Doe Creek Church and School - Sardis TN - U.S. Civil War Sites on Waymarking.com

TEXT ON THE HISTORICAL MARKER

Doe Creek Church and School-Brothers against Brothers--A classic example of the brother-against-brother feuds resulting from the Civil War began virtually in the shadows of the historic log Doe Creek Church and School. Hugh and Robert Kennedy established farms here early in the 1820s. When the war began, Hugh Kennedy’s son, John G. Kennedy, enlisted in the Confederate army, while his twin sons, David and Isaac Kennedy, joined the Union army. Five of Robert Kennedy’s sons---Robert, Samuel G., Shadrach Hugh, William G., and James D. Kennedy---as well as his sons-in-law, James M. Smith, Bill Nails, and Isham Gurley, served in the Confederate army.
During the war, Samuel G. Kennedy and James M. Smith were killed. Unionists here had warned James D. Kennedy and Bill Nails not to return if they fought for the Confederacy. After the war ended, Kennedy and Nails returned to Doe Creek, and Union sympathizers murdered both of them three miles from here at Wormly Branch. Robert Kennedy brought their bodies here for burial, thus creating a community cemetery where several other Confederate veterans, including Isham Gurley, were later interred. The arguing continued into the early 1900’s, when a descendant of Hugh Kennedy was killed by a descendant of Robert Kennedy, his wife, and most of his family were interred on these grounds as is Hugh’s son, Hugh J. Kennedy.
About 1870, Robert Kennedy donated land, furnished logs, and provided oxen to move the logs here for a one-room church and school, where congregations met on Sundays and children took lessons during the week. The school served the community until the late 1940s. For 54 years Elmer Duck, Robert Kennedy’s grandson, taught here.

(Inscription under the photo in the lower left)
Partisans murdering civilians, Harper’s Weekly, Sept. 5, 1863.

(Inscription under the photo in the upper center)
Guerrillas on both sides stole horses from civilians, Harper’s Weekly, Dec 24, 1864.

(Inscription under the photo in the lower right)
Doe Creek Church and School before restoration-Courtesy Golden Circle Graphics.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/07/2023 Don.Morfe visited it