Sterlie M. Watlington, son of George, and his wife Catherine Croom are mentioned as charter members of the Big Springs Methodist Church. They were married at the bride's home, May 14, 1866, by the local pastor, Rev. Peter J. Kelsey. Catherine Tabler and her siblings were baptized in a Lutheran Church in Frederick Co., Maryland. Hubert Lee Watlington and wife were Cumberland Presbyterian at Mason Wells and Cecil Watlington's sister Pauline married Elof L. Anderson, a Congregational Minister who studied in Chicago and who served twenty years as pastor in the Los Angeles, Cal., area and retired in Jackson, Tenn. Another member of the third generation in West Tennessee, Joanna Kendall Tabler married N. Brodie Hardeman, a founding minister of the Church of Christ in the area and a founder of Freed-Hardeman College in Henderson, Tenn.
Cousin Halbert Watlington and cousin Wm. F. Watlington were active Methodists of the third generation, at East Union Methodist and Pinson Methodist respectively. Many of the kinfolks around Big Springs including Watlingtons, Andersons, Daniels and Sauls were participants at Big Springs Methodist Church from its beginning near the Anderson-Chappell homes south of its present location. We know that the Chappell family had strong Methodist ties in Middle Tennessee before W. Tenn. was opened for settlement in 1819. However there is no report of a minister in the Watlington family until the fifth generation.
By marriages N. Brodie Hardeman represented the third generation, and Elof L. Anderson, the fourth generation. Humbert Weir of Big Springs Church, and Elton Watlington became Methodist ministers in the fourth and fifth generations respectively in West Tennessee. The Michael C. Watlington and Parchman families lived near the Holly Springs Methodist Church in Henderson (now Chester) Co. and worshipped and were buried there. Members of three and possibly four generations of the Michael Watlington family are buried at the Holly Springs Methodist Cemetery. Some of the family members were thus related to the following churches in nearby communities:
| Church of Christ | Henderson, Unity, Jack's Creek |
| Methodist | Pinson, Big Springs, Holly Springs, Malesus, |
| East Union, Lester's Chapel, Jack's Creek, | |
| Henderson, Mt. Pisgah, Bear Creek | |
| Mt. Pleasant | |
| Cumberland Presbyterian | Mason Wells |
| Baptist | New Friendship, Middlefork |
In Virginia, all residents and immigrants were expected to be loyal to the Church and King and therefore in Colonial times were considered to be ``Church of England.'' The lack of adequate priests and congregations was evident and therefore churchly relations were connected largely to ports, capitals and major cities. This left many families without any religious instruction. As the revolution ended some loyalist Anglican priests returned to England and the compelling relationship of church and state ceased to be. This left much opportunity for the non-conformist churches in frontier America, 1776-1860. Baptists, Methodists, Friends, Congregationalists and many new groups became common in different parts of America.
Many German language settlers brought pastors to their communities in America and the Tablers were a part of that movement and thus they early had Lutheran churches in Fredericksburg, Maryland, where the Tablers had lived. On moving to Tennessee we have no record of them having any Lutheran pastoral guidance in this state; therefore, they too would have taken part in a religious society that offered leaders, which in West Tennessee were usually Methodist, Presbyterian, or Baptist.
One of the earliest organized churches in this part was the Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church on the Mifflin-Jackson Rd., in Madison Co. at the Chester Co. line. This church was organized as ``Shiloh Community Church'' in 1823 and William Latham and Paulin Anderson were among the early members. This was used by all denominations in the early years and later it became a Methodist Church. The cemetery there is an old pioneer cemetery. At Big Springs there seems not to have been a strong older congregation although the Joel Chappell family which was, one of the earliest settlers, was known to be Methodist. The earliest church seems to have been built on what was part of the old Chappell-Anderson farm land near what is now known as ``Sauls Mound'' in the Pinson State Archeological Park. There was another, perhaps older church, at Mt. Pisgah south of Pinson, and one at Holly Springs to the east. Another early religious establishment was the Mason Wells Cumberland Presbyterian Church where there was an old pioneer cemetery nearby and an early school. We do know that Methodist Circuit riders who served the Henderson County Circuit and Forked Deer Circuit visited these settlers from the early 1820's, and that Big Springs at Mt. Pinson later became a place to hold camp meetings.
But from what we have been able to find on the Watlingtons,
they were Church of England in Gloucester Co. and Halifax Co., Va. but
had no identification with any organized religion in Tennessee until
Sterling Malachi Watlington and his wife are mentioned as charter
member of the Big Springs Methodist Church. They married on May 10,
1866 and owned a farm between Five Points and Pinson along the
bluff. We do know that through the influential Chappell and Anderson
families there were Methodists in our heritage even among the
earliest settlers
.
More recent studies of the related McCorkle family indicates that Joanna White McCorkle's Hugenot mother was Mary D. Crockett of French Hugenot (Protestant) ancestry. Robert H. McCorkle (1870-1957) of the second or third generation in West Tennessee who lived and died as a neighbor to Michael Harvey Watlington at Jack's Creek is known to have been a Methodist preacher, though probably a local preacher. The McCorkle-Crockett heritage is therefore one of Protestants seeking religious freedom in the New World. It was thus Joanna Kendall Tabler, granddaughter of Dr. A. N. and Joanna McCorkle Tabler, who showed this religious inclination in marrying N. Brodie Hardeman of the Church of Christ in 1901, Henderson, Tenn. ``God has not left his people without witnesses.''
One odd comment--in Dinwiddie Co., Va., at Petersburg we found a deed for a city lot made out to Rev. Francis Asbury, for the location of a place of worship for the people called Methodists. So Francis Asbury was trying to get to the Watlingtons even in Eighteenth Century Virginia. Petersburg was where George W. Watlington's Uncle John Watlington died, and where John Watlington had operated a general store before 1785.