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| Photo / Elma Ross Library
Camp Pieus at Windrow’s Camp Ground Click to Enlarge |
If you, like the good-looking folks in this photo from the Elma Ross Library in Brownsville, Tennessee, were a good Methodist in Middle and West Tennessee back in the 1930s, you probably attended one of the summer religious gatherings that took place at Camp Pieus which was held each summer at Windrow’s Camp near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. And no, that’s not how you spell “pious.” I’m not sure what the deal was there.
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| Photo / Elma Ross Library
Camp Pieus at Windrow’s Camp Ground Click to Enlarge |
According to an article written by Kay Horner, the historian of the First United Methodist Church of Murfreesboro, the first religious service took place at Windrow’s Camp on August 15, 1812. Many of those pictured here, more than 100 years later, were taking part in a tradition that their grandparents and great-grandparents had begun.
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| Photo / Elma Ross Library
Camp Pieus at Windrow’s Camp Ground Click to Enlarge |
After this photo was taken, you could’ve pulled a few of the old-timers aside and they would’ve shared the stories they’d been told about one camp meeting held in 1820 that ended up lasting more than a week. 300 people “professed their religion” and many of those who became Methodists that week began the First Methodist Church in the new town of Murfreesboro.
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| Photo / Elma Ross Library
Camp Pieus at Windrow’s Camp Ground Click to Enlarge |
If you were curious about the history of the camp, someone would have introduced you to Frank, John and Luther Windrow, all who were there that day. Descendants of old John Windrow himself, they had heard first-hand about the passion he had for the camp.
“John Windrow was a rare specimen of a truly eccentric but generous man. He was not satisfied with simply giving the ground and building material for the encampment, but was in the habit of cultivating a patch of cabbage to give the tent-holders every year. He kept his own stock off his wheat and oat fields, after harvest, that the grass might grow large and thick for the horses of persons persons from a distance during the camp meeting.”
History of Methodism in Tennessee, Volume Two, John Berry McFerrin, 1886
While I question the wisdom of giving cabbage to a bunch of people who are about to spend a day in a tent together, I appreciate the sentiment behind it.
According to notes on the back of the photo, also there that day was Chief of Police Walker, Leslie Moody, Margaret Chambliss Burton, Joe Moody, Joe Cobb, Elizabeth Hargrove, Sadie McClish Williams, Frank Williams, Lillian Reed, Edith Nunn, Louise Taliaferro and others.
The original early-1800s revival meetings at the camp took place outdoors in the late summer and offered a much-needed break from the difficulties of carving out farms and towns and settling a new part of the country. The camp meeting was a time for them to discover or renew their faith, spend time with their friends and neighbors and find out what had been going on in the world around them.
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| Photo / Elma Ross Library
Camp Pieus at Windrow’s Camp Ground Click to Enlarge |
By the time this photo was taken in the 1930s, the camp meetings were primarily continued as part of tradition as there were many churches in the area and revival meetings took place indoors.
Today, there is a church and cemetery at the site. A few years ago, blogger Noel Tabor took a drive and unexpectedly ended up at Windrow’s Camp Ground. She shared a few photos, including the one below, on her blog.
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| Photo / Noel Tabor
Plaque on Church Windrow’s Camp Ground Click to Enlarge |
The plaque on the church at Windrow’s Camp Ground reads:
“In 1812 four acres of ground were donated by John Windrow for a camp ground. On this historic spot services of worship have been held continuously for more than one hundred-fifty years. Methodist circuit riders have preached to tens of thousands of people, and between three and four thousand conversions have taken place here. It was from this sacred place that through prayer and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit power from on high was given for the founding of the First United Methodist Church in Murfreesboro in 1820. To God be the glory and to his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ!”
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| Photo / Elma Ross Library
Camp Pieus at Windrow’s Camp Ground Click to Enlarge |
Returning to the photo, I’m struck by how their upscale 1930s clothes, stylish haircuts and blank stares combine to create what could be a Ralph Lauren print ad today.
Those Tennessee Methodists really knew how to take a good picture.
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