(from the archived RCHC Web site)

Written by Jamey McLoughlin

On October 1, 1901, in the Roane County, Tennessee Register of Deeds record book “B”, series 3, pages 580 & 581, a lot was conveyed for the sum of $1 from J. N. Baker to the trustees of the First Baptist Church of Cardiff.  These trustees included J. C. Montgomery, J. Y. Owings, and A. C. Guy.  A description of this land is as follows:

Lying in the 20 Civil district of Roane County, Tennessee, in the town known as Cardiff.  Beginning at a stone at the south side of Lincoln Street, as laid out on the plat of the said town of Cardiff.  Thence southwardly on a line at right angles to said said street 125 feet to a stone, thence westwardly parallel with said street 80 feet to a stone, thence northwardly on a line to a stone on the south line of said street, thence eastwardly along said street 80 feet to the beginning. Being a lot 80 x 125 feet and including the said Baptist church building now being built on said lot.

At one time there were three churches in Cardiff.  The Methodist Episcopal Church – South, the Christian church, and the Baptist church.  Besides the small family graveyards, the Methodists had the only church graveyard in the community.  Since most of the preachers for that time were circuit preachers, each church would take turn about having Sunday services.

The old minute books for the church starts in 1912 and goes to the present.  These books are kept in the home of the church clerk.  The first baptism recorded is of Andy Edwards in 1902. 

As the mines in Cardiff started closing in the early 1920s, the people started leaving.  With this the Christian Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church – South also closed its doors, but Cardiff Baptist Church remained open and the center point to the Cardiff community. 

On the night of November 28, 1977, the old clapboard church building that had served the community since 1901, burned to the ground. The cause was believed to be a roman candle fired near the building by some children and shooting a spark in the gas supply in the heating system.  All that remains of the old building is the bell in the sign in front of the new building.  The church met for a year at the Pond Grove school house until a new building was erected on the same ground as the old building.  In 1978, the church moved into a new building that housed a baptistery, a fellowship hall, and additional classrooms.  The church today remains a help center for the needy and a beacon for the lost.

The Church pastors are as follows: