Tunnel Hill Baptist Church
Tunnel Hill Baptist Church is one of several churches in Scott County that is more than 100 years old. The church was founded on Sept. 15, 1922, and celebrated its 100th anniversary in September 2022.
Origin
Nearly two dozen members of the Cherry Fork United Baptist Church met on Saturday, Sept. 15, 1922 for the purpose of establishing a new church. It isn’t clear where that organizational meeting took place. However, the 23 people who gathered pledged to “give themselves to God and each other to be constituted in a church order and to enter into a covenant with each other agreeing to keep a Godly discipline according to the following principles of faith and practice.”
Located east of Oneida, off Paint Rock Road, Tunnel Hill was named by engineers of the Tennessee Railroad that started in the 1890s as the Paint Rock Coal & Coke Co. Railroad. The line was built as a spur line off the Cincinnati Southern Railroad at the Oneida depot to reach large deposits of coal along the headwaters of Paint Rock Creek.
Engineers ran into an obstacle in the hill between Oneida and Morning Glory. A 402-ft. tunnel was dug through the mountain and lined with timbers to prevent it from caving in, which resulted in the name “Tunnel Hill.”
The original Tunnel Hill Baptist Church meeting house was located on top of the railroad tunnel.
Charter Members
Among the 23 charter members of Tunnel Hill Baptist Church:
• Lemuel Carson
• Allie Carson (wife of Lemuel Carson)
• Harrison Keeton
• Mary A. Keeton (wife of Harrison Keeton)
• Lindsay D. Phillilps
• DeLillian Phillips (wife of Lindsay Phillips)
• Pherbia J. Phillips (daughter of Lindsay Phillips)
• Ora D. Phillips (daughter of Lindsay Phillips)
• Harlan Phillips
• Mary A. Pike
• Eva Pike (daughter of Mary Pike)
• Isaac Reed
• Sallie Reed (wife of Isaac Reed)
• Campbell County Reed
• Beaty Risden
• Emily Risden (wife of Beaty Risen)
• Lemuel Stephens
• Bertha Stephens (wife of Lemuel Stephens)
• Mabel Stephens (daughter of Lemuel Stephens)
• Nannie E. West
• Bailey H. West (son of Nannie West)
• Ardilla West (daughter of Nannie West)
• Nevada West (daughter of Nannie West)
Nannie West’s husband, Henry West, had been ordained to preach at Cherry Fork in January 1921. He wasn’t listed as a charter member at Tunnel Hill, but was listed as assistant moderator of the organizational meeting.
Many of those charter members were related to one another. Mary Keeton was a first cousin to Lemuel Carson. Harlan Phillips was a first cousin to Lindsay Phillips, and also a first cousin to Isaac Reed and Campbell County Reed. Isaac and C.C. Reed were brothers. Mary Pike was Harrison Keeton’s niece. and Bertha Stephens was a cousin to Harlan Phillips and the Reeds.
The Reeds, Isaac and his wife Sallie, and his brother C.C., would later leave Tunnel Hill and become charter members of Hazel Valley Baptist Church, where they moved to start a new farm.
Lindsay Phillips left to become a charter member at nearby Pentecost Baptist Church.
First leaders
Lindsay Phillips was elected the first clerk of Tunnel Hill United Baptist Church, while Harlan Phillips was elected moderator and Henry West was elected assistant moderator.
Harlan Phillips, Isaac Reed and C.C. Reed were appointed to represent Tunnel Hill at the region’s association of Baptist Churches.
Isaac Reed and Harrison Keeton were appointed deacons in the Summer of 1923, and C.C. Reed was elected treasurer in 1926.
Harlan Phillips was Tunnel Hill’s first pastor, and served in that capacity for 12 years. He later served as the church’s pastor again in 1936 and 1937.
It was not until 1928 that the congregation formally voted to use the name Tunnel Hill for a Sunday school convention.
Growth and change
In 1932, C.C. Reed resigned his position as church clerk to organize a church in the Niggs Creek School on the opposite side of Oneida. That church would become Hazel Valley Baptist Church. Isaac Reed replaced his brother as clerk for a short time, but left in September 1933 to join C.C. reed at Hazel Valley.
In October 1935, the church voted to change the time of Saturday services from night to day. In 1949, $23.80 — the equivalent of about $300 in 2022 — was spent to purchase lumber for building seats inside the church. At the same meeting, the church changed its name from Tunnel Hill United Baptist Church of Christ to Tunnel Hill United Baptist Church.
The Modern Era
In October 1950, John Harrison “Junior” Keeton was ordained as a deacon, and was elected clerk and treasurer at Tunnel Hill. He was a railroad man who had worked as an engineer on the railroad that ran directly beneath the church. He would be the longest-serving clerk in the church’s history, holding that role for 49 years before resigning.
In February 1954, Tunnel Hill voted to establish a salary for its pastor for the first time. The monthly salary was $10, the equivalent to about $110 in 2022.
A piano was purchased by the church in 1954, a furnace was purchased in 1964, and air conditioning was installed in 1971. The name of the church changed from Tunnel Hill United Baptist Church to Tunnel Hill baptist Church in 1964.
New Church
In 1972, a storm caused water damage inside Tunnel Hill Baptist Church while the building was being reroofed, and the congregation voted to build a new church. Mary Keeton, one of the charter members, donated land for the building of a new church.
Meanwhile, Southern Railway purchased the Tennessee Railroad in 1972. The company decided to “daylight” the 402-ft. tunnel by removing its roof and turning it into a pass through the mountain. In order to do so, the church needed to be moved.
Southern Railway paid Tunnel Hill $11,000 to move the church building. In the Spring of 1974, a team of movers moved the new building a short distance southeast to its present location on Tunnel Hill Road. A basement was added to the church in the process.
Running water was added to the church in 1975, and bathrooms were added in 1979. A steeple was added in 1982, new carpet was installed in 1990, the church was reroofed in 1991, and the building was bricked in 1992. A church bell was added in 1994. It was purchased by the family of Elizabeth Honeycutt, a member of the church who had died of cancer in 1991. Many members of her family were active in the church at the time, including a son, Ed Honeycutt, and a grandson, Avery Lee Honeycutt, who were deacons, and a son-in-law, James Lowe, who was Sunday school superintendent.
In 1995, the church’s parking lot was paved and fenced, and classrooms were added to the church basement. Additional classrooms were added in 1998.
Long-Standing Members
The longest-enrolled active member of Tunnel Hill Baptist Church, as of 2024, is Dessie Coffey. There are three members of the church who have been active longer than 50 years: Coffey, her sister, Essie Lowe, and Deane Phillips.
Pastors
Following is a list of Tunnel Hill’s pastors through the years. A meeting was held in September every year to elect a pastor. That practice continued until the 1970s.
1922-1934: Harlan Phillips
1934-1936: John Stanley
1936-1937: Harlan Phillips
1937-1938: W.E. Byrd
1938-1938: Shurman Tucker
1938-1939: J.H. West
1939-1941: Gilbert Phillips
1942-1942: Bill Riley Phillips
1942-1949: Records missing
1949-1950: Elmer Bauswell
1950-1967: John Riley Byrd
1967-1968: Michael McDonald
1968-1973: Hertis Phillips
1973-1976: Clifford Garrett
1976-1980: Dilmon Stanley
1980-1983: C.J. Thompson
1983-1984: John Botts
1984-1989: Roger Honeycutt
1989-1990: Dilmon Stanley
1990-1993: Jimmy Griffith
1993-2009: Billy Lowe
2009-2019: Troy Burchfield
2019-Present: Ronnie Joe Silcox