File contributed by Jim Curlin

Samuel Brown, a pioneer landowner from North Carolina, settled in Haywood County, Tennessee, in 1826.   Soon after his arrival he gave land and provided logs to build the first Browns Creek Primitive Baptist Church.  His own farm laborers built the first church.  Approximately three years later the church burned.  A second church was built and consecrated by 1835, and it served the congregation until 1926.  In 1870 the name of the church was changed to “Woodland Church” to avoid confusion with other churches that had taken similar names.

During the period 1836 into the 1880s the Curlin Family worshipped in this church.  The Minutes of the Browns Creek Baptist Church from March 1835 to June 1881 have survived and provide mute testimony to the spiritual life of the Curlins in Madison and Haywood Counties, Tennessee, during that period.  The Minutes of the church trace John Curlin and Dolley Perkins Curlin and their family within Browns Creek Baptist Church, from John’s admission to the Church by “experience” in August 1836, to the ordination of James Valentine Curlin (Son of William Hugh Curlin and Caroline Miles) as a Baptist minister in 1879. 

For John Curlin and his sons, Jackson J.J. and John Valentine, religion was a rocky road to travel.  Each had a taste for “ardent spirits,” which led to disciplinary action by the congregation on several occasions.  John was appropriately remorseful of his sin, confessed and was “cordially forgiven” in May 1840 and 1841.  In May 1846, John was investigated and found guilty of drinking and the church declared “non-fellowship” against him and declared him “no longer under our watch or care”.  He was apparently re-admitted to the church because charges for “indulging too freely” were brought and he was found guilty in March 1847. 

There is no reference to John Curlin in the church minutes after April He died in 1858 in Madison County but no record of his death is found in the minutes of the Browns Creek Baptist Church.  In April 1846, the church adopted a resolution that appears intended to deal with the specific problem of Jackson J.J. and John Valentine Curlin selling liquor as groceries in a store that they owned.  The resolution was enforced against them the following month and they were excluded from the church.  However, both confessed and were restored to the fellowship of the church in June 1846.

Jackson J.J. and his wife, Chasey A. Edmonson Curlin applied for a letter declaring them in good standing with the church for admission to another parish (dismission) in January 1850.  It is believed that they moved from Madison County, Tennessee, to Shelby County, Tennessee, at that time, however they were readmitted to Browns Creek Baptist Church in August 1851.  The circumstances surrounding their move and re-admittance are unknown.  In October 1851, Jackson J.J. and his wife reapplied for dismission and it was granted.

John Valentine Curlin and his first wife Amanda Beaty Curlin left Madison County, Tennessee sometime in the 1850s and settled in Lauderdale County, Tennessee.  Their son, Thomas Green Curlin and his wife, Mary Jane West were members of the church.

William Hugh Curlin and his wife Caroline Miles Curlin remained in Madison County, Tennessee and raised their eight children in the locale.  William Hugh was a loyal and respected member of the congregation, and except for a lapse of attendance, for which he was excused, his record in the church was unblemished.  William Hugh’s sons, Isaac Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Valentine Curlin were active members of the church.  Isaac Washington Curlin was called on many times to render valuable service to the congregation during the 1870s and was a much-respected member.  William Hugh’s son, George Day Curlin, withdrew his membership under protest in December 1874 for reasons that were not explained.  William Hugh’s son, James Valentine Curlin was ordained a Baptist minister in November 1879. James Valentine was frequently entrusted as moderator protem of the church conference and preached there on several occasions.

There is a mystery regarding George Ann Taylor.  She is known to have lived with John Curlin’s family, and after his death in William Hugh Curlin’s house.  John Curlin left her personal property and money.  George Ann was admitted to the church in September 1840.  She was “excluded” from membership in March 1853 “for becoming the mother of a child with out having bin married”.  Her relationship to the Curlin family is not known.

Browns Creek Baptist Church admitted black or “coloured” members to the church fellowship.  Most were slaves of the white members.  They were respectfully referred to as “brother” and “sister”.  In the minutes black members were referenced as “person of colour,” “coloured,” but never as “Negro”.  But there were clearly lines across which color could not cross, as in this petition for a black brother to preach:  “Our Brother Charles of colour requested permission to preach the Gospel, the Church defered the matter to our next meeting.

“The Church considers that under the present laws of the state it would not be prudent to authorize a coloured man to preach and do therefore say to Brother Charles we wish him to use his gifts as heretofore in prayer and exhort his fellow servants to live Godly and Christianly.

The church minutes stop after May 1860 and continue once more in October. This decade spans the years just before and during the Civil War and the Reconstruction. The church made plans to host the Hatchie Association meeting between August and September 1879 and the Curlin Family was deeply involved in the preparations.  The meeting had to be postponed until the second week of November 1879 because of a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis.  William Hugh Curlin’s son James Valentine Curlin was ordained during at the Hatchie Association’s November 1879 meeting at Browns Creek Baptist Church.

Minutes of the Browns Creek Baptist Church, Tennessee, March 1835-June 1881, Pub. No. 862. Commenced in the year of our Lord Eighteen Hundred and thirty five.

List of Male Members

John V. Curlin [John Valentine Curlin, son of John Curlin] (Dismissed)
William Curlin [William Hugh Curlin, son of John Curlin]
John Curlin [father of Jackson J.J., John Valentine, and William Hugh Curlin] (Excluded)
Jackson Curlin [Jackson J.J. Curlin, son of John Curlin] (Dismissed)
Washington Curlin [Issac Washington Curlin, son of William Hugh Curlin]
Franklin Curlin [Benjamin Franklin Curlin, son of William Hugh Curlin]
Thomas G. Curlin [Thomas Green Curlin, son of John Valentine Curlin]
George Day Curlin [son of William Hugh Curlin]
James Curlin [James Valentine Curlin, son of William Hugh]

List of Female Members

Dolly Curlin [Dolly Perkins Curlin, wife of John Curlin] (Dead)
Caroline Curlin [Caroline Miles Curlin, wife of William Hugh Curlin]
Mary Curlin [Mary Jane West Curlin, wife of Thomas Green Curlin]
George Anne Taylor [lived with John Curlin and later with William Hugh Curlin] (Excluded)
Charlotte Edmonson [Mother of Chasey Ann Edmonson, wife of Jackson J.J. Curlin]
Chasey Ann Edmonson [Wife of Jackson J.J. Curlin]