to some to make a return to membership in Transylvania Presbytery a logical and desirable move. On November 17, 1981, a session committee which had been appointed to study the pros and cons of a change made a recommendation in favor of the move. At its next regular meeting, the Session voted to petition Knoxville Presbytery for dismissal and Transylvania Presbytery for membership. A service celebrating the move and the church's 90th birthday was held September 26, 1982.
A short time earlier, in late 1979, the congregation had taken note of the church's inability to plan for expansion of the lots purchased for the original construction. Master Street was rapidly becoming more commercialized and land prices could only go higher. A house and lot on the west side of the church property had recently been placed on the market and the Session recommended to the congregation that the property be purchased for $28,000 with $8,000 coming from the building fund and the other $20,000 to be borrowed.
That this property would eventually be used for church expansion became evident in 1981 when the Session, trying to devise ways to provide for additional Sunday School classrooms, consulted with the architect who designed the 1965 building about ways the upstairs cold be utilized. His reply was that he felt certain the church would not be happy with windowless classrooms upstairs and the church's thinking should be directed toward a new educational building.
A year later, in June 1982, the congregation voted unanimously to commit the church to plan for such an addition at a cost that was expected to approach $150,000. Fearing that the 146 member congregation might be overwhelmed by a large mortgage, however, the building committee recommended that borrowing be limited to $30,000. By this time, mid-1983, the building fund had already grown to over $52,000 and, with a self-imposed borrowing limit of $30,000 more, the church was faced with raising another $50,000 in cash or pledges before an education building could be started. Two months later, the building fund totaled over $82,000 in cash and pledges and the congregation was able to unanimously approve the awarding of a contract. The construction began immediately, the addition was ready for occupancy in March 1984, and the mortgage was completely paid in March 1988.
As the church entered its centennial year, it had an active membership of 136, a budget of approximately $111,000 (of which 13.6% is designated for benevolences), and has just completed the purchase of a vacant lot to the rear of the Master Street property for possible future expansion.
Throughout its first 100 years, Corbin Presbyterian Church has been the beneficiary of a multitude of women members who have contributed beyond their numbers to its spiritual and physical growth and well-being. Only in the last quarter century, however, have they been eligible to serve as ruling elders of the congregation. Dot (Mrs. Sam) Cannon and Mabel (Mrs. Gus) Hausman became the first female members of the session in 1976, although women had served as Deacons as early as 1973.
Although this brief history deals largely with "bricks and mortar" events in the life of Corbin Presbyterian Church, the spiritual commitment of the congregation continues to be evident in a variety or programs and events and services which it provides in the Corbin community. From the early days of the church, when it had the only organized youth program in town and regularly had over 100 young people at its weekly programs to the beginning of its second century, the Presbyterian church in Corbin has been an involved and working church.
Helping to meet community needs, the church operates a food pantry that now regularly serves about 350 families a month, totaling more than 600 people. Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, adult education groups, community groups, the Red Cross, and classical concerts have regularly found a home within the walls of the church. The congregation participates in ecumenical programs with the Greater Corbin Ministerial Association and wherever it feels led by the Holy Spirit.
The centennial year pastor, Dr. Stephen E. Aschmann, has said the spirit of the church can be summed up in these phrases: "The members of Corbin Presbyterian church are a pilgrim people to have joined together on an exciting journey of faith. Bonded together by our love for the Lord, our church family seeks to responsibly serve our Christ in worship, study, fellowship and mission. We endeavor to be an open-door congregation: open to all people, open to the directives of God's spirit and open the new possibilities for ministry". The spirit of these words are still alive in this congregation. Under the guidance of Rev. John Manon, new possibilities in worship, study, fellowship, and mission are well underway with even more to come in the future. The guiding principle of Rev. Manon, "we are proud of the past, but focused on the future," has unified and inspired the current church members to seek out new levels of discipleship.
One thing that has been unvarying throughout Corbin Presbyterian Church's history is passion to glorify and worship God. This is reflected in the church's motto, which still appears on the worship bulletin each and every Lord's Day: "God, make this place of worship wide enough to receive all who need human love, friendship and the Father's care; narrow enough to shut out all pride, envy, and hatred; and smooth enough for the feet of little children."
PASTORS SERVING THE CORBIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
1896 - Present
•· William Kenneth Forsyth 1896 - 1899
•· William E. Furr 1900 - 1902
•· John A. Simpson 1904 - 1906
•· Henry W. Escott 1908 - 1911
•· Samuel D. Boggs 1912 - 1913 (stated supply)
•· Joseph M. Evans 1914 -- 1915 (stated supply)
•· William Payton 1915 - 1920
•· John C. Davies 1921 - 1922
•· M. C. Liddell 1923 - 1929 (not ordained)
•· Unknown 1931 - 1939
•· F. D. Stevenson 1940 - 1956
•· George H. Farr 1957 - 1961
•· Everett A. Hellmuth 1961 - 1966
•· William Vanzant III 1967 - 1973
•· Daniel Mitchell 1974 - 1978
•· Thomas Johnston 1978 (interim)
•· Herbert H. Adams 1978 - 1985
•· Richard M. Moon 1986 (interim)
•· Stephen E. Aschmann 1986 - 1999
•· Jack Wilhelm 1999 - 2002 (interim)
•· Paul Henschen 2002 - 2004
•· Bill Reed 2005 - 2006 (interim)
•· Steven Tischendorf 2006 - 2007
•· Phil Majors 2007 - 2008 (interim)
•· John Manon 2008 - present
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