Providence Missionary Baptist Church

PBC is a small church with tons of history and influence. Several other churches in Sevier County, TN came from PBC, such as Milican Grove Baptist, New Era Baptist, and others.

The Reverend Richard Woods founded and pastored the Providence Baptist Church in 1789. The area known as “The Woods Bottom” which belonged to the Woods family included acreage on the French Broad River about a mile and half above Douglas Dam and about a quarter of a mile from the river. Douglas Lake covered the Woods Bottoms in 1942.
There is no record of the early church building and other buildings in the area, but many of the early church members remember the many large oak trees standing among the tombstones, large marble stones like those used in cemeteries today. It is believed the cemetery was used until the early 1920s.
An 1829 Record book furnished the following dates and comments:
“The Providence Church met on the third Saturday of June, 1829, at Providence Meeting House in Jefferson County, State of Tennessee, with James Woods church clerk. On the third Saturday of June 1855, the Providence Baptist Church of Jefferson County met at Atchley Chapel in Sevier County. The third Saturday of June 1856 the church met at Samuel Pate’s house. The third Saturday, July 1870 the church met at the Union School house.”