History of Kingswood United Methodist Church

The predecessor of Kingswood Church was Calvary Church, located one or two miles southeast of the present church, south of the River Road (present Highway 903). Julius Lambert gave the land for Calvary Church in a deed made on October 16, 1807. This first church was probably constructed of logs. Bishop John Early preached at Calvary around 1833.
Early records at Calvary lists the following members: Hartwell Arnold (a local preacher and class leader), Mary M. Arnold, Mary Shaw, Martha E. Lambert, Robert Joyce, Elizabeth Burton, Elizabeth A. Tudor, Alexander Shaw, Temperance Burton, Alexander Wells, Margaret V. Shaw, Rebecca Ridout, Benjamin Thompson, Elizabeth Arnold, John D. Wells, Martha A. Wells, Robert Taylor, Frances A. Thomas, Mary Taylor, Mary W. Thomas, Elizabeth Dugger, Frances Carroll, Lucy W. Hunter, Jane J. Wade, and Ann and Catherine Ridout.
Sometime between 1833 and 1836, the Calvary congregation was moved to the present Kingswood site, and another church structure erected. The name was changed to “Kingswood,” for Wright King and his wife, Caroline, who donated the land. The land was conveyed to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who were at that time Hartwell Arnold, William T. Pennington, George Williams, Archer Jackson, Alexander W. Shaw, Robert Tanner, and Oliver W. Tanner.
In 1836 Kingswood Church had 30 members; in 1859 the membership was 43; and by 1869 the membership had grown to 102 and to 139 by 1877.
On January 28, 1888, at the First Quarterly Conference at Kingswood, the following committee was appointed to supervise the construction of a new church building: J.M. Burton, Dr. T.B. Smith, E.H. Russell, W.B. Emory, Miss Jannie A. Boyd, Miss Mary Ridout, and Mrs. Altamont Bracey. On July 14, 1888, it was reported that the new Kingswood Church edifice had been put out to contract at a cost of $1,100. James J. Throckmorton was the contractor and builder. The new one-room frame building is now the main sanctuary of the present church.
Originally, as was often the practice in early churches, the men and women of the churches sat separately. At Kingswood, there was a railing nailed atop the long, middle pews. Couples separated outside the building—women going in the left door and sitting to the left of the railing, men in the right door and sitting to the right. Even after the railing disappeared, some older members continued the practice as late as the early 1990s.
As far back as any of the oldest members of the community can recall, there has been a Sunday School at Kingswood. The first superintendent on record was Armstead G. Boyd. Other superintendents included H. Russell, J.H. Russell, Dr. T.B. Smith (served for 30-plus years), J. Miles Cole (served for 44 years), R.C. Hines, Parker Johnson, Buck Barlow, Rudy Rowell, and Edna Satterwhite. Others to serve for several decades at Kingswood included Lawrence Dawson, as Lay Minister, and “Miss Lillie” (George) Dawson, as Youth Programs Director.