This
will give you an idea of how Tazewell's interest in history has
disappeared and how it was noticed by my brother. Of course Rev.
Bill Nevils narratives throughout our history books will long be
remembered. But efforts such as my brothers and mine may never be
recognized. Below is what has been recorded in the history books
regarding the Old Presbyterian
Church in Tazewell. Many of us, myself included, remember
the Old Presbyterian Church
and the balcony with the shackles and the arch window frames. I
was instructed after much deliberation with town officials by my
brother to take the last remaining piece of architecture recognizable
of the Church. In the early 1980's, as seen by one of the many
letters at the bottom of the page, my brother obtained permission for
me to remove the arch.
I kept this arch in my
father's basement but during the confusion of our move from Tazewell in
the late 1980's lost the arch and have never been able to locate
it. If anyone has knowledge of where this arch may be please
return it to me or donate it to the Claiborne County Historical and
Genealogical Society. The people devoted to the
preservation of the history of Claiborne County should be more
responsible for what little remains of the remnants of it's Civil War
history, especially that which showed the aspects of just what the
Civil War was about. Was it slavery was it State's Rights?
I know one thing and that is that Tazewell could not have existed in
it's early days without the help of the black community. Those
large stones cut for the stone houses and stone walls could not have
been constructed without them. Whether you believe you know what
constitutes the "The Lost Cause"
please understand that concern for it's preservation is shared by
many. Tazewell finally learned that for the town to exist it had
to pay for labor. For much more inspirational comments on the preservation effort thwarted please follow this link to a letter written in 1934 by James M. Freeman
