Circuit. It started on the Northeast at McMinnville, Tennessee and extended Southwest to what is Hobbs Island in the Tennessee River. He came to this area in October and immediately started organizing Methodist societies, six in all. Ford's Chapel (his first stop because it was a day's horseback ride from his home), State Line, Blue Springs, Jordan's Camp Ground, Hunt's Spring (now Huntsville First Methodist) and Lebanon (now Latham Memorial, Farley). The records only mention four or five months of work on the circuit. It is accepted as a fact that Richard and Betsy Ford became good friends of Rev. Gwinn and that their home just west of this spot became a Methodist Society meeting place, and that he used it as headquarters when he came from Nashville to his circuit. The records show that he had a wife and young family in Nashville, which may explain his short working time of four or five months. 1809–1900 At the Western Conference in October 1809, the Rev. Gwinn reported 175 White and 4 Black converts. From 1803 until 1819, North Alabama was part of the Mississippi Territory. In the years 1809–1810, Tennessee and Mississippi Territory had a Federal Land-Grant office established in Nashville, Tennessee. Settlers from this area would be allowed to establish the boundaries of the land they were "squatting" on for about three dollars an acre. It is recorded in the Madison County Courthouse, Huntsville, AL that Richard Ford went to Nashville in June 1810 and bought his land. It is accepted as being true that the Fords allowed these two and one-half acres to be used as a summer campground for the Methodist. It is also believed that several Bush-Arbors were built and used for summer revivals. By 1815 there was an established Methodist congregation large and strong enough to start a church building, which was completed by 1819 at this place. In 1824, Richard and Betsy Ford deeded the land and church to Ford's Chapel Church Trustees, making it legal Methodist property. The trustees: Robert Hancock, Clem Hancock, Gabriael Hancock, Thomas Wilson, Cloudberry Greenhaw, and James Sanderson, signed and accepted the deed. For some reason the Trustees waited until 1826 to have the deed recorded in the Madison County Courthouse Book K, Pages 419-420 Deed Book. Mr. James Sanderson, one of the first trustees, and his descendants have served this church well over all the years with