by Anna Cooper—Associate Editor

Photography by Scott Taylor

There are three books written by Mr. Billy King that explain not only the history in and around Denmark and Mercer, Tennessee, but also capture the account of Mr. Fonville Neville and various historical events that took place in the ‘way back when.’ Three articles are, in no way enough, to encapsulate what King has done in his three books, nor is it enough to uncover everything he spoke to us about across two interviews lasting almost three hours altogether. That’s not including the information found from investigating the Big Black Creek Historical Association’s website or information gathered from emails back and forth with King. Our goal with our Memory Series is to find the places that remind us of days gone by which is something Big Black Creek is also working to preserve. This is our third and final article about the Big Black Historical Association and its projects. We hope to be able to revisit them in the future once the pandemic has calmed down and they can start having their events again.

Not long after the March issue of Cypress came out we met up with Mr. Billy King in Mercer, Tennessee. During our previous interview together, King gifted us with three books he had written and published titled Big Black Creek Vol. I, II, and III. Each volume is its own subject. Volume I introduces the area Big Black Creek, providing a timeline from 1000 AD to 2011, plus other information, and various stories about the area surrounding Denmark. Volume II: A Community at War, provides more detail to the timeline concentrating on how pivotal the Civil War was in the area. Finally, Volume III is the Early History of Denmark, Community Stories of Early Families, Churches of Denmark. In Volume III, readers are introduced to Mr. Fonville Neville. Using Nevilles’ recollections and vernacular, Mr. Billy King records story after story about the area in and around Denmark. The Big Black Creek Historical Association was created with the express purpose of preserving and promoting “historical sites within the communities of Denmark, Mercer, Leighton and Woodland, all small towns West of Jackson, TN.” Neville’s recollections mostly revolve around his experiences and stories recalled back to him by others in the community as he got older. In one of his passages, “Along Rural By-Paths (A Sunday Gathering),” Neville, recalls “the third anniversary of homecoming day at old Ebenezer.” Old Ebenezer being Ebenezer Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Mercer.

Ebenezer Cumberland Presbyterian Church was established after the congregation bought land in 1910 and was built in Mercer. It is unique in that the towers of the church are different in size: the men’s door is located in the taller tower and the women’s and children’s door is the shorter of the two. At the end of the passage where Neville talks about Cumberland Presbyterian, King fills in the history of the establishment of Mercer, Tennessee starting with its founding. He wrote, in summary, that “on July 2nd, 1888, T. E. Mercer and F. M. McGlathery filed their statement presented in words that caused the town of Mercer to be planned and surveyed within the region of the "Big Black Creek," and the Tennessee Midland Railway. Mr. Mercer was coming down the Big Black Creek from Denmark and he got to the place where the new railroad was being laid out. He went back to Toone, Tennessee, where he had a general store with his son and son-in-law, Mr. Franklin McGlathery, and told them this was the perfect place for a town. It had the new railroad, the Big Black Creek where flatboats going up to Denmark was and was about four miles from the Estonallie Landing on the Hatchie River. The Hatchie at that time was a major trade route with steamboats coming up from Memphis and St. Louis almost on daily trips. Mr. Franklin went over and bought the land and built the first store building. He had married Mattie Mercer; they lived upstairs, over the new store. A railroad station was then built and Mr. Franklin became the station master. He built the first house in Mercer in 1888. The town was supposed to be called McGlathery; no one could spell it nor pronounce it.”

Mercer’s first house is directly across from Ebenezer Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Unlike the church in Denmark, Cumberland Presbyterian is not on the National Historic Registry. During Big Black Creek’s restoration of the building, the clapboard on the church was unable to be salvaged so aluminum siding replaced it, “I don't remember the clapboard,” King explained, “except everyone telling me it was in terrible shape and we’d have to have it all completely redone.” In addition to changing the siding, the roof was replaced with a green tin one, and it received a fresh coat of sunny paint in the sanctuary. It’s the same color they painted the inside of the Denmark Presbyterian Church. Along with King was another member of the Big Black Creek Historical Association, Bryan Fewell, who was present for the interview. Fewell, their in-house carpenter, plumber, electrician, and overall, general handy-man, was a wealth of information when it came to the more technical aspects of the restoration of Cumberland Presbyterian and the Denmark church. One thing they both brought up had to do with the second restoration they did together in Denmark. One of the walls in that building was leaning badly. “We were trying to keep that wall from coming down,” King explained. “That wall had separated from the church by about 25 inches. So of course that whole thing was trying to come down, which would have ended,” the restoration project, “because you couldn’t have re-done it after that. Bryan was in on it. I think there are some pictures on our site showing it just literally propped-up.” Fewell spoke about what it was like seeing that wall, “After I saw that wall go six inches past the rim joist, and the builders still hold it up with only four corners holding this thing up. I realized they used to build things a little better than we do now.”

As for the Cumberland Presbyterian church, restoration came in the form of keeping what was already in there and finding what wasn’t. “Ms. Annie Sue is what saved it. You know, that's ironic, I hadn't thought about that. Two women, of course, saved the Denmark church because they just said ‘no, it's not being torn down.’ She was almost the same way where this building was concerned. She was a very active Cumberland Presbyterian and very educated herself.” While not quite in the same disrepair that Denmark Presbyterian was, Cumberland still had some issues. “We knew it was leaning, but you couldn’t do anything about that.” Fewell spoke up, adding to what King was saying, “I think it just settled on the side where the peers are just settled; it's not a matter of the beams being structurally damaged or anything like that.” Fewell continued, “I think the first thing we did though was the roof here.” King agreed, “See, it was leaking very badly. What pops in my mind, and I've thought about this kid. Bryan helped put this roof on here, and they were on this tower. We had Dr. Gunderson at Jackson State, who gives kids extra credit if they help Big Black Creek—if they come in on some projects that we're doing, and they volunteer their time. I remember we had this kid who was working with us—he begged and begged and begged to put the last shingle on the roof on that tower,” meaning the men’s tower, the taller of the two. “It was pretty far up there. So, we kept debating whether or not to do it, and finally, I remember David and Bryan strapping that youngin in; got him all the way up there!”

One of the first things King wanted to make clear was that “the truth is, it never ends. The restoration never stops, but once you start a project, your main objective is: save the property, save the building. So, in the beginning, that’s all you’re doing. The other thing you’re always concerned with is money. No matter what you’re doing, it costs to do it. You hope that you finally get to a stage where you’re doing things to make things better, not just save the building.”

Cypress would like to thank Mr. Billy King for allowing us to pick his brain about the Big Black Creek Historical Association and for providing us the three volumes of his Big Black Creek books. We would also like to thank the Big Black Creek Historical Associations’ members for undertaking such big projects and inviting us to explore them along with our readers. We hope we get to meet more of you in the future as you can put on events such as the Red Back Hymnal sing-alongs and maybe Christmas at Ebenezer in the future. The Big Black Creek Historical Association can be found on bigblackcreekhistorical.com and on Facebook at Big Black Creek Historical Association. Mr. Billy King can be reached via email at bking49166@aol.com or by phone at (731) 234-3497.

Caption: Fresco Painting of Jesus—over the stage and pulpit, a large painting was commissioned by Miss Annie Sue for the church. The artist was from Stuttgart, Germany. The artist did the outline and then sent it in on a train. He then came and stayed across the street with her while he painted. It is Jesus crying over the city of Jerusalem.