A Look At The Presbyterian Church Of Jackson

Author Unknown - 1917

From the sessional records we find that the Presbyterian Church of Jackson was organized September 2, 1884; at least, the first roll of members was dated at that time and included 93 names. It was organized by Dr. E. O. Guerrant as part of the work he was doing under the Evangelistic Committee of the Synod of Kentucky, and Rev. Eugene P. Mickel supplied the pulpit for some months until Mr. W. B. Cooper came as Stated Supply and had charge from 1885 until some time in 1887. From the time Mr. Cooper left until 1893 the records are incomplete, but from the records of the General Assembly we find that Mr. Mickel was the able and faithful supply during nearly all those years.

Mr. W. O. Shewmaker seems to have succeeded Mr. Mickel as Stated Supply until September 1893, when he was ordained by West Lexington Presbytery at Troy, Kentucky and soon afterwards installed as pastor. The church prospered under the ministry and regretted much to give him up, when in 1896 he received a call to the church at Georgetown, Kentucky; and on the 9th of May 1897, the Rev. S. M. Rankin came and served the church until January 1898. The congregation was active in securing a new pastor and on the 10th of April of the later year called Rev. W. L. Hickman, but there is no record of his installation, and the pulpit seems to have been filled by Mr. Chas. A. Logan, and on the 9th of April, he was called as pastor and ordained and installed on Sunday, July 2, 1899, with a most impressive service, but the church suffered a most serious loss Wednesday evening, the 5th of the same month, in the burning of the house of worship, just after a most delightful prayer service. By strenuous efforts a new church was built in a comparatively short time and dedicated in the year 1901, the beautiful little brick building which burned October 31, 1913.

Mr. Logan continued as pastor until October 11, 1901, when he resigned to become pastor at Wilmore, Kentucky, whence he went as missionary to Japan where he has continued until the present time. The pulpit was again vacant until September 6, 1903, when Rev. W. W. Powell was installed pastor and continued a successful pastorate until called to another field September 15, 1907. Rev. R. L. Kinnaird became pastor in October 1908, and continued with marked success until August 1910, when he accepted a call to the famous old church of Timber Ridge, in Rockbridge County, Virginia, and the pulpit was again vacant until Rev. J. Z. Haney, or Arkansas, was installed in the fall of 1911. He resigned in the fall of 1912 to return to Arkansas and was succeeded June 1, 1914, by Rev. C. Groshon Gunn, who may be known to some of the readers of this sketch. The records show that during all the time when the pulpit was vacant the officers of the church kept up the work of the Sunday School and in most cases the prayer meeting. Rev. J. T. Mitchell was here after Mr. Logan left; Rev. Geo. A. Grille in 1911; Mr. Harvey H. Orr in 1913; and Mr. W. B. Guerrant in the summer of 1916 during the absence of the pastor in the South. Others came and held protracted meetings, or held services for a few weeks, and kept the congregation together.

During the pastorate of Rev. Chas. A. Logan occurred the interesting incident at Presbytery in the spring of 1901 when the Sunday School of the church reported as having 1,450 members. The committee to whom the report was referred seeing that the Sunday School of the Jackson church had more members than nearly all the others combined, considered it an error and struck out the zero making it 145; but the discussion which ensued showed that there was no mistake about it, as Mr. Logan had organized branch Sunday Schools in many places in the county through the agency of pupils in the Normal Department of the Lees Collegiate Institute, in which he was teaching, and all the pupils in the different schools made up the grand total of 1,450. This extension work was commended in the church papers and gave the church a fine standing in the Presbytery. The next year they reported 1,098, but after that the outside efforts seems to have ceased and the reports showed the ordinary attendance in town.

On the 15th of October 1916, the congregation voted to change the name to "Guerrant Memorial Church," in memory of the great man who founded it, and under the new auspices hope to develop in every way and do worthy for the cause of Christ.