MARTINI FAMILY---JESSE DODSON Frontier Preacher

Old Mill, Birch Creek VA

Collins River, Warren Co. TN

headstone of Rev. Jesse Dodson

Pittsylvania Co. VA

Cumberland Gap TN

Holston River TN

1795 Big Springs Baptist Church,TN

Eastanallee Baptist Church, TN

Thanksgiving of 1752 had a special meaning for Reverend Thomas DODSON and his wife Elizabeth ROSE, for on November 22nd they welcomed a new child into their Virginia family, Jesse DODSON. Not much is known about Jesse DODSON as a youth...one of at least 10 children in his family....but plenty is known about his adult life. Unknown to his father, a Virginia Baptist minister, Jesse would follow in his footsteps and change the lives of many settlers in the early days of America.
At the time of the American Revolution, the dominant religious force in the colonies was the Church of England, the mother country for so many of its settlers. To be a minister of any church that had broken ties with England was difficult in many social settings, but by the time Jesse DODSON was 23 years old, he was living on land given to him by his father in what is now Pittsylvania County in Virginia, and starting his life as a Baptist preacher, . Jesse and his wife Ruth were married in 1774, one year before the gunfire at Lexington and Concord would start the colonies on a path of thier own, and in 1777, Jesse's name is on the list of those taking an Oath of Allegiance to the State of Virginia. While there is no evidence of military service for Jesse DODSON during the War, we can feel confident that he served in some capacity, for at the end of the War he received a Land Grant in North Carolina, which would become Tennessee.
We know Jesse was still in Pittsylvania County, Virginia when the Revolutionary War ended in 1781, for he obtained property on Birch Creek, or Burches' Creek in some records. The following year he sold that land on "Jeremiah's Fork of Birches Creek" to relatives, and headed for Tennessee, leaving behind his brother William, also a Baptist minister.
Rev. Jesse DODSON is listed as a member of the County Line Baptist Church, also known as the North on Holston River Baptist Church, in 1785 Hawkins County, Tennessee. Rev. Jesse DODSON joined the Big Springs Primitive Baptist Church in what is now Springdale, Tennessee in 1801, and became the Pastor of the congregation from November 1801 until November of 1805. In 1803, Jesse DODSON was listed in the tax records of what is now Claiborne County, in the northeast part of Tennessee, which includes part of Cumberland Gap National Park. The path from Virginia to Tennessee through Cumberland Gap had been widened by none other than Daniel Boone, and opened to wagon traffic after Rev. Jesse DODSON and his family passed through. The Big Springs Primitive Baptist Church that Jesse led was constructed in the winter of 1795-96 from hand-hewn logs, and is still standing today near Springdale, over two centuries later. It is one of the oldest churches still standing in the State of Tennessee.
Jesse and Ruth DODSON left Claiborne County in 1806 and moved to Warren County, Tennessee, where they are listed on the 1812 Tax List, and the 1820 Census. While in Warren County, they were involved with the Collins Creek Baptist Church and several others in the area.
Reverend Jesse DODSON was described by his peers as "earnest and fervent in exhortation", and "successful in Revivals". He was also said to have had the "Welsh fever" in describing his ancestrial traits and style of preaching, and is mentioned in the 1919 Baptist historical sketches as a Tennessee Pioneer Baptist Preacher.
Around 1820, Rev. Jesse DODSON was called to lead the Big Springs Baptist Church on Mouse Creek, near Niota in McMinn County, Tennessee...only a year after the Hiwassee Purchase Treaty with the Cherokee Indians had opened that land to settlement. Jesse was a founder of the Eastanallee Baptist Church, and his son Elisha donated the land for the structure. Over the years Rev. Jesse DODSON would be involved in the early McMinn County churches of Salem, Hiwassee, Friendship, and New Hopewell. Owning 300 acres of land in the Eastanallee Valley, his wife Ruth had obtained ten slaves from her father's Will, and when Ruth died in 1828 Jesse set the slaves free stating that "a Bill of Sale of Negroes in my pocket would be a bad passport at the Gates of Heaven"....another brave act in a Southern State over 30 years before the Civil War. After more than 60 years of preaching from the pulpit, and inspiring many pioneer churches, Jesse DODSON died on his 91st birthday in 1843. He is buried in the Eastanalle Church Cemetery in McMinn County, Tennessee. The cemetery photo used at the top of this page in the header is the Eastanallee Cemetery, with the two broken headstones on the left side being those of Ruth and Jesse DODSON...and the Eastanallee Church is planning to replace them. Pioneer and Frontier Preacher, another good story in the ancestral book. Jesse is the 5th great grandfather of Anthony Martini, on his mother's side. Comments/Questions to graveyardgossip@gmail.com