Crayne's Early Churches

Crayne USA Presbyterian Church on the left, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church on the right. These are pictures of the churches in their earlier days. The way they looked when I was growing up in Crayne in the late 1940's and 1950's.

The first Church organized in the Crayneville community was in 1892, as a Cumberland Presbyterian, from the congregation of the Piney Fork Church. Elders were Mr. Jacobs, McCaslin, DeBoe, Ordway and Adams. In 1907 this church became a United Presbyterian Church U.S.A. This division developed over the education of the Clergy and the Revival movement. The dedication ceremonies for this church was held March 26th, 1893.

The church observed it's 100 years celebrate on June 7, 1992. A large crowd attended this service.

This church building, with a few renovations, served the community and its members until January 3rd, 2000, went the a tornado came through Crayne and did extensive damage to homes and families, and also the church. It seems the foundation of this old loved church had been damaged and the insurance company claimed it was unsafe for people to be inside. So the church building was torn down in June 2001 and the ground cleared to built a new building.

This new church building, built by a Crayne native, Harold Cannon and his crew, was finished and the dedication service was held June 22, 2003. This church is active today, with a small dedicated group attending regularly. Some even with family ties to the very first church that was build in 1893.

In 1913 a group of people organized and built a new church building on Highway 91, and it was a Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The beautiful new house of worship was dedicated in July 1913.

This building was destroyed by fire, caused by a lightening strike in a summer storm of July 1943. It would be several years before a new building was built, but the dream came true in 1949. The new Cumberland Presbyterian Church was completed of concrete block construction. The dedication service would be held on February 27, 1949 with Rev. Eugene Lindsey in charge of the services. This is the church which I grew up in, it being located just across the highway from where I was born and raised.

This church would continue to serve the community and its member's until 1975. With a falling membership and some strife among the last members, the church closed. Gone was my church since childhood. The building today has been completed remodeled, with colored brick and it serves as a Baptist Church.

How Crayneville, KY Got Its Name

Crayne, Kentucky is located five miles south of Marion. In the early days when it was a new community just getting settled, it was named Crayneville.

In 1886 the railroad was making it's way through the county. As it came to this little village, a right-of-way was needed for the crews to lay the track. Mrs. Emma Crayne, who's family lived here and owned the land the railroad needed, gave her consent for the right-or-way, and the village was given the name of Crayneville in her honor. It was pronounced Crayne'e'ville.

In October 1907, the name of the thriving little town of Crayneville, had to be changed. There was another town in Kentucky that was named Caneville. It was also on the Illinois Central railroad route. It seems the names were too similiar in name and spelling and the mail and freight for both towns, would end up in the wrong town. So Crayneville lost the 'ville' and was renamed as Crayne.