The Red River Meeting House was the site of the first religious

camp meeting The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in England and Scotland as an evangelical event in association with the communion season. It was held for worship, preaching and communion on the American frontier d ...

in the United States. Held June 13–17, 1800, it marked the start of the

Second Great Awakening The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements. R ...

, a major religious movement in the United States in the first part of the nineteenth century.Red River Meeting House
accessed September 25, 2006
accessed February 2, 2007 The meeting was organized by the Presbyterian minister

James McGready Rev. James McGready (1763–1817) was a Presbyterian minister and a revivalist during the Second Great Awakening in the United States of America. He was one of the most important figures of the Second Great Awakening in the American frontier. ...

(also spelled M'Gready) in

Logan County, Kentucky Logan County is a county in the southwest Pennyroyal Plateau area of the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,432. Its county seat is Russellville. History The county is named for Benjamin Logan, who had ...

, and several preachers took part.

First camp meeting

What later became known as the

Revival of 1800 The Revival of 1800, also known as the Red River Revival, was a series of evangelical Christian meetings which began in Logan County, Kentucky. These ignited the subsequent events and influenced several of the leaders of the Second Great Awakening. ...

began as a traditional Presbyterian sacramental occasion at the Red River Meeting House in June of the same year. As the revival spread to the congregations of McGready's two other area congregations, several hundred people attended the meetings, held from Friday through Tuesday.C.S. Lewis Institute
accessed September 25, 2006 McGready's other congregations were located at Muddy River, and

Gasper River The Gasper River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 13, 2011 river in southwestern Kentucky, United States. It flows northeasterly into the Barren River. It is a r ...

. The meeting was a chance for the settlers to end their relative isolation for several days and to engage with new people. A letter from McGready to a friend dated October 23, 1801, described the meeting.Historical Foundation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
accessed September 25, 2006
accessed September 25, 2006

In June, the
sacrament A sacrament is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments ...
was administered at Red River. This was the greatest time we had ever seen before. On Monday multitudes were struck down under awful conviction; the cries of the distressed filled the whole house. There you might see profane swearers, and sabbath breakers pricked to the heart, and crying out, "what shall we do to be saved?" There frolicers, and dancers crying for mercy. There you might see little children of ten, eleven and twelve years of age, praying and crying for redemption, in the blood of Jesus, in agonies of distress. During this sacrament, and until the Tuesday following, ten persons we believe, were savingly brought home to Christ.

The Presbyterian minister

Barton W. Stone Barton Warren Stone (December 24, 1772 – November 9, 1844) was an American evangelist during the early 19th-century Second Great Awakening in the United States. First ordained a Presbyterian minister, he and four other ministers of the Washingt ...

observed the events and wrote the following:

There, on the edge of a prairie in Logan County, Kentucky, the multitudes came together and continued a number of days and nights encamped on the ground, during which time worship was carried on in some part of the encampment. The scene was new to me and passing strange. It baffled description. Many, very many, fell down as men slain in battle, and continued for hours together in an apparently breathless and motionless state, sometimes for a few moments reviving and exhibiting symptoms of life by a deep groan or piercing shriek, or by a prayer for mercy fervently uttered. After lying there for hours they obtained deliverance. The gloomy cloud that had covered their faces seemed gradually and visibly to disappear, and hope, in smiles, brightened into joy. They would rise, shouting deliverance, and then would address the surrounding multitude in language truly eloquent and impressive. With astonishment did I hear men, women, and children declaring the wonderful works of God and the glorious mysteries of the
gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
. Their appeals were solemn, heart-penetrating, bold, and free. Under such circumstances many others would fall down into the same state from which the speakers had just been delivered.

The historian Paul Conkin downplays the significance of the Red River meeting in relation to the religious revival. He says that McGready was one of several preachers at the event. The preacher wrote an account that was widely circulated, and which was instrumental in forming people's perceptions of the events at the meeting. Conkin thinks that McGready's account was exaggerated.Paul Conkin, ''Border States''
Journal of the Kentucky-Tennessee American Studies Association, No. 10 (1995), accessed September 25, 2006

History

The first settlers of European descent in the area were Ambrose Maulding and his family in 1780.
accessed September 25, 2006 They established what became known as Maulding's Station or Maulding's Fort. The original church building in this area was built between 1789 and 1792 and is described by some as the first

Cumberland Presbyterian Church The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian denomination spawned by the Second Great Awakening.Matthew H. Gore, The History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Kentucky to 1988, (Memphis, Tennessee: Joint Heritage Committee, 2000). ...

.Historical Foundation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
accessed September 25, 2006 After the church building collapsed in 1856, the adjacent cemetery expanded onto the site of the original cabin. A white framed church was built nearby but was torn down in 1929 due to deterioration and disuse. A log cabin believed to resemble the original style was constructed on the site in 1959. It burned due to an unknown cause on May 2, 1992. The Red River Meeting House and Cemetery Association was formed to raise funds for a replacement pioneer church, which was constructed in May 1994. Kentucky

Historical Marker A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

71 is erected at the intersection of U.S. Highway 431 and Route 663: "Three miles east is site of early pioneer church. Organized by 'A Society of Presbyterians,' 1789. Here the Great Revival of 1800 was conducted by the Rev. James McGready. First camp meeting held here."Kentucky Historical Society
accessed September 25, 2006 The adjacent cemetery contains the graves of numerous veterans of the Revolutionary War and the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. The gravestone of William McPherson is engraved with the Twenty-third Psalm in

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

. The site was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1976.

Location

The site is located three miles (5 km) east of

U.S. Route 431 U.S. Route 431 (US 431) is a spur of U.S. Route 31. It currently travels for approximately from US 231/Alabama State Route 210 and US 231 Business (US 231 Bus.) and US 431 Bus. in Dothan, Alabama, to Owensboro, ...

along Route 663 and the Red River in

Current use

A primitive camp meeting and rendezvous is held annually on the grounds during the local Tobacco & Heritage Festival (second weekend in October). The Red River Meeting House and Cemetery Association holds its annual meeting on the grounds on the second Sunday in September. The site is privately owned, but it is open to the public from dawn to dusk and admittance is free. There are no interpretive signs or facilities.

References

External links

Red River Meeting House
web site about the meeting house

Tobacco and Heritage Festival

at the Historical Foundation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church