Blount County’s first Baptist church, in Murphree’s Valley. George Powell‘s 1855 “History of Blount County” dates its organizing to 19 June 1819, by Sion L. Blythe, with Joseph Hill as first pastor. A separate source, the Murphree family’s own genealogical research, gives a different account: organized 18 March 1820 by Solomon Murphree himself, with seven charter members - Solomon Murphree, Asa and Rebecca Bynum, Daniel Murphree, Mary Marchbanks, Nancy Murphree, and Rachel, a Black member of the congregation. The two accounts disagree on both the date and who organized the church; neither is resolved here.
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