The Lebanon in the Fork Cemetery, also known as Three Rivers Cemetery, is a historic cemetery located at 2390 Asbury Road in eastern

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

, U.S..

History

The Lebanon In The Fork Presbyterian Church was founded during 1791 by the Rev.

Samuel Carrick Samuel Czar Carrick (July 17, 1760 – August 17, 1809) was an American Presbyterian minister who was the first president of Blount College, the educational institution to which the University of Tennessee traces its origin. Milton M. KleinUT's ...

. Francis Alexander Ramsey, father of J. G. M. Ramsey, later donated nine acres of land overlooking the wide confluence of the

Holston River The Holston River is a river that flows from Kingsport, Tennessee, to Knoxville, Tennessee. Along with its three major forks (North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork), it comprises a major river system that drains much of northeastern Tennessee ...

with the

French Broad River The French Broad River is a river in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee. It flows from near the town of Rosman, North Carolina, Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into Tennessee, where its confluence with the Holston R ...

, where the "fork" and beginning of the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

is formed. The first Lebanon In The Fork Presbyterian Church (no longer extant) at this site provided by Ramsey was constructed near the crest of the hill of rough hewn logs and measured approximately 40 feet by sixty feet. This earlier structure was eventually replaced by a newer and larger building built in 1903. It served the church until it was burnt down by a fire in 1981. The bell was recovered and now sits in the cemetery. The church cemetery has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

since November 29, 2010. The Lebanon in the Fork Presbyterian Church pastors included

, Isaac L. Anderson,J.G.M Ramsey,
History of Lebanon Presbyterian Church
" 26 September 1876. J. G. M. Ramsey, and

Richard Owen Currey Richard Owen Currey (1816–1865) was an American academic, physician and Presbyterian minister. He was a professor at the University of Nashville and the publisher of agrarian and medical journals. During the American Civil War, he was a surgeon ...

. According to an account of a visit to Mecklenburg by "Ora," a correspondent of the ''Mobile Advertiser'', (and later republished in within the April 6, 1862 edition of the ''

Knoxville Register The ''Knoxville Register'' was an American newspaper published primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the 19th century. Founded in 1816, the paper was East Tennessee's dominant newspaper until 1863, when its pro-secession editor, Jacob Austin Sp ...

''), the J.G.M Ramsey's Mecklenburg residence was located about 100 yards from "...the ruins of the old Presbyterian Church of Lebanon".http://knoxcotn.org/old_site/history/mecklenburg.html "A Visit to Mecklenburg by "Ora". The nearby historic Ramsey House (also known as "Swan Pond", the residence of Francis Alexander Ramsey and his family) offers guided tours of this residence that was built by Francis Alexander Ramsey. The Ramsey House also maintains the Lebanon In The Fork Presbyterian Church cemetery.

References

External links

* * Google Maps link https://www.google.com/maps/dir/I-640,+Knoxville,+TN/google+map+lebanon+in+the+fork+knoxville+tennessee/@35.9776014,-83.8463023,17z/am=t/data=!4m19!4m18!1m5!1m1!1s0x885c163ca2af70a7:0xde267df39306c5bc!2m2!1d-83.9663449!2d35.993701!1m5!1m1!1s0x885c10ccc9f91ed9:0x96f3e97ae2bf1be5!2m2!1d-83.8469586!2d35.9604172!3e0!5i1!6m3!1i0!2i1!3i3 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lebanon in the Forks Cemetery Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Knoxville, Tennessee Presbyterian cemeteries in the United States