{"id":364,"date":"2012-10-21T10:05:39","date_gmt":"2012-10-21T14:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington2\/?page_id=364"},"modified":"2015-01-18T13:34:09","modified_gmt":"2015-01-18T18:34:09","slug":"bethesda-presbyterian-church","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington\/records-data\/churches-of-washington-county\/bethesda-presbyterian-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethesda Presbyterian Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

1899 to 1966<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

History<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bethesda Presbyterian Church was started on September 22, 1899, by a group of citizens of Johnson City, including William Wolfe, H.N. Hale, Frank Gibbons, J.C. Rhea and G.A. Fitzgerald. The church was part of Rogersville Presbytery in the Synod of East Tennessee. Early members were examined on their acquaintance with the Christian religion. The Kimball pump organ now in use at Watauga Avenue Church was purchased in November 1903. Benevolent donations were always a part of the church’s budget, including donations to the local Freedman’s School. In 1911, the Carnegie Mission Sunday School was established in the annex. After meeting in several schools, the group built a church in 1913 on Millard Street. A parochial school was operated in conjunction with the church, and R.P. McDowell was superintendent for many years. A manse was built in 1915. Grace Bundy was elected the first woman elder on June 21, 1942. During World War II, the church annex was used by the Red Cross.<\/p>\n

In 1966, the African-American Bethesda Presbyterian Church on Millard Street, founded in 1899, closed because of declining membership, its members were invited to join Watauga Avenue Presbyterian Church, which became one of the early integrated churches in the city. Twenty-six members of Bethesda transferred their membership to Watauga Avenue; others joined the Jonesborough Presbyterian Church.<\/span><\/p>\n

See Watauga Avenue Presbyterian Church<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastors<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Henry L. Peterston, 1900 -1902<\/span>
\nT.J. Crawford, Feb. 8, 1903 – Sep. 1, 1912<\/span>
\n F.M. Hyder, 1912-1913<\/span>
\n C.B. Dusenbury, Jr. Aug 24, 1913 – Nov. 15, 1914<\/span>
\n J.H. Byers, D.D., May 16, 1915 – Oct 16, 1927<\/span>
\n J.H. Forte, 1928-1929<\/span>
\n J.F. Whitley, Apr 13, 1930 – Mar 12, 1933<\/span>
\n P.J. Augustus Coxe, Nov 27, 1933 – Oct. 14, 1944<\/span>
\n Isaac K. Rakestraw, Jun 20, 1945 – Dec. 31, 1951<\/span>
\n P.A. Flack, Oct 7, 1952 –<\/span>
\n Rev. Washington, Aug 27, 1957 – Feb 23, 1958<\/span>
\n Carl C. Murray, 1959 – 1961<\/span>
\n Charlie J. Johnson, July 30, 1961 – July 23, 1966<\/span>
\n Donald E. Frederick, 1966<\/span><\/p>\n

Posted 29 May 2005; updated 8 Oct 2005<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1899 to 1966 History Bethesda Presbyterian Church was started on September 22, 1899, by a group of citizens of Johnson City, including William Wolfe, H.N. Hale, Frank Gibbons, J.C. Rhea Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"parent":440,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-fullwidth.php","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-364","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8909,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/364\/revisions\/8909"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/washington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}