Before 1858, the Methodists and Episcopalians of the Oak Hill community, who had shared a church at Cool Spring since 1816, decided to build separate churches. Piedmont Parish raised $1,000, and John Thomas Smith and his wife, Margaret Lewis Marshall of Ashley, gave land that Mrs. Smith had inherited from her father, Thomas Marshall, son of John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. Ground was broken in September 1858, and Emmanuel Church was consecrated on July 23, 1859, by William Meade, Bishop of Virginia. During the Civil War, both Confederate and Union troops used Emmanuel as a shelter and hospital. The names of some of General McClellan’s federal soldiers were inscribed on the walls of the wood room along with other names and the notation “9th Ill. Cavalry.” At the end of the war, the Rev. William F. Gardner wrote that Piedmont Parish had been without a minister for a long time and that since 1862 divine service had been held no more than two or three times until he informally took charge of these churches on April 17, 1865, Easter Monday. From that day, Emmanuel continued in faithful service.