The Shed

Frances was raised in the Methodist faith and graudated from Young-Harris College, founded by the Methodist Church. As such she was a devout Christian all of her life. In Georgia the family attended Summerhour Methodist Church, in Tennessee there was not a Methodist Church in the vicinity so the family went to The Shed Presbyterian Church which was less than one-half mile across the field or about one mile by road. We assume she and her parents attended The Shed when living in the old house before she was married.

The "Heritage of Polk County" history states the Shed Church was built about 1839 - 1841 next to a spring and south of the cemetery. It was named The Shed because the first building used as a church was a shed. About 1910 a new church was built on Horns Creek road and north of the cemetery. The building in this photo would have been the one by the spring and some 300 - 400 yards south of the new building. We are unware how close the building in the photo was located to the spring. In the 1930's there was a small field (about one acre) in the flood zone where the building could have been, we believe it was likely the building was built away from the flood zone in the area needed to build the Parksville railroad and the money paid for the right of way helped pay for the new building.

The Shed was used as a school for a few months each year. It appears when the new Shed church was built a new school house was built at the junction of Horns Creek road and Swan road, about one half mile west of the Shed church. We know from the letter Albert sent his mother in 1910 that Frances was teaching at Cookson Creek school (1910-11 school year), in 1912 when she was married, she was teaching (1911-12 school year) in this new building on Horns Creek Road at the junction of Swan Road..

This photo and names was found on the Internet. It stated it was of the students at The Shed school in Polk County in 1902.

The family names included with this photo are still common in the community.

The Shed was a "Yoked" church meaning it shared a pastor with one or more other churches. A Rev. Daniel Johnson came with his family to the community. The members of the church joined him in building a manse to live in on the west side of the cemetery. According to Uncle Bob Ervin, the entire manse, a small 3 bedroom house, was built with the lumber from two virgin forest trees. "Rev. Daniel stayed for several years, serving with no salary except fruits and vegetables and other items given by the members of the church", info on Rev Daniel excerpted from the "Heritage of Polk County"

In the 1940's church attendance was going down and the church became incactive, acording to the"Heritage of Polk County" , the building was sold to Dewey Mercer, it still stands in 2009 in a sad state of repair. The cemetery is maintained and identified by a sign "Shed Cemetery", I believe there are still burials in the cemetery. Acording to the"Heritage of Polk County" the manse was sold to Eliza Lea. Uncle Bob and Aunt Lena Ervin who moved into it when they sold the old house and 50 plus acres to Aunt Lena's sister Frances in 1933, to the best of our knowledge they owned it. The manse has been gone for a number of years.

The 1910 New Shed Church building was rather large for a country church and contained both a center area and wings on both sides. Later (c-1940) the building was torn down and the lumber used to build a new smaller church shaped in a rectangle like most country churches at the time. This rectangle building is the one standing in 2009.

One unusual, at least to me, character of The Shed cemetery in the 1930's was it had a number of small buildings over gravesites. These were probably about 5 feet wide and 8 or 9 feet long. These buildings were much the same consisting of an inverted "V" shaped shingled roof with the low end of the roof about 5 feet from the ground and a picket fence for the walls. As they rotted they were seldom, if ever, replaced and by the 1960's or before they had all disappeared.

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