Olde Time Camp Meetin

By David Taylor | July 21, 2016

TRACES OF EARLY SETTLEMENT

From the very beginning of this nation, the country about the Shoals area was considered a desirable place for settlement. It’s land, timber, water resources, and location as to trade routes and transportation marked it as a potential center of agriculture, commerce, and industry.

By 1793 the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney sparked the release of tremendous economic energy for cotton culture. The demand for new land and slaves lured ambitious planters to our region.

Indian tribes relinquished much of their land in North Alabama by treaty to the federal government. New transportation routes were opened. The Natchez Trace crossed the Tennessee River just below Muscle Shoals. This led more settlers into our area. By 1819 Alabama territory was elevated to statehood.

The Cyprus Land Company, organized in 1819, purchased more than five thousand acres in Lauderdale County, including the present site of Florence. Again, land hungry farmers began to settle in our area.

Churches were a matter of considerable concern to the early settlers. Ministers of the Gospel seemed to have entered our area about the time of the admission of Alabama into the Union in 1819.

Baptists were quick to start work. Their records set forth principles of strict Calvinism. The early churches placed rigid enforcement of righteous living upon its members. The early records often tell of a member or a candidate for membership being examined in public worship. Sometimes a person would be excluded from the church. Other times, the accused would repent of his action, the church would forgive and reinstate their fellowship. The church prided itself on the public and private character of its membership. Liberty Baptist was no exception, as was seen in its earliest records.

As the settlers and ministers spread into our area, many camp meetings (revivals) were held. A favorable site for camp meetings in our area was four miles northwest of our present church site on a knoll overlooking the surrounding valleys. Settlers would come from miles away to hear good gospel preaching.

It was on this favorable site for camp meetings that the people of this area decided to organize a church. Only 33 years after Alabama received its statehood, Liberty Baptist Church was established in the year of our Lord Eighteen Hundred Fifty-Two.