History
Pastor History
1. Braxton James
2. Rev. Hillary W. Key
3. Rev. W. R. Smith
4. Rev. W. B. Crenshaw
5. Rev. Hewlett
6. Rev. H. H. Jones
7. Rev. Edwards
8. Rev. M. M. League
9. Rev. Paul Y Marchbands, Sr.
10. Rev. James S. Gadsen
11. Rev. Robert U. Green
12. Rev. William Reed Smith
13. Rev. Daniel Hayes
14. Rev. Frederick Yebuah
15. Rev. Dogan William
16. Rev. Alvin Goodwin
17. Rev. Farai David Muzorewa
18. Rev. Kenneth R. Edmondson
19. Rev. Isaac Davis
20. Rev. John K. L. Young
21. Rev. Arthur Ford
22. Rev. Chestina M. Archibald
23. Rev. Graham P. Matthews
24. Rev. Keith Caldwell
25. Rev. Dr. Aaron M. Treadwell
Church & Conference History
Tennessee Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church
The Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Northern branch of American Methodism, was founded October 11, 1866 at James Chapel, Murfreesboro. Under the leadership of Bishop Davis W. Clark, President of the Freedmen’s Aid Society, eight black preachers – Braxton James, Calvin Pickett, Daniel Brown, Benjamin B. Mansom, Hillary W. Key, Miles Smith, Gilbert Brooks, and J. W. Sneed – were admitted to the Conference along with twenty-two white preachers.
After withdrawal of the central Tennessee Conference in 1876, the Tennessee Conference became predominately black. In 1939 the Tennessee Conference became part of the central jurisdiction of the Methodist Church. The Tennessee Conference merged with the East Tennessee Conference in 1964. Becoming the Tennessee-Kentucky Conference under Bishop Charles F. Golden. The Tennessee-Kentucky Conference merged into the Tennessee Conference of the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church under Bishop H. Ellis Finger, Jr., in 1968.
In 1866 James Chapel was located at the corner of College and High Streets. After a New Building was constructed in 1880 during the Pastorate of Hillary W. Key, the name was changed to Key Chapel and later Key Memorial. The Church was moved to its present location in 1967.
- Commission on Archives and History June 1979
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