Zion Meetinghouse and School

Zion Baptist Church was organized in 1802, one year after the formation of Adair County. When first organized the Zion Church was a member of the Green River Association of Baptists, constituted in 1800 during the Great Revival which resulted in the union of the Regular and Separate Baptists forming the United Baptists (see the National Register nomination form for the Providence Church, Clark County). Both the Zion church and school were attended by prominent citizens of Adair County, both institutions, inseparable from the start, played an important role in the surrounding community. The well-proportioned buildings are utterly plain, but well-built and characteristic of such rural complexes during the mid-19th century. The survival of both church and school in an unspoiled condition and setting is indeed unusual, if not unique.

In 1802 the Zion congregation was organized by Elijah Burbridge and John Waggoner, one of the first pastors. John Mellinger donated one acre of land to the church and a log meetinghouse was constructed near the fork of Russell Creek and Glen's Fork between Columbia, the county seat, and Glen's Fork, a small rural community. After 1831 William Burbridge bequeathed ten additional acres of land to the church and a quarter of his estate for the upkeep of the church. Burbridge was the pastor of Zion Baptist church as early as 1812 and served in that position for more than ten years. In 1830 he was afflicted by an illness that forced him to resign from his duties. At his death in 1837, Burbridge left the following to the church and school:

.. 12th-I do hereby give and bequeath, one-fourth or half of the last mention half of my whole estate to the use, benefit, and behalf of the United Baptist Church of Zion. It is my desire and intention (if it should please deity to lengthen my life one year or two longer) to finish the meeting house of Zion by plastering, painting, etc. to build a good school house on the one acre of ground on which Zions' stands or on the land immediately adjoining said acre of land. If I shall be able to make any expenditures in finishing the meeting house, building a school or buying ground adjoining Zion or in either or all of said objects, I intend to change Zion Church with said expenditures which are to be deducted off or from one-fourth of my whole estate. I leave to and under the control of the said church of Zion. If however, I shall be unable before my death to make any expenditure of either of aforesaid objects, I leave one-fourth of my whole estate to Zion Church to finish the meetinghouse, build a school house, near thereto, and purchase land adjoining if it can be bought for a said church under the care of the church committees. The said cost is to be taken from my estate.

In 1864, the church purchased an additional 13 acres and at this time built a two-story brick schoolhouse, one hundred feet from the church, as Burbridge requested in his will. The school was called Zion Academy and had twelve grades. There were winter sessions known as subscription schools because the students paid their own tuition and boarded in homes in the community. The county was later given use of the building. Many persons later prominent in Adair County, particularly teachers, attended Zion School. The school continued in operation until a few years ago when it was consolidated with other Adair County rural schools.

The church was rebuilt after a fire (1877 )to its present appearance probably with minimal changes. The congregation has not been made up exclusively of Baptists, but members of other denominations who lived in the community, and many of them were leaders of the community. Edmund Willis, on whose farm the original bricks for the church were made and fired, for instance, was elected the first judge of Adair County; Benjamin Bomar was the first sheriff; and William D. Parrish, the first representative to the State Legislature. The Zion church is also considered the mother church of the Columbia Baptist Church, which eventually replaced it as the congregation moved away from the rural areas toward the town. Now seldom used the buildings remain in somewhat deteriorating condition but in an unspoiled setting.