Friday, May 8, 2009

Tyner's Chapel Church




Tyner's Chapel Church and Cemetery
Located about 4 miles off Hwy. 60 West on S.R. 855 N. Different in appearance than most county churches, which is white, Tyner's Chapel is of brown brick-textured siding.

Tyner's Chapel Methodist Church was organized in the year 1878 on land given for the church by Thomas R. Tyner and wife Martha (Kirk), who had migrated to Ky. from Tenn. The church was affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In 1993 it separated from the Methodist Conference and became Tyner's Chapel Church.

A cemetery bell was bought in 1910. Mr. Jim Boss, the cemetery caretaker in 1910 was the first man to ring this bell. The bell was rung to call in the neighborhood volunteers to dig a grave for the deceased person. The last to ring the bell was Jesse Hodge Tyner, for the death of Charles H. Wring in 1952.

The first person to be buried in the cemetery was a mother of a family traveling through the country. She took sick with fever and died. She was buried in an unmarked grave. The cross in the picture above marks this spot. The stone reads "First Grave in Tyner's Chapel Cemetery. Unknown Lady on Wagon Train. Cira Early 1800's.

The Tyner's Chapel Church closed its doors in August of 2004, due to lack of membership. Jesse Tyner, a descendant of land benefactor Thomas Tyner, was among the last trustees at the church. Jesse said there were a lot of members years ago and it's sad the way it is ending up like this, but that's the way it is.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How much information do you have about the history of this church? I believe that my great-great-great grandfather, Joseph Manon Roberts, might once have been a preacher here, and that it was once called The Freedom Church.

Jennifer (Roberts) Kochenauer
jkochenauer@gmail.com

Forgotten Passages said...

Jennifer, What I had on the Blog was pretty much all the early history of that church. It has always been named Tyner's Chapel.

On an early article I had some information about the Freedom Church. Did you see it? This is the only Freedom church that has ever been in the county. I have a list of some of the early pastors of that church. There was a Rev. Melvin Roberts that was pastor there at one time, but what I have doesn't give the dates.

I hope this will help.

Unknown said...

Yes, it would have been the Freedom Church... I did end up finding that post after I posted my comment. James Melvin Roberts (b. January 31, 1879) was the son of Joseph Manon Roberts (b. June 28, 1843) and his second wife, Susan Bill Long (b. July 5, 1861), so there may be some connection. The informantion I have is that Joseph was buried in the cemetary at the Freedom Church.