On February 4 1810 in the log cabin home (near what later became the town of Burns, Dickson County, Tennessee) of Rev. Samuel McAdow he together with Rev. Finis Ewing, and Rev. Samuel King organized the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The congregation was made up of secedent members of the Presbyterian Church and others in the area. A replica of Rev. Samuel McAdow's cabin now stands where the three founded the church, and a sandstone chapel commemorating the event has been erected nearby. These two buildings are two of the main attractions in the surrounding Montgomery Bell State Park. An outgrowth of "The Great Revival of 1800", also called the "Second Great Awakening", the new denomination arose to minister to the spiritual needs of a pioneer people who turned from the doctrine of predestination to embrace the "Whosoever Will" gospel of the new church. "Cumberland" came from the area's name (the Cumberland River valley); "Presbyterian" described the form of government. By 1900, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church maintains a four-year liberal arts college, Bethel College, in McKenzie, Tennessee, and a seminary, Memphis Theological Seminary, in Memphis, Tennessee. The Cumberland Presbyterian Center, also located in Memphis, Tennessee, houses other church boards and agencies. Many Cumberland Presbyterians have been attracted back into larger Presbyterian denominations over the years. In 1906, a partial reunion left many remnant Cumberland Presbyterians with bitter feelings toward the Presbyterian Church USA. There is a separate polity for some black Cumberland Presbyterians, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America, but relations between the two groups have for the most part been very cordial, and many of its ministers have trained at Memphis Theological Seminary.

Cumberland Presbyterian Congregations can be found all over the United States as well as in several foreign countries (Japan, Hong Kong, Columbia, etc.) but are primarily located in the American South and West.