Sep. 27, 1939

Mr. J. E. Smartt

Clerk (of) Session, Lookout Church

Dear Mr. Smartt-

I cannot express to you what pleasure the receipt of your letter of the 24^th gave me; I shall keep this letter always as a reminder of how I am still remembered by my old time Mountain friends. And while "a stranger in a strange land" I can show the letter to new friends in Florida and let them know I am not forgotten by friends in my old Mountain home. But I must remind you there are others who must not be forgotten and who deserve much credit for the building of the first church of any denomination on Lookout Mtn. Your church records should show how much you are indebted to the late Dr. Thomas Hook McCallie.

When I first came to Chattanooga in 1869 Dr. McCallie was the pastor of First Presbyterian Church, then located on the S-E corner of 7^th and Market Streets. I was a regular attendant at that church but was not a member of any church. Dr. McCallie was in very bad health and it was a long time before I became personally acquainted with him.

In 1873 he resigned as pastor and was succeeded by Rev J W Bachmann who was called from Rogersville Tenn. where he was Pastor of the Pres. Church and was also President of the Rogersville Synodical College that had been run successfully by our church. Mrs. Caldwell’s mother, Mrs. Margaret Walker, graduated in that college about 1850. Ten years before the civil war – Mrs. Caldwell was in the college when Dr Bachmann was President. I afterwards sent my daughter (afterwards Mrs. Walter Temple) and my niece May Waldrop (now Mrs. Morris Temple) to this college. The history of this old college is closely connected with the history of our church.

Soon after Mr. Bachmann left the college the expense of carrying it on was greater than the church could stand so they sold the buildings to the town of Rogersville and it was made a public school. Mr. Bachman came in as pastor in 1873. This was in my twentieth year and I soon after he came joined his church. In less than a year’s time through Mr. Bachman’s influence I was elected a deacon and was soon made Secretary of the Board of deacons and served on that board until in 1890 I moved to Lookout Mtn. In the meantime Dr. McCallie was made chairman of the board of home missions in the Knoxville Presbytery. I then became well acquainted with him and we soon became warm friends.

In after years I attended meetings of Presbytery where he was also a member. He was a fine preacher but I always thought his talks in Presbytery surpassed any of his sermons. No man knew more of our church – its rules and what was expected of members attending Presbytery. It was often cold weather and Mr. McCallie had a small skull cap which he wore all the time. I often thought he reminded me of some old Scottish Covenanter of whom I had read so much. The right word in the right place – his talks were sure enough gems.

To get back to his connection with the starting of the mountain church, in those days there were very few winter residents on the mountain. Many had small summerhouses where they lived in summer but moved to town in winter. I was among the first to build a year-round home on the mountain. All building materials had to be hauled in wagons from Chattanooga. But soon after 1890 interested parties – Col. Ed Watkins, Capt. Lyerly and others - built a broad gauge road to the top of the mountain and also built the large Lookout Mtn Inn. In after years the inn burned, an incline was built, the broad gauge road was abandoned.

As stated there was no church of any denomination and I consulted with Mr. McCallie as tot he advisability of establishing a Presbyterian church. The proposal met with his enthusiastic approval. He had a home mission take charge and its success was due more to him than to any other man.

I was chairman of the building committee and commenced raising funds to build the church. Both Dr. McCallie and Dr. Bachmann gave a liberal subscription and helped every way they could. I had observed that while many were willing to give to help build a church, very few were inclined to pay a church debt. So our committee decided to avoid going in debt.

We started out with the intention of building a nice church, and Mr. R H Hunt, a Chattanooga architect whose specialty was designing churches was employed to make the plans, and with Mr. McCallie’s approval we commenced building the church. It was two years or more before the church building was completed. When the money gave out we stopped work. The congregation was very small and a small circular part of the building was completed. Before the roof on the main part of the building was completed services were held in this little circular part. Many members of your church today will remember all of this.

While the church was to all intents and purposes what one might call a union church where members of other denominations were invited, it was a member of the Knoxville Presbytery and directly under the home mission committee of which Dr. McCallie was chairman.

I am quite sure the St. Elmo church was in the same condition and both received financial aid from that committee. Dr. McCallie would secure a pastor who would preach in the morning to the St. Elmo and in the afternoon to the mountain church. Some times when we had no preacher we would take a Methodist preacher and make him stated supply for a year. Rev. Battle McLester, at that time a Methodist preacher, now an Episcopal minister was employed for a year as stated supply. But he was so well liked he was kept for seven years, the contract being renewed from year to year. One must remember this covered a long time, before the church became self-supporting and all these years Dr. McCallie was the main stay and the man we depended on. So we must not fail to give him due credit. The church was managed in such a way that members of other denominations joined the church and contributed largely to its success.

I have made this quite a lengthy letter. But I believe it gives you a pretty fair history of the church until I moved away. Of the original charter members I am told only three are still living – Mrs. Filmore Gibson, Mr. Morris Temple and I. This is a new typewriter to me so please excuse so badly written a letter.