Tag Archives: Hardshell Churches of South Georgia

March 4, 2014 · 2:16 PM

Corinth Primitive Baptist Church, Charlton County

Though some sources give dates for the Alabaha/Crawfordite churches, there is really no way to determine this as they do not keep the type records which would validate these dates. Since this congregation dates to 1882, it is assumed that the church was constructed around that time.

The memorial pictured above is unique, so far, among these meeting houses. It states that the church was chartered in 1882 and first members were: Henry & Jane Prescott; James J. & Nancy Hendrix; David R. & Millie Wasdin; James & Ester Johns; and Sarah O’Berry. LeAnne Oliveira writes, in part: “The memorial sign was made by my daddy, John Prescott. After his retirement he returned to Charlton County and became very active in the upkeep of Corinth. The Prescotts on the sign were his paternal great-grandparents and the Wasdins were maternal great-grandparents. A board was formed to oversee the upkeep of the cemetery. Because the land was deeded by my great great grandfather to “the members” of Corinth Church the last two surviving members had to sign a quit claim deed in order to legally deed the land and church to the board. My father was buried here in November 2011 at the feet of his father. In order to be buried here today a person must have ancestors or blood relations buried there already. I have a plot marked off for myself and my husband, at the feet of my father. No meetings are held in the church any longer, but the Prescott family holds our reunion on the grounds every April. This church has always been a large part of my life and it sure makes my family tree easier to trace as I can cover half of it back four generations right in that cemetery.“

The interior is plain as are those of all the Alabaha/Crawfordite churches. Since this one has glass windows under the wooden shutters, I presume it is still an active congregation. There’s a privy on the grounds, as is emblematic of these churchyards, but there’s also a nice pump house.

The meeting house and a rather large historic cemetery can be found at the end of a dirt driveway. This is the view when you’re leaving or arriving.

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Filed under --CHARLTON COUNTY GA--

Tagged as --CHARLTON COUNTY GA--, Alabaha/Crawfordite Meeting Houses, © Brian Brown/Vanishing Media, Churches of Charlton County GA, Hardshell Churches of South Georgia, South Georgia Board-and-Batten Architecture, South Georgia Landmarks, South Georgia Vernacular Architecture

October 22, 2013 · 8:41 AM

Crawfordite Meeting Houses of Southeast Georgia

Oak Grove Primitive Baptist Church (Interior), Raybon, Brantley County

In his fascinating thesis, The “Gold Standard” of the Wiregrass Primitive Baptists of Georgia: A History of the Crawford Faction of the Alabaha River Primitive Baptist Association, 1842-2007, (Valdosta State University, 2009), Michael Holt makes special note of the architectural distinctions of the Crawfordites: “[An] aspect of the Crawfordite tradition that remains today is the construction style of the meeting houses. While other Primitive Baptist Churches, including those in the Bennettite faction of the Alabaha Association, have begun to use brick, mortar, carpet, and other modern construction techniques, Crawfordite churches remain exactly as they would have appeared over a century ago. They are still fashioned from unfinished pine, with no electricity, carpet, or running water…this austere architecture helps keep the connection with the past strong. It should be noted that in recent years, 0ne part of the church grounds has adopted more modern conveniences. The outhouses that adorned the grounds of all the churches in the association have now been replaced with outdoor restroom facilities with running water, though this change was made primarily to bring the restroom facilities in line with public health regulations. However, this addition has not encroached on the overall intended affect of the architecture…“

Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church, Bachlott, Brantley County

Emmaus Primtive Baptist Church, St. George, Charlton County

High Bluff Primitive Baptist Church, Schlatterville, Brantley County

Oak Grove Primitive Baptist Church, Raybon, Brantley County

Pilgrim’s Rest Primitive Baptist Church, Waynesville, Brantley County

Sardis Primitive Baptist Church, Folkston, Charlton County

Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church, Blackshear, Pierce County

Smyrna Primitive Baptist Church, Lulaton, Brantley County

Wayfair Primitive Baptist Church, Cox, McIntosh County

The Crawfordites are named for Elder Reuben Crawford. Dr. John G. Crowley, the leading authority on the history of Primitive Baptists notes in his article “The Sacred Harp Controversy in the Original Alabaha Primitive Baptist Association,” Baptist Studies Bulletin July 2004 “[they] emerged as a subset of the Primitive Baptists in the 1860s and 1870s. During the Twentieth Century the “Crawfordites” became the most austere and conservative Primitive Baptists in Georgia, eschewing radio, television, neckties, painted and heated meetinghouses.” Michael Holt further notes in his thesis: “Whereas every other Primitive Baptist association has altered somewhat from the original tenets of the denomination, the Crawford Faction of the Alabaha has remained unchanged since the time of its founding in 1842…“

Dr. Crowley’s article can be accessed here. Just scroll down to Primitive Baptists.

PHOTOGRAPHER’S NOTE: This is not a complete photographic record, as there are more Crawfordite churches in the area I’ve not yet visited. They will be added as they are documented.

