Southern History Book of the Month: History of Bethlehem United Methodist Church, Established in 1818

by Mary Anne Ellis, Southern History Department, Central Library

History of Bethlehem United Methodist Church, Established in 1818

Celebrations of the Alabama Bicentennial are now well under way, but this month’s selection is about a church that began when the area was still The Alabama Territory and statehood was yet to come. Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Hueytown, Alabama, is a pre-statehood church, established in 1818 in what was then called Rutledge Springs. It’s part of my earliest memories since it was my mother’s home church and many generations of her side of the family had worshipped and preached and married and been buried there. With a busy interstate highway running by it, Bethlehem as it was in its founding year seems far away and hard to imagine, but the History gives us some vivid pictures of those times, as in this passage about Bethlehem’s cemetery:

And alas, babies. Back then, many of them lived only one or two days, joining older children from around here who never reached their teens. They number over 300! All lie among the 130 aging grave stones of young Bethlehem offspring, the wood markers of the other children long gone. Before antibiotics, an awful child mortality rate meant countless young deaths, striking nearly every family. The Browns and the Snows were our families that suffered worst, burying here 13 children each.

Bethlehem Cemetery

Genealogical researchers should definitely take a look at the History since one of its entries is about the descendants of Bethlehem’s early founders and members, followed by a long list of the families with graves in the cemetery. “Know anyone with these names? Tell them! Bethlehem may be where long-lost ancestors of the South deserve a visit.”

The founder of Bethlehem Church was a young veteran of the War of 1812 named Ebenezer Hearn. As a minister in the Tennessee Methodist Conference, he was entrusted in April of 1818—at age 22—with the task of establishing new churches. In fact, his orders were simply to “organize and build as many churches as you can in the area that lies south of Tennessee”:

This young dynamo set out that rainy month, and he ended up creating dozens of churches. Two centuries later, some hardy survivors are alive still. These faithful monuments to Christ live on in Ashville, Blountsville, Gandy’s Cove, Montevallo, Tuscaloosa, and here at Rutledge Springs.

That April, young Brother Hearn preached his first Alabama sermon at an outpost called Bear-Meat’s Cabin (after an Indian named Bear-Meat, that abandoned cabin had once been his log home). It was located near the primitive frontier village of Blountsville. Then, the preacher headed further south, eventually arriving at our Rutledge Springs Methodist camp meeting grounds. Here in the last half of 1818, he founded our church.

Within a short time after Hearn’s arrival, the actual church building was constructed. Visitors can view some of the 19th century architecture that is part of the present structure, such as the exposed beams visible in the Fellowship Hall downstairs. One of the building’s claims to fame is that it is “still located at its original site, never burned down or moved.”

Exposed beam inside the church

Bethlehem will celebrate its 200th year in just a few weeks at the Homecoming service on Sunday, May 20. The gathering will begin at 10:00 a.m. and service will be followed by that wonderful Southern tradition of “dinner on the grounds.” If you’ve ever driven by and wondered, What does that pretty little white church look like inside?, then this is your chance to find out—and to be present at a very special event in Alabama history. Stop by and help celebrate the Bethlehem Bicentennial!

For further information:
Bethlehem at Bhamwiki
Bethlehem history and photos at Hueytown Historical Society
Bethlehem Cemetery on Find A Grave
“Historical marker to be dedicated at cemetery”
Bethlehem entry at North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church
Transcript of the autobiography of Ebenezer Hearn