LIBERTY TOWNSHIP — The highest point in Knox County — 1,426 feet in elevation — lies near the right angle made by the intersection of New Delaware and Tucker roads, on private property.
For years, the highest point has been noted on county maps as 1,421 feet, also on New Delaware Road but halfway between Camp and Dunham roads. But when Scott Snider of the Knox County Tax Map Department used the department’s relatively new ArcMap software, he discovered the true high point. ArcMap, said Snider, uses digital aerial photos taken by computerized cameras; laser beams from airplane to ground measure elevations and contours.
The topographical map-photos can be studied in great detail on a computer. By zooming in, even the texture of the tombstones in Friendship Cemetery, near the county’s highest point, can be viewed.
The map-photos show the high point is about 0.8 of an acre in diameter, 15 feet higher than New Delaware Road, 1,000 feet off Wigton Road, 1,200 feet from Tucker Road.
“The majority of the highest points are right here in Liberty Township,” said Snider, pointing to the images. The map department, he added, will correct the map when it is reprinted.
Three-quarters of a mile east of the high point lies Friendship Cemetery, at 1,385 feet. Local people refer to it as the highest place in Knox County; they’re only 41 feet off.
Mary Frazier and her daughter, Veronica Hill, took a walk through the cemetery recently, to take in the view and visit the graves of their ancestors.
“You can probably see on over to Richland County,” Hill said, looking north at the blue rolling hills.
Frazier pointed out a gravestone with her great-grandparents’ names: John Hurd, who died in 1886, and Griselda Hurd, who died in 1884. Nearby are stones with the names of others in her family: Hyatt and Ransom, and new stones with the names Frazier and Hill, waiting for the day they’ll join the others.
Map department records, compiled before World War II by a veterans organization, show the number of veterans buried there: One soldier from the Revolutionary War, 10 from the War of 1812, 16 from the Mexican War, 19 from the Civil War, 25 from the Spanish American War and 31 who died in “the World War.”
“The first Friendship Church,” said Frazier, pointing east, “was here in the cemetery. It was built in 1841 and the foundation is still there. But the people started meeting in 1834 in a log house owned by Thomas Higgins. In 1871, they built the current church across the road.”
The abandoned Friendship Methodist Church is a white frame building topped by a tall open bell tower, topped by a decorative finial. The tower is the highest point in the county when measured by combined natural elevation and building height.
The building is in sad shape. It closed in 1979, said Frazier, because of a lack of congregation and funds. It was purchased by a Pentecostal congregation, then rented to a Reformed Baptist group. A few years ago, the Knox County Health Department, said Hill, asked the congregation not to use the building, due to its condition.
Nancy and Phillip Nichols — who led the Pentecostal congregation — moved to Halifax, N.C., from Mount Vernon 10 years ago, but retain ownership.
“If you ring that bell, you can hear it in Green Valley,” said Nancy. “The church still has the original pews and windows, and the tin ceiling, although it’s covered by a drop ceiling now. It’s a one-room building ... no indoor plumbing.”
She added that the church is for sale, but the purchaser must agree not to tear it down.
Fallen ceiling tiles litter the vestibule floor, where rain has turned them into something resembling dirty oatmeal. A tile in a corner of the sanctuary has fallen on the vintage Hammond organ, and rainwater has run down the back wall, melting the plaster. Missing tiles show the elaborately patterned, rusted tin ceiling. Two hulking Warm Morning gas heaters sit on either side of the room. Old Bibles molder in the cupboard and dusty Tabernacle and Methodist hymnals are stacked behind the organ. The pews, made in semi-enclosed style, have storage boxes underneath to hold hymnals. A vintage Leslie Organ Speaker (”The Pipe Voice of the Electric Organ” reads the plate on the back) sets on the stage.
Frazier has a document dated 1921, written by Mary Hurd Ransom, her grandmother, titled “Recollections of Old Friendship Church and Community.” Ransom, whose parents were charter members of the church, wrote it for the 50th anniversary celebration that year.
The spidery, old-fashioned handwriting states, “Carpenter made seats with backs, neat and comfortable, perhaps a little too close together for the hoop skirts worn in those days.”
It also mentions that, “West of the pulpit was the ‘amen corner’ occupied by the fervent brothers who voiced their approval by many a loud ‘amen’ and who promptly responded when called upon to lead in prayer.”
The document notes that the vestibule, belfry and bell were added in 1905.
The climb up to the belfry is no easy feat, as there is no ladder. Instead, News employee John Nixon provided his aluminum extension ladder and led the way.
Generations of critters and birds have made nests in the enclosed tower, judging by big jumbled piles of pine needles, straw and fabric. The attic has old beams that appear to have been cut with an ax, and steel rods from beams to rafters that support the ceiling. Dust motes and pine needles fall through beams of sunlight.
A second climb up a weathered wooden ladder with a broken rung ends in the open air, next to the big, black corroded bell in its iron harness.
“This bell is probably the only solid thing up here,” said Nixon, as the belfry quivered in the wind. The only marking on the bell is the number 40. Its tone, however, is clear, deep and carries well from such a height.
From the belfry, visitors can look down on everything around, and straight across at the highest (natural) elevation 3/4 miles west. The hills to the north are soft blue with distance, and the buildings of Mount Vernon nestle in the landscape to the northeast. Fertile farmland gently rolls away in all directions. Nearby houses and the tombstones across the road are tiny.
Safely back inside the vestibule, visitors stand away from the center of the small room — just in case the bell decides to fall — and tug on the long rope to ring the bell. The sound recalled the good old days of long ago, when the church was a lively place filled with happy people. Maybe the folks in Green Valley were listening to a sound they hadn’t heard in a very long time.
The Knox County On High series will continue on Monday, Jan. 21, with an exploration of the “Old Red Mill” in Howard.