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Tagged as --BRANTLEY COUNTY GA--, --CHARLTON COUNTY GA--, --PIERCE COUNTY GA--, Alabaha/Crawfordite Meeting Houses, © Brian Brown/Vanishing Media, Hardshell Churches of South Georgia, South Georgia Architecture, South Georgia Board-and-Batten Architecture, South Georgia Churches, South Georgia Landmarks

October 21, 2013 · 5:41 PM

Sardis Primitive Baptist Church, Folkston

Sardis is the oldest congregation in Charlton County, founded 7 January 1821. It moved to its present location around 1840. Some sources incorrectly note that this church was built in 1821, but that is not the case, as it didn’t even locate here until 1840.

The pulpit is said to be from the original church (circa 1821) and to contain a bullet hole from an overexcited soldier defending the meeting house during the Indian Wars. I have no idea if this is apocryphal or factual.

The interior is typically unadorned, as are all the Crawfordite churches. I love the worn floorboards seen in the photograph of the entrance below.

The next image shows a detail of one of the holes in the floor. These are found in some of the Crawfordite churches and are used for spitting tobacco.

The support buttresses below the beams are unique (in my travels so far) to Sardis.

As the weather was unsettled while I was photographing Sardis, I didn’t have time to fully explore the cemetery, which is quite large and the final resting place of many Charlton County pioneers. I was drawn, though, to the statuary of the Lowther plot.

To the left of the children’s memorials are the graves of Edwin P. Lowther (19 May 1867 – 19 August 1913) and Avey E. Robinson Lowther (4 September 1861 – 21 December 1903). I believe an infant and another wife, named Birdie, are buried here, as well.

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Filed under --CHARLTON COUNTY GA--, Folkston GA

Tagged as --CHARLTON COUNTY GA--, Alabaha/Crawfordite Meeting Houses, © Brian Brown/Vanishing Media, Churches of Charlton County GA, Folkston GA, Hardshell Churches of South Georgia, South Georgia Board-and-Batten Architecture, South Georgia Cemeteries, South Georgia Churches, South Georgia Landmarks, South Georgia Pioneers, South Georgia Vernacular Architecture

October 21, 2013 · 12:50 PM

Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church, 1927, Blackshear

Organized in 1833, Shiloh’s earliest members are some of the first settlers of this section of Georgia.

The congregation is still active today; storm windows have been placed inside to give some protection against weather, and new restrooms with modern plumbing are adjacent to the church.

The rafters pictured above serve as hat racks, each studded with nails for that purpose.

Shiloh’s large cemetery suggests an old and active congregation.

Private Isham Peacock, North Carolina Militia, Revolutionary War (8 October 1742 – 1851)

Isham Peacock was one of the most influential early Baptists in Georgia, and certainly the most influential of the Primitive Baptists. After first joining Lott’s Creek Primitive Baptist Church in Bulloch County around 1802, he went on to establish Black Creek, Beard’s Creek, Salem, and most notably, High Bluff at Schlatterville. As to Peacock’s theology, it was decidedly Calvinistic. Historian Michael Holt notes that he was quick to speak out against the proper “discipline” of the Baptist faith. “In 1830, he was able to get Beard’s Creek Church to adopt a resolution forbidding Missionary and temperance speakers from taking the pulpit there. However, they rescinded the resolution as soon as he moved to Pierce County. Though he was alleged to be sober, he was known to demonstrate his aversion to temperance societies by carrying a cane full of whisky he used to refresh himself while preaching…The disgust Peacock showed toward organized attempts to regulate public morality was typical of frontier Baptists.”–Michael Holt, (Thesis) The “Gold Standard” of the Wiregrass Primitive Baptists of Georgia: A History of the Crawford Faction of the Alabaha River Primitive Baptist Association, 1842-2007, Valdosta State University, 2009. In addition to these activities, Peacock founded the first Baptist church in present-day Florida in 1821 (Pigeon Creek Primitive Baptist Church near present-day Boulogne). For a brief time, it represented an extension of Baptist theology into a foreign territory, as this was still part of Spanish Florida at the time and therefore was technically against the laws of Spain regarding the establishment of non-Catholic churches. Elder Peacock’s last church was Providence Primitive Baptist in Ware County, where he was preaching at age 101; blindness ultimately ended his life of preaching and he moved to the Jacksonville area. On a trip to visit family members in Pierce County in 1851, at the age of 107, Peacock died and was buried at Shiloh.

