John Smith Gilmore

Overview

1848-1925 Born near Pulaski Tennessee, John Smith Gilmore was one of the former slaves who answered President Lincoln’s “call to arms” and served with the United States Colored Troops. He returned home and worked to build African American churches and homes in Maury and surrounding counties.  The newly freed slaves established the Richland Creek Baptist Association (RCBA) in 1866 to have a “united” family of Baptist churches. The members reorganized the RCBA to include the Home Mission and Building Board, Foreign Mission Board, Education and Training Board, and Ministers’ Relief and Pension Board. After attending the Baptist College in Nashville, TN, in 1872, white citizens including his former owner convinced Gilmore to teach in the public school in Giles County. In 1873, the members appointed Gilmore the moderator of the RCBA, and he served for over thirty years; and by 1911, the RCBA included thirty-two churches in Maury and Giles counties in Tennessee and Limestone County in Alabama. Gilmore also served as the Business Manager of the Home Mission and Building Board in Columbia for sixteen years. Gilmore, a mechanic and skilled craftsman in wood, stone, and brick work, purchased land and built houses of worship for the Association and Home Mission Board in Maury and surrounding counties and several homes in Columbia including his family’s barrel-shaped eight room home on East 8th Street. Gilmore erected the Mt. Lebanon Missionary Baptist Church at the East 8th Street location during his twelve-year tenure as pastor; however, he resigned August 1894 to establish the St. Johns Baptist Church in Columbia where he was the first pastor, serving for 12 years.  In 1901, the “Good Government Club” was formed with Gilmore as the chairman, for the purpose of “electing a fair, firm, and impartial Board of Mayor and Aldermen” in Columbia.  Gilmore married Sarah Jane King in 1885 who later joined the RCBA and serve as vice president of the Women’s Mission. They had one son, Dr. Lucius H. Gilmore. Sarah Jane Gilmore died in 1916 at age 51 and John Smith Gilmore died in 1925 at age 77. John Smith and Sarah Jane Gilmore are buried in the Rose Mount Cemetery.