Church History

Sinking Springs UMC began as a camp-meeting ground sited about 2 ½ miles north of Clinton
about the year 1811, on the road now known as Sinking Springs Road and ¼ mile from the
present Church building. A spring which disappeared beneath the road and then came up again
on the other side gave the Church its name.

Camp-meetings were a feature of great revivals in the early part of the nineteenth century. One
account tells us: “Camp-meetings were held in the fall. Many people came, and some of the
wealthier ones-built cabins to live in while they were there. Most of the people brought food
provisions, including a cow; special places were made in the spring to keep the milk cool. The
methods of transportation were various . . . The meetings lasted for two weeks but sometimes
they continued longer.

Traditions tells us the Church was organized about 1840. On November 27, 1848, a deed for
property belonging to the McAdoo family was drawn “to the Trustees of Samuel Dunn, James Kirkpatrick,
William Dale, Benjamin P. Hackney, Samuel Moore, E.C. Edwards, John Severs and Phillip
Seiber, for 1 ½ acres, for the sole purpose of establishing and building a campground . . . for the use
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, forever so long as the said church wishes to use the said land for such
and no longer – – with the further privilege of free access to the spring for use of the congregation.

Our record of pastors begins in 1871 when Rev. Robert A. Hutsell was pastor of the Clinton
Circuit. In 1880 the Church became part of the Andersonville Circuit and Rev. Jacob R. Payne was
appointed pastor. This relationship continued for the next 68 years except for brief periods
when the alignment was in conjunction with other circuits in this part of country. In 1957 Sinking
Springs and Norris were brought together as a two-point charge. In 1964 Sinking Springs, Moore’s Gap, and
Heiskell formed a circuit, but the linkage with Norris as part of a two-point situation was
resumed in 1969 and that continues today.

Early leaders included W.A. Wallace, James R. Ray, S.D. Leinart, John Allen, J.B. Carden, W.H. McAdoo,
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Leonhardt, and Miss Lizzie Kirkpatrick.

The congregation occupied a one-room school very near the present location when its lay
membership was led by J.C. Wallace, George and Ernest Taylor. A parcel of land was deeded to
the system by Henry Irwin and in 1914, when Rev. William L. Dykes was pastor, after a
cyclone had damaged a building used both by our Church and for a school, it was purchased
from the County for $300 for church purposes. Two classrooms were added in 1940.

When the unification of Methodist denominations occurred in 1939, Moore’s Gap joined with Sinking
Springs the following year so that former northern and southern branches were indeed one. In
1948 a five-room parsonage was built near the Church while Rev. E.L. McConnell was the
pastor.