On the bleak wintry evening of February 3, 1810, Rev. Samuel McAdow gazed intently through his cabin window as three men on horseback approached.  Rev. Finis Ewing, Rev. Samuel King and Ewing's cousin, Ephraim McClain, had ridden over eighty miles from Logan County, Kentucky to Dickson County, Tennessee.  Chilled by the frigid weather, they were spurred onward by the determination to solicit McAdow's asistance in an action they felt compelled to take.

These three ministers, represented five years of turmoil, ecclesiastical controversies, alienations and problems in the Prebysterian Church in Tennessee and Kentucky, which at the time, constituted the growing frontier of the new nation.  They saw no solution to their problem short of organizing an independent presbytery.  However, three members were required to constitute a presybtery; thus, they had to solicit the support of Rev. Samuel McAdow, listened to their proposal to separate and form a new presbytery.  He also told the others that God had heard and answered the most doubtful question.

Together, Ewing, King, and McAdow constituted Cumberland Presbytery on February 4, 1810.  They immediately proceeded to ordain Ephraim McLean.  It was thus that the Cumberland Presbyterian Church had its beginning.  Born out of the Great Revival of 1800, the new church rode the crest of the population movement westward, growing up with the young nation whose ideals it reflected.

The circuit riding Cumberland Presbyterian ministers moved steadily with the frontier, planting churches in the communities as they went.  The first Protestant sermon ever preached west of the Mississippi River was preached by a Cumberland Presbyterian at Crystal Hill, Arkansas.  Within three years, by 1813, the church had grown large enough to form three presbyteries.  In October of 1813, they met at the Beech Meeting House in Summer County Tennessee (north of Nashville) and constituted a Synod.  This Synod formulated and published a "Brief Statement" setting forth the points wherein Cumberland Presbyterians dissented from the Westminster Confession of Faith.  They are as follows:  1) that there are no eternal reprobates, 2) that Christ died not for a part only, but for all mankind, 3) that all infants dying in infancy are saved through Christ and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and 4) that the Spirit of God operates on the world, or as co-extensively as Christ has made atonement, in such a manner as to leave all men inexcusable.

So, it was that our denomination was born on the frontier of America in 1810.  It was born to meet the needs of the pioneer people.  It grew to become a great denomination.  Today, we have missions in South America, Hong Kong, Japan, Liberia, and Israel.  Churches extend from Florida to California from Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to Michigan.  And, the church today is still meeting the needs of people. 

A replicated log cabin (above) now stands on the original site of McAdow's cabin.  The location is in Dixon County, Tennessee in what is now called Montgomery Bell State Park.  A small chapel has also been constructed on the property.  These buildings are visited each year by thousands of visitors.  Each summer, for several days, an historical drama entitled "Light Along the Cumberland" is performed at the park.

To read about the beliefs of Cumberland Presbyterians, click here.