Original Stone Association
of Free Will Baptists
Established
1865
Our History - Church Histories
Post Oak Shade
The following church history was written by the late Judge Ernest
Houston Boyd Sr. as part of a series of historical articles in the Putnam
County Herald.  It was published December 10,1953.  The articles were
compiled by Christine Spivey Jones into a book called Nuggets of
Putnam County History.

Post Oak Shade Free Will Baptist Church is located six miles Northwest of
Cookeville, in the Seventh Civil District of Putnam County; this congregation has
recently erected a splendid new frame church building, one of the most
attractive frame church buildings in the county. This church and congregation is
a continuation of the old pioneer Blackburn Baptist Church, and congregation,
and, conceding the continuity of the Post Oak Shade congregation from the
organization of the Blackburn Baptist Church congregation to the present
time, in so far as I have been able to learn the Post Oak Shade Free Will Baptist
congregation has the oldest continuous history of any active church
congregation in Putnam County, its nearest rivals in point of age being the
Caney Fork Baptist Church, and the Salem and Pleasant Grove Methodist
churches.

In early writings and published travel records there are a number of references
to the fortress and block house at or near the double springs, the block house
having been owned and occupied by the Blackburn family. There were at least
two Blackburn brothers who originally lived at that location, where one of them,
Benjamin Blackburn, kept an “ordinary” or travelers lodging place and Inn. It is
believed that the name of Benjamin Blackburn’s brother who also lived at that
location was James Blackburn, as the latter’s name appears on legal documents
as early as 1801.

The exact year that Benjamin Blackburn located at the double springs is not
known but it was at a very early date, probably about 1790. We know that he
was located there as early as 1791, for the reason that in Heiskell’s History of
Andrew Jackson, there is published a letter from Hugh Dunlap, written in 1842,
in which letter he tells of coming to Knoxville the 1st of February, 1792, and
states “There was a fort at Campbell’s station which was the lowest settlement in
east Tennessee. The next fort and settlement was at Blackburn’s, West of the
Cumberland Mountains; the next at Fort Blount on the Cumberland River and
then the French Lick now Nashville.”

In 1802, F. A. Michaux, the great French naturalist accompanied by other
naturalists and explorers, made a trip from Nashville to Knoxville, to learn what
they could of the country, and Michaux’s published account of his observations
on that trip is highly interesting and instructive. He relates that after leaving Fort
Blount on Cumberland River and before entering into “the wilderness”, on his
way from Nashville to Knoxville, he stopped and spent the night at Mr
Blackburn's, about fifteen miles from Fort Blount.” Michaux and his party crossed
the Cumberland River at Fort Blount in 1802, and his statement that they
stopped at Mr. Blackburn’s about fifteen miles from Fort Blount” seems to
definitely fix the approximate location of the Blackburn fortress and block house
at or near the double springs on the Nashville road in the suburbs of the present
town of Double Springs. Then as now, the road ran direct from Fort Blount up, by
way of Flynn’s Lick, to the ridge and on to the double springs.

These facts establish as a certainty that Benjamin Blackburn was located at or
near the double springs as early as 1791 and that he in all probability located
there not later than 1790.

We know that he was a leading spirit in the building of the old Blackburn Baptist
Church and in the organization of its congregation, because the church was
named for him, or for his family, as was Blackburn’s Fork Creek. We know that
the old Blackburn Church was built and its congregation organized within a few
years after the Blackburns located at the double springs, as the oldest residents
of that locality know that it was the oldest church building in that section.

The old Blackburn Church building was a large log building with a large fireplace
in it. There are numerous elderly people of that section who can remember
seeing that old log church building many years after it ceased to be used for
church services. It was located near the Dyer grave yard, about a mile from
the present Post Oak Shade Church building. After the passing of many years,
the congregation of the old Blackburn Church decided to build a new church
building and to erect it on the site of the present Post Oak Shade Church
building about a mile from the old Blackburn Church site, and, furthermore, the
congregation decided to change the name of the church from Blackburn Church
to Post Oak Shade Church.

I have not been able to learn definitely the year in which the first church building
was erected on the present Post Oak Shade Church site. It was standing and in
use by the congregation as far back as the oldest residents of that community
can remember. Mr. Melvin A. Judd of Cookeville, who was reared in that
community, states that he remembers attending services in that church building
with his parents, when he was a small child, about seventy years ago, and that
the building appeared to be an old building in his early childhood. That first Post
Oak Shade Church building must have been erected not later than 1866. The
erection of that church building did not break the continuity of the old Blackburn
Baptist Church congregation, as it moved out of the old Blackburn Church
building into the new Post Oak Shade Church building, as soon as the latter
building was built.

Among the early deacons and leaders in the Post Oak Shade congregation
were Jesse Barnes, Sr., Richard F. Pippin, James and Joseph White, Frank
Judd, Thomas B. Presley, Lafayette Byers, and Henry Kirby.

The old Blackburn Church congregation was organized as a regular Baptist
congregation, but this congregation became affiliated with the Christian Baptist
denomination when that denomination was organized in this county in 1865,
and, since that denomination united with the Free Will Baptist denomination, the
Post Oak Shade Church has been a Free Will Baptist Church. From the best
information available, the old Blackburn Church was organized not later than
1803, which makes the Post Oak Shade congregation about 150 years old.

It is highly probable that the Blackburn family was the first family settling in what
is now the central portion of Putnam County.

In a former article I state that I did not know where any descendant of Benjamin
Blackburn, or of his brother, now resides, and, since the publication of that
article, I have received a letter from Mrs. Curry Hawkins, whose address is 2860
San Gabriel River Pkwy., El Monte, California, a subscriber to the Putnam
County Herald, in which letter she informed me that there were Blackburn
descendants living in Putnam County, but their names are not Blackburn. The
letter of Mrs. Hawkins reads, in part, as follows: “Perry Alcorn, of Byers Ridge,
near Baxter, who was 78 years old last April, is the oldest descendant living that I
know of, he is my uncle. Perry Alcorn’s father, Richard (Uncle Dick) Alcorn was
the son of Nancy Blackburn Alcorn. She died about the early 1870’s. If it hasn’t
been destroyed, her father’s old Bible is at Bob Gragg’s or one of his sister’s
who lives near Gentry. The old Bible is full of records of marriages, births and
deaths of the Blackburn families. Bob Gragg’s sister, Mrs. Anothy Bush lives in
the first house on the right of the road that turns off Highway 70 at Stanton’s
store at Gentry. There is Wiley R. Alcorn who lives near the Jere Whitson School
at Cookeville and myself are greatgrandchildren of Nancy Blackburn Alcorn. The
late Stant Elrod was also a greatgrandson of her’s. Uncle Perry Alcorn might be
able to tell you where some of the Blackburns are buried, but they had all
passed away before he was born. My grandfather, Richard Alcorn, died in
September 1914.” I have not yet had an opportunity to interview any of the
Blackburn descendants referred to in the letter of Mrs. Hawkins.
This church is located in Putnam County, TN and is currently a member of our
association.  For more, see the historical information under Blackburns Fork.