CLYDE, NC - The old three story fame house stands as somewhat of a shrine to Methodism mountains.

Francis Asbury the Prophet of the Long Trail, and the first bishop of the Methodist Church in America, found shelter under its great sweeping roof when he came this way 161 years ago on a religious crusade that gave birth to the circuit-riding preacher.

It was under the same roof that the pioneer settlers of the Pigeon River Valley gathered around 1798 with the Rev. Samuel Edney to organize me first Methodist Church in Haywood County.

Known as the Shook House, the building was erected about 1795 by Jacob Shook, a Pennsylvania farmer who was granted the site for his services in the American Revolution.

This was wilderness then, the land still home to the Indian, the bear, the wildcat, the fox and the owl.

The house that Shook built largely by his own hand, was the first frame building west of the French Broad River. There were no sawmills then, so the lumber was cut with a rip saw and the nails were hand-wrought in Shook's own blacksmith shop. Earlier, Shook had built a log cabin about 300 yards beyond where he finally erected the more pretentious house with its three stories and 10 rooms.

The third story of the house was one big room 30 feet long and 18 feet wide. The purpose Shook had in building it was to provide a chapel in which religious services might be held. He dedicated this room to me worship of God, and to it came the pioneer apostles of Methodism to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Even today, albeit the original structure has been remodeled and modernized to a great extent, the third floor room which Shook called the Prophet's Room has been preserved intact as a hallowed shrine. Jacob Shook built his home to last, and it has. The flooring, the same now as then, is of sawed board 10 to 12 inches wide that fit together as tight as a glove. The walls are ceiled now as then with ceiling slabs nine to ten inches wide. One of me most interesting peculiarities is the make of the corner posts on each of the three stories. Each one of the pieces of lumber used as a comer post is hand carved so as to make grooves for the weather boarding to fit flush with the rounding comer of the post. Each story of the house has separate comer posts

To fully appreciate the construction of the chapel or "Prophet's Room" the story as told by the late Dr .T. F. Glen of West Asheville in his writings about the early camp meeting movement in Haywood County, is pertinent.

"Jacob Shook, this unique and eccentric Dutchman", he said "should be honored with a place in Methodist history. He was one of the highland patriots who fought in the Revolutionary War. He hospitably entertained Bishop Asbury and the pioneer preachers and his home became the center of the 'real' Methodist movement in Haywood County."

"He owned a large body of fertile bottom land and gave the site on which Shook's Campground was built, and thus contributed no one knows how much to the success of the Redeemer's Kingdom in Western North Carolina."

"Shook was powerfully converted after the old fashioned Methodist style. Whilst under deep conviction for sin he went out into the cornfield to plow. He prayed and wept as he plowed. Finally the burden of guilt was lifted and his soul was flooded with joy. He shouted and praised the Lord as he continued to work."

"He dropped the lines, left his plow, lost his hat and shouted all over the field. That was a happy and triumphant day for the new convert, but the horse played havoc with the corn."

Shook was born in1749 and lived to be almost a hundred years old. After his death, a man named William Welch came into possession of the house. Then in 1850 he transferred it by deed to Levi Smathers who passed it on to his son Dr . I. L. Smathers and at Dr. Smathers' death it came to his daughter, Mrs Mary Smathers Morgan who lives there now.

This appeared in the Asheville Citizen Times in 1974 in the weekly "Roaming the Mountains" by John Parris.