The Calvary Episcopal Church (formerly St. James Episcopal Church) is a historic Episcopal church located off

Tennessee State Route 48 State Route 48 (SR 48) is a long north–south state highway in Middle Tennessee. It traverses six counties, and it is long. Route description Wayne, Perry, and Lewis Counties SR 48 begins as a primary state route in far northern Way ...

Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee Cumberland Furnace is an unincorporated community in Dickson County, Tennessee, United States. Cumberland Furnace is served by a U.S. Post Office, ZIP Code 37051. History General James Robertson purchased the land now known as Cumberland Furn ...

History

St. James Episcopal Church was founded in 1878. Its small white frame church building was completed the following year in a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. The church was consecrated by Bishop Charles Quintard in August 1882. The builders of the church were Captain James Pierre Drouillard and his wife, born Mary Florence Kirkman. Mary Florence Kirkman Drouillard was the granddaughter of

Anthony Wayne Van Leer Anthony Wayne Van Leer (March 3, 1783 – July 9, 1863) was an American ironmaster and owner of the Cumberland Furnace in Dickson County, Tennessee. He was a member of the influential Van Leer family, the son of Samuel Van Leer, captain in the Co ...

, who was a member of a well known historical family in Pennsylvania and noted in the anti-slavery cause. Van Leer purchased the notable

iron works An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomer ...

at Cumberland Furnace. She was heiress to the iron works in Cumberland Furnace as well as of land in the vicinity. Drouillard was a

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

graduate who served as an officer in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

; Mary Florence Kirkman shocked

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

society when she married him there in 1864 (while the state of Tennessee was still at war with the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

). For several years, the Drouillards made their home in Cumberland Furnace and oversaw the operation of the iron works. In 1870 they built their three-story

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

mansion home, now known as Drouillard House, on a site that overlooks the community. They also constructed a school for both black and white children on the land where the church's parish hall now stands. In 1882, the Drouillards transferred the church to the Protestant Episcopal Church of Tennessee for $5. The Drouillards left Cumberland Furnace in 1886 and took up residence in Nashville. The church building 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 1977. During the 1980s, St. James established a "daughter" church in Dickson. During the 1990s, the church in Dickson was redesignated as St. James Episcopal Church and the church in Cumberland Furnace became a mission church, renamed Calvary Church.

References

External links

Calvary Episcopal Church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint James Episcopal Church moved from Cumberland Furnace TN to 205 Church ST, Dickson, Tennessee, in the 1970's. The Cumberland Furnace church was renamed Calvary Episcopal Church Episcopal churches in Tennessee Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Carpenter Gothic church buildings in Tennessee Churches completed in 1879 19th-century Episcopal church buildings Buildings and structures in Dickson County, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Dickson County, Tennessee