| Back to e-WV
The West Virginia Encyclopedia
| Back to e-WV
The West Virginia Encyclopedia
Job’s Temple, a church nestled on a hillside near the confluence of Job’s Run and the Little Kanawha River in Gilmer County, had its origins in the differences leading up to the Civil War. The church was an offshoot of an earlier congregation, Pisgah Methodist Episcopal Church, located two miles to the east. Differences of opinion in the community brought about the need for separate places of worship. Job’s Temple was established as a Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
The log structure was constructed about 1861–65. Built of hand-hewn yellow poplar logs, it is 30 feet by 24 feet. The interior is finished with hand-planed poplar boards. Regular services were suspended about 1912, and the church was neglected until the 1930s when a campaign was launched to preserve it. Extensive efforts were made in the 1950s to further restore the historic building. The Job’s Temple Association was incorporated in 1978. The following year the log church was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The historic cemetery includes 141 graves.
The tradition of annual homecomings, initiated in 1936, has continued to the present, with the exception of three years during World War II when gasoline was rationed and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Traditionally held on the last day of the state Folk Festival, hundreds of descendants and friends gather from several states to worship at Job’s Temple and participate in a group gospel sing.
Read the National Register of Historic Places nomination.
Written by Doris M. Radabaugh