Sterling Adkins
Sterling Adkins (Nov. 16, 1833 – March 5, 1905) was a Baptist preacher from Scott County who founded the Baptist churches at Smokey Creek and Upper Jellico Creek. He married into Scott County’s first family when he married the granddaughter of Mikel Low.
Biography
Born Nov. 16, 1833, Sterling Adkins was the son of John Stanton Adkins (1798-1882) and Mary “Polly” Saunders (1805-1870). His siblings included James Adkins (1823-1895), Jesse James Adkins (1825-1866), Elizabeth “Sadie” Boshears (1826-1910), Nancy Arena Phillips (1831-1912), Lacy Levi Adkins (1838-1900), Henry Sheridan Adkins (1842-1914) and Salina McCoy (1843-1883).
Sterling’s parents were originally from North Carolina, moving to present-day Scott County in the early 19th century. John Stanton’s parents were Henry Adkins and Jemima Green Cloud. The Adkins family was originally from Virginia, though Henry Adkins later moved to North Carolina. It isn’t clear where Polly was buried. However, John Stanton was buried on Upper Jellico Creek, where he lived the last years of his life.
Sterling married Motlany Lowe (1838-1907) on Dec. 16, 1857. She was the daughter of Phillip Low and Sarah Nancy Carroll, and a granddaughter of Mikel “Grand Mikey” Low, who is usually considered to be the first permanent settler of the area that would become Scott County, receiving a land grant on Smokey Creek.
Sterling and Motlany had at least eight children: Nancy Arena Low (1858-1930), Sarah Jane Low (1861-1942), Gallent Lee Adkins (1862-1945), Philip Adkins (1864-1938), Cordelia Cross (1866-1939), Flaranzo Adkins (1868-1933), John Stanton Adkins (1869-1894), Henry Sherwood Adkins (1870-1955) and Partillie Adkins (about 1873-1875). Partillie drowned when she was 18 months old after falling into a wash kettle of water.
Ministry
Sterling Adkins was ordained as a Baptist minister in the 1860s. He helped organize Smokey Creek Baptist Church in 1873 and served as its first pastor. Later, he helped organize Upper Jellico Creek Baptist Church of Christ in 1885 after moving to that area with his brother, Henry, and their father in 1882. John Adkins died of pneumonia two weeks after the move and was buried on the farm owned by Henry Adkins, which later became known as the Conrad Laxton Place.
The Upper Jellico Baptist Church of Christ was organized on the fourth Saturday in May 1885, when a group of members from the Sugar Grove Missionary Baptist Church met to start a new church. Adkins was appointed moderator, and the first members included Robert Burchfield, Lucinda Burchfield, Margaret Burchfield, Jarret Burchfield, Lusia Trammell, Nancy J. Chitwood, Rachel Honeycutt, Maynard Cross, Cordelia Cross, Melvina Crabtree, Jon Webb, Mary J. Honeycutt, Sterling Adkins and Motlany Adkins.
Adkins served as pastor of the church at Upper Jellico Creek from 1885 to 1889, in 1900, and in 1904. His son, Gallant Lee Adkins, pastored the church in 1913 and 1920. His grandson, Harvey Adkins (son of Flaranzo Adkins and Elisabeth Davis) pastored the church from 1940 until his death in 1944.
In 1885, a report was made to the Clinton Association of Baptist churches stating that Sterling Adkins had worked 115 days as a missionary in Scott County in 1884 and had received 97 professions of faith, had performed 60 baptisms, and had participated in the constitution of two new churches while assisting in the ordination of four deacons and two ministers.
In November 1887, Adkins helped organize First Baptist Church of Oneida when he was one of seven men who met in Oneida for the purpose of starting a new church .He was appointed moderator of the meeting.
Death
Sterling Adkins died on March 5, 1905 at the age of 71. He was buried at the Adkins Cemetery on his Upper Jellico Creek farm. His headstone reads that he preached for 52 years. Motlany died two years later, on Feb. 21, 1907, at age 68. She is also buried at Adkins Cemetery.
John Adkins was buried at what is now known as the Conrad Laxton Cemetery when he died on October. 16, 1882. His wife — Sterling’s mother — died in 1870, when the family still lived at Smokey Creek. It is not known where she was buried. Henry Adkins, Sterling’s brother who made the move to Upper Jellico Creek, and on whose farm John Adkins was buried when he died in 1870, later moved to Whitley County, Ky., and died there in 1914.