PISTOLE BAPTIST CHURCH
Pistole’s Baptist Church is situated in the northern part of White County, Tennessee on Falling Water River–some three miles below Bunker Hill. This church was planted by the missionaries of Salem Association under the direction of Elder Jesse Johnson. This church is an offspring of Hudgen’s Creek Church, another mission church, located three miles south of Cookeville.
This church was constituted in April, 1851 when convened at Plunkett’s Creek. They carried with them a constituency of thirty-eight members. They remained a member of this body until May, 1853 when they became a constituent member of Johnson Association. The growth of this church for the first ten years (to the opening of the Civil War) was phenomenal. They numbered at this time perhaps near three hundred members besides sending out several new churches. During this time they had also ordained three ministers: Elders Elijah Hickey, Alonzo Bennett and James H. Nelson. Few churches have ever had a brighter record to begin with. If the curtain could only fall here–but alas!
When the hostilities between the States opened this church was situated in the center of guerrilla warfare that played sad havoc with this once prosperous body. The ministry was cut off from the church and many of the members moved away to seek more peaceful quarters.
Taking advantage of the surroundings Elders Thomas stone and Thomas and Benjamin Clouse, “Christian Baptist” ministers, came in and took possession of the house of worship and proselyted a number of the members to the “Christian Baptist” persuasion. At the close of hostilities, when the brotherhood reassembled, the “Christian Baptists” held the property by sheer force of possession. During the war their pastor, Alonzo Bennett, had died and they tried to arouse an interest in vain. In 1867 this scattered band built a house some two miles north in the edge of Putnam County on a 2-acre lot donated by John Grime and moved their place of worship to this point and changed the name from Pistole’s to Boiling Spring. From this time the church began to prosper and this disheartened band saw their work again blessed and was soon one of the most influential churches of that section. In the meantime a very influential and a promising young minister by the name of Mansfield Howell had grown up among the “Christian Baptists” and proposed to unite with Boiling Spring Church provided they would receive him on his baptism. Like King Saul the temptation was too great for them and they yielded. The idea of securing such a trophy from the very sad people who had taken their church house from them was more than they could deny. There was an element in the church, however, who were opposed to receiving him unless he would be baptized although personally he was loved by all. His reception caused quite a deal of confusion in Johnson Association of which this church was a member.
In the meantime a few brethren decided to reclaim the old Pistole’s Church property. So on August 14, 1874 Elders J.C. Brien and T.R. Cooper constituted a church there with six members. This new church stood opposed to reception of alien immersion. They began at once to prosper and the “Christian Baptists” abandoned the property and left it to their use.
At this time J.H. Grime was clerk of Boiling Spring Church but strongly opposed alien immersion. The discussion in Johnson Association grew sharper from year to year till 1874 when they met with Caney Fork Baptist Church in the northern part of DeKalb County. At this meeting the climax was reached and this church was dropped from the roll. The Baptist cause owes much in the contest to Elder E.L. Smith of Enon Association. J.H. Grime had resigned the clerkship of Boiling Spring Church and feeling that he could not afford to be deprived of the fellowship of his brethren, he, with nine others, withdrew from Boiling Spring Church in January 1875. They united with the Pistole’s Church where they could have fellowship with the Baptist brotherhood.
For this act the entire ten were arraigned before Boiling Spring Church and summarily excluded by wholesale in March 1875. J.H. Grime begged for a hearing but was refused, as he was regarded the chief offender. In 1876 when Salem Association met with the church at Auburn, Boiling Spring Church by petition gained admittance to that body. But the facts being fully made known it was dropped from the roll at the next session at Brush Creek. By this time many had left the church and as a last resort they affiliated with the “Christian Baptists”. Thus matters went till 1888. In the meantime J.H. Grime had been ordained to the ministry by Pistole’s Church.
In November 1888, Elder J.H. Grime, by request, went to Boiling Spring and preached for some days when by vote with only three dissenting, they agreed to rescind all illegal actions, correct all irregularities and have said J.H. Grime to baptize all who had been illegally baptized. This action was taken November 20, 1888 and when the church was in order for business ten whose baptisms were irregular were received and baptized by Grime. Among those were two preachers, Elders J.D. and Samuel Howell, brothers of Elder Mansfield Howell. Thus the same church which excluded J.H. Grime called him back to help them out of their difficulty.
Since the reconstruction this church has affiliated with new Salem Association.
Pistole Church was reconstituted August 14, 1874 by Elders J.C. Brien and T.R. Cooper on the Confession of Faith of Salem Association. It is now a member of the Union Association.
In 1878 Union Association began having two different associational meetings. One was Union Association of Baptist (which later added Missionary Baptist to make it Union Association of Missionary Baptists) and the other became Union Association of Baptist.
In September 1879 Union Association of Baptists met at Liberty, White County. Pistole was represented by P.H. Tibbs, T.R. Cooper and J.H. Grime and membership was 50.
In 1890 a new plank church house was built and was located just south of where the parsonage is today. At the beginning of the year membership was 45 and there was 12 baptisms bringing the total membership to 51 at the end of the year.
In 1907 membership was 81; in 1914 it was 94; in 1921 it was 72; in 1939 it was 68 and in 1940 the membership was 86.
In 1946 a new church auditorium was built. On April 27, 1946 David Pistole deeded the land for the church property. Members of the church and community worked to help Arvin Howell build the church.
In 1965 membership was 125 and a church parsonage was built. Eugene Pistole, who donated the land, made the deed. Don Atnip was the first pastor to live in the new parsonage.
In 1976 membership was 132. In 1977 an addition was made to the church which included a fellowship hall and classrooms. In 1985 membership was 118. In 1995 Eugene Pistole deeded additional land to the church and in 1998 he donated more land beside the parsonage.
In 1999 we adopted our Bylaws & Constitution. Our membership was increased by 44 with 22 of those being by baptism. The members voted to build a new sanctuary. In August 2002 the first service was held in our new sanctuary and in November 2002 we had a service for the sanctuary dedication. All was done under the leadership of our pastor Steve Farris.
In 2015 we amended our Bylaws & Constitution under the guidance of our pastor Harlen Simmons.