The History of the First Presbyterian Church Shelbyville, Tennessee 1815-1965
Robert E. Cogswell; The Parthenon Press; Nashville; abt. 1965
Indexed and Extracted by: Lucy Dunaway Zeier
Minden, Nevada
Copyright, 2001
INTRODUCTION
Quite coincidentally, but luckily, I happened upon an autographed copy of the book: Written on Many Hearts, The History of the First Presbyterian Church, Shelbyville, Tennessee, 1815-1965. It was being offered for sale “on-line” by a bookstore in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. As a long-distance researcher of Bedford County genealogical information, I jumped at the chance to purchase additional reference material.
Upon receipt of the book, I was delighted to find not only a book rich with genealogical information, bu
t also (loose within the book) a First Presbyterian Church program, dated January 2, 1965; a pamphlet printed on the Church’s 160th year (1975); a Christmas card (signed “The Duriscks) presumably to the recipient of the book; and two newspaper clippings. One of the new
spaper clippings is included herewith as it discusses Rev. Dr. Cogswell’s efforts to write the book. Unfortunately the article is neither dated nor identified, but it was written by Nellie Mae Morgan, a “T-G writer” (probably Shelbyville Times-Gazette). Given some of the information contained in the article, one could assume it appeared in the paper in the summer of 1965 (or perhaps 1966).
The only unfortu
nate part of Rev. Dr. Cogswell’s book is that it was not indexed. To those of us conducting research in libraries, large unindexed books represent an immediate obstacle. Generally, genealogical books are considered reference material and are unavailable for checkout. In most cases, adequate time simply does not exist to peruse a book of this size at any level of de
tail. Many excellent reference documents “slip away” from us for this very reason.
Rev. Dr. Cogswell’s book contains significant and important (early) Bedford County history. Because of the important contents of his book, I indexed the book not only for myself, but for fellow Bedford County and Presbyterian Church researchers as well. It also occurred to me that the original book may not have had a wide distribution and that many people today, almost 37 years later, may find it difficult to locate a copy of his book. With that thought in mind, I increased the original scope from a simple index to an index along with partial data extraction. As a family historian, extraction decisions were made with an eye to genealogical relevance. Additionally, the format contained within my publication is intended to “stand on its own”. In other words, all pertinent genealogical information has been extracted from the original book.
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this index/extraction. However, as with any genealogical information, one should always verify information. Rev. Dr. Cogswell did source many of his facts. Anyone interested in using any of the data contained in this extraction would be wise to obtain a copy of his original publication and refer to his source documents in order to verify dates, names and places.
My publication, while perhaps successful in extracting names and dates, is sterile compared to fascinating narrative contained within Rev. Dr. Cogswell’s original book. It would behoove anyone interested in Bedford County (and/or the Presbyterian Church) history to read Written on Many Hearts, from cover to cover.
In closing, I wish you good luck with your research. May you find all your elusive ancestors and may you always share your findings.
Lucy Bryant (Dunaway) Zeier
In memory of my original Bedford Co. ancestors: John N. Dunaway (1800-1849) and Margaret Gordon (1802-1882)
And dedicated to the research and efforts of the Rev. Dr. Robert E. Cogswell (1921-deceased)
Bibliographic reference: Zeier, Lucy Dunaway; 2001. A Complete Index and Extraction of the Book: Written on Many Hearts, The History of the First Presbyterian Church, Shelbyville,
Tennessee, 1815-1965.; privately printed, Minden, Nevada.
Copyright 2001
1741 Reed Circle
Minden, NV 89423