Chrystie and list, here is some of what I have researched on the church histories. Re: Rev. Samuel DOAK, Jr. From, Religion in Tennessee 1777-1945, Norton, Herman A., Univ. of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1981. p. 4 " ....Doak came into Tennessee territory. He arrived with impressive credentials. A program of classical study in the school that eventually became Washington and Lee University had been followed by two years at Princeton and the award of a baccalaureate degree in 1775. Teaching two years as a member of the faculty at Hamden-Sydney College, Doak had simultaneously studied theology under the guidance of the college president, the Reverend John Blair Smith. He also had a ministerial apprenticeship before receiving his license at age twenty-eight form the Hanover Presbytery, which extended its boundaries to the East Tennessee region. "Doak settled and preached initially in what is now Sullivan County (TN). Stationing himself between the forks of the Holston and Watauga rivers, he spent two years moving among the settlers providing religious leadership. In 1780, he moved to the Salem settlement in present-day Washington County (TN). He decided on the relocation, according to tradition, after an impressive experience with some settlers who were cutting trees. He had been riding through the forest when he met the men. Learning his identity, they requested he delay his journey and preach to as many people as could be assembled immediately. With the grove as a sanctuary and his horse a pulpit, he delivered as sermon. Deeply moved, the settlers begged him to come and live among them. Doak and his small family soon became Salem residents. Once settled, the young minister led in the erection of a log structure to house the congregation, the first Presbyterian church building in Tennessee. "The energetic Doak was not only a good pastor but an aggressive evangelist as well. In the same year that the congregation in Salem was constituted, he established gatherings at New Providence, Carter's Valley, and Mount Bethel. Additionally, he had a hand in organizing worshipers at Upper Concord, New Bethel, and Hebron, all in East Tennessee. "......Equally significant, graduates of Doak's schools, including his two sons, John and Samuel, took the lead in establishing Presbyterian congregations and schools." End of quote. Note: Washington and Lee University is in Lexington, Rockbridge Co. VA, and Hamden-Sydney College (founded 1776) is in Prince Edward County, closer to Richmond VA. There is nothing in Norton's book about Samuel Doak in New River area of VA, I am thinking of Reedy Creek, Wythe county..., but then his subject is religion in Tennessee. I have found records of Samual Doak land grants on Reed(y) Creek. Check out this site for information about the founding of the church in southwest Virginia. It is mostly about the Presbyterians, but has a lot of information about the early Lutheran congregations too. http://www.ls.net/~newriver/va/abpres1.htm HISTORY OF ABINGDON PRESBYTERY Goodridge A. Wilson, Jr. Excerpts: "The next notice of an organized congregation appears in the minutes of Hanover Presbytery as of April 10, 1771, when the Rev. Charles Cummings reported that he had carried out the instructions given him at the previous fall meeting of Presbytery to tour the western vacancies and to go as far as the Royal Oak on Holston. On this tour he organized the Big Spring congregation on the headwaters of Holston, with George Adams, Robert Buchanan, Richard Higgins, and Alexander Neilly as elders. Robert Buchanan's house still stands beside a very large spring, one of the head springs of the Middle Fork of Holston, in Smyth county, near the Wythe line, a few miles west of Rural Retreat, and it is a reasonable supposition that the Big Spring congregation was formed in this house and named for this spring. The name Big Spring does not appear again in the minutes, but shortly afterwards the name of Salem Church on Reed Creek begins to appear and frequently occurs. The Doaks, who lived in Black Lick Valley, are named in connection with Salem on Reed Creek, and the Black Lick branch is a fork of Reed Creek. It is known that a very 01(1 log Presbyterian church stood along that branch for many years. From which I infer that the Big Spring congregation was organized by Rev. Charles Cummings in 1771 in the home of Robert Buchanan; that the congregation decided to build their meeting house some six or seven miles to the northeast on Black Lick, and changed the name to Salem. If so, this church was allowed to die, was later revived as the Black Lick Church, and is now functioning as the Rural Retreat Church. At the next spring meeting of Presbytery, in 1772, a call for the pastoral services of Rev. James Campbell was presented from the Sinking Spring and Ebbing Spring congregations on Holston. These congregations appear to have been organized independently about 1771, as no record appears in the minutes of any official of the Presbytery being sent to aid in their organization. Their representatives went to Presbytery in the spring of 1772 to petition for supplies and to put in their call for Rev, James Campbell. Mr. Campbell, a promising and very popular young minister, had several calls proffered him at this time. He did not accept any of them, and shortly afterwards notice of his untimely death appears in the minutes. At the next meeting of Hanover Presbytery, in June 1773, these congregations presented a call for the Rev. Charles Cummings, which he accepted, and Presbytery appointed Rev, John Brown to install him. Thus the Sinking Spring and Ebbing Spring churches were the first to call a pastor, and the Rev. Charles Cummings became the first settled pastor west of the Alleghany Mountains. The next pastor to come was the Rev. Samuel Doak, who in. 1778 crossed the Alleghanies with a library on pack horses to become pastor of several churches in Tennessee and to found Washington College, the first seat of higher learning on Mississippi waters." (End of quote) The Reed(y) Creek Wythe Co. VA connection sounds interesting to me. My Lindseys and Myers were both in that New River area, and is likely where those families connected, if not in PA. Moses Lindsey being Scots-Irish, most likely Presbyterian, married Leticia daughter of George Breckenridge and Ann Doak, and their son Moses Jr, married Catharine Mires by Regular Baptist minister John Jones Jr. in Washington Co. VA, 1813. I suspect, but have not proven, Catharine Mires/Myers is from the St. Pauls German Lutheran congregation near Rural Retreat, Wythe County VA., same community as the Doak's Presbyterian congregation. I find this history of the churches to provide not only genealogy clues, but also important insights into the lives of these people. Fascinating. Katie >From: Chrystie Myes <[email protected]> >Reply-To: [email protected] >To: [email protected] >Subject: Re: [MOYERS] MOYERS / Presbyterians in Washington Co., TN >Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 16:42:30 -0400 > >Katie, > >I'd love to read more re: the Presbyterian's of Washington Co., TN. Did you >know that not only is there a First Presbyterian Church a few miles from >the >Pigeon Forge area of TN; but there is also a Pigeon Forge River in >Washington Co., PA near a church of similiar name. Alot of the same >surnames >exist in both areas and I always wondered of the connection. >-- >Chrystie MYERS - ROOTSWEB.COM > _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.