Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church

On Athens-Boonesboro Road there stands an ivy-cov­ered, long-aban­doned build­ing on the his­toric farm known until recent­ly as the Pat Shely place.  This derelict struc­ture is locat­ed on part of the land hold­ings of Col. John Holder, a mover and shak­er of the late 1700s Clark County. 

The build­ing once housed Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church, whose his­to­ry I only late­ly came across while perus­ing old news­pa­pers.  It owed its begin­ning to Edward O. Guerrant (1838−1916), a cel­e­brat­ed physi­cian and min­is­ter.  Guerrant made his rep­u­ta­tion attend­ing to the spir­i­tu­al and health needs of Eastern Kentucky’s moun­tain peo­ple.  By the time of his death, he had estab­lished fifty-six church­es, schools, and hos­pi­tals.  His son, Edward P. Guerrant, opened the Guerrant Mountain Mission Clinic & Hospital, now the Bluegrass Heritage Museum in Winchester.

In August 1882, E. O. Guerrant preached a ser­mon in a saloon at Combs Ferry.  Combs Ferry was an old com­mu­ni­ty locat­ed at the west­ern ter­mi­nus of present-day Amster Grove Road, known then as Combs Ferry Road. It was the main route between Paris and Richmond, which crossed the Kentucky River at the ferry. 

According to Guerrant, he decid­ed to preach at the local saloon because he “felt that it was a like­ly place to con­vert sin­ners.”  At the time there was no Presbyterian con­gre­ga­tion nor even any Presbyterians in the vicin­i­ty.  Within two weeks’ time, Guerrant had enrolled eighty-four con­gre­gants and raised 500 dol­lars toward a new church.  That same month, H. L. “Hub” Stevens donat­ed one acre on Athens-Boonesboro Road for the church.  Guerrant him­self direct­ed its con­struc­tion and served as the first pastor.

Stevens made the deed to Joseph F. Jones, John F. Bean, and H. L. Stevens, “trustees of Cedar Grove Presbyterian Church.”  The name was changed almost imme­di­ate­ly to Mt. Tabor. 

The church closed for nine years, begin­ning in about 1916.  Then Rev. Vale of Louisville became the new pas­tor and appar­ent­ly was respon­si­ble for its res­ur­rec­tion.  By 1926 Mt. Tabor count­ed six­ty some mem­bers and more than a hun­dred enrolled in Sunday School.  Their Sunday School teacher was the “much beloved” University of Kentucky pro­fes­sor, William S. Webb.  Webb, in part­ner­ship with W. D. Funkhouser, con­duct­ed numer­ous exca­va­tions of pre­his­toric Adena bur­ial mounds in Central Kentucky.

For lack of a reg­u­lar min­is­ter, the church did not meet every Sunday.  One of those who took the pul­pit peri­od­i­cal­ly was Rev. E. O. Guerrant, 1910–1916, return­ing many years after he estab­lished the con­gre­ga­tion.  Regular preach­ers appoint­ed over the years includ­ed Revs. Vale, William Cumming, Barclay Walthall, Joe T. Sudduth, S. M. Logan, and E. B. Wooten. 

Mt. Tabor host­ed a num­ber of inter-denom­i­na­tion­al meet­ings with oth­er church­es in the neigh­bor­hood.  These usu­al­ly last­ed all day and includ­ed devo­tion­als, speech­es, singing, sport­ing events, and a pic­nic.  The church also host­ed a num­ber of “Rural Life Sunday” meet­ings where invit­ed speak­ers dis­cussed the prob­lems fac­ing rur­al church­es.  These prob­lems even­tu­al­ly could not be surmounted. 

No record of Mt. Tabor could be found after 1951.  The aban­doned church build­ing served as a res­i­dence for many years.  The old Shely farm has since been sub­di­vid­ed for development.