James Strickland (1789? – 7 June 1849)

Nancy (Wife of E. F.) Stewart (12 February 1818 – 7 May 1882)

L-R: Private James Stewart, Company D, 26th Georgia Infantry; 1st Sergeant Colquitt Stewart, Company D, 26th Georgia Infantry; Junior 2nd Lieutenant James Sweat, Company N, 26th Georgia Infantry

Thomas Family Marker

James & Sarah from SC (South Carolina) to McIntosh (County) About 1790. Absalom to Ware Before 1824. Banner, Lewis, James R. by 1829. Gravesite of Lewis Thomas (1789 – 1860) Elizabeth M. Thomas (1795 – 1863)

1. Redden (b. 1810) married Suzannah

2. James R. (1811 – 1884) married Martha Leggett (1830 – 1918)

3. Marantha (1822 – 1890) married William Chancey (1825 – 1883)

4. Martha (b. 1823) married David Cason (b. 1812)

5. Sarah (b. 1825) married Thomas Dyal

6. Absalom (b. 1827) married Elizabeth Walker (b. 1827)

7. Lewis, Jr. (1830 – 1893) married Prucie Eason (1835 – 1919)

8. Banner (1833 – 1885) married Mary Walker (1837 – 1877)

9. Elizabeth (b. 1835) married Martin Nettles, Jr.

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Filed under --PIERCE COUNTY GA--, Blackshear GA

Tagged as --PIERCE COUNTY GA--, Alabaha/Crawfordite Meeting Houses, © Brian Brown/Vanishing Media, Blackshear GA, Churches of Pierce County GA, Hardshell Churches of South Georgia, South Georgia Board-and-Batten Architecture, South Georgia Cemeteries, South Georgia Churches, South Georgia Landmarks, South Georgia Pioneers, South Georgia Vernacular Architecture, The Civil War in South Georgia, The Revolutionary War in South Georgia

October 21, 2013 · 9:09 AM

High Bluff Primitive Baptist Church, Schlatterville

Originating on a high bluff of the Satilla River near Raybon in 1819, this congregation is one of the oldest and most historic in Brantley County. Mrs. Martha Mizell Puckett’s history of the church highlights much more information. There is no consensus as to why these early settlers left Raybon, but Judge Folks Huxford, South Georgia’s best-known genealogist, suggested they came to the Schlatterville area around 1822 to escape a cholera outbreak.

For a time, the congregation was known as Big Creek, but restored the name of High Bluff Church between 1878-80.

Still active, High Bluff is the largest congregation in the Alabaha Primitive Baptist Church Association.

Seat cushions and funeral home fans are the only “modern conveniences” to be found at High Bluff.

What moved me the most at this location was the magnificent cemetery, one of the largest in the area and the final resting place of many pioneers of South Georgia. I think of it as a sort of rural Bonaventure and could spend countless hours wandering its historic lots. A comprehensive guide to interments has been compiled for researchers and those with an interest in locating ancestors.

Lydia A. Stone (27 June 1864 – 4 January 1938)

In a lot near the front of the church can be found the burial place of Lydia A. Stone, who was known as the Queen of the Okefenokee for her vast land holdings and business successes. Also buried here is her first husband, D. G. Stone (19 October 1878 – 18 August 1926), her second husband and heir, John Melton Crews (17 August 1906 – 7 January 1970), as well as his second wife, Kissie (8 September 1913 – 15 November 1947), and Mrs. Stone’s parents.

Adjacent to the Stone plot are two picketed enclosures retaining what appears to be the original woodwork, quite a rarity in the coastal climate of Brantley County.

John Ammons, NC & GA Militias Revolutionary War (1760 – 1852) One of Marion’s Men

This headstone, placed by the Sons of the American Revolution, is of great significance to genealogists and students of the American Revolution for its connection to General Francis Marion, better known as the Swamp Fox.

Daniel F. Gill, Sr. (15 September 1905 – 18 December 1981)

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Filed under --BRANTLEY COUNTY GA--, Schlatterville GA

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October 20, 2013 · 10:34 AM

Oak Grove Primitive Baptist Church, Raybon

The cemetery at Oak Grove would suggest that this congregation is a bit younger than other Hardshell churches in the area. The earliest headstones date to the turn of the last century.

The architecture is the board-and-batten vernacular style emblematic of the Crawfordite meeting houses.

The beautiful interior is smaller than most but equally awe-inspiring.

The pulpit, or “the stand’ as it’s known by these congregations, is always oriented at the side of the meeting house.

An infant burial of 1901 is the earliest I could located in the cemetery, but there are many Brantley county pioneer families represented here.

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Filed under --BRANTLEY COUNTY GA--, Raybon GA

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October 18, 2013 · 10:57 AM

Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Chuch, Bachlott

This church was founded in 1842 and joined the Alabaha Association (Crawfordite) in 1905. They joined the Satilla River Association in 1969. The congregation disbanded in 1991. I’m not sure when the present structure was built.

Below is a good representation of the old-style shuttered windows.

The interiors of all of the Hardshell churches are beautiful testaments to faith and good carpentry.

Bethlehem Cemetery is large and well-maintained, as are all of the Hardshell cemeteries, but is unique in that it contains a pair of grave houses, a real rarity in South Georgia.

Adult Grave House

Child’s Grave House

Note the gopher hole at the edge of this lot. Gopher holes are a sure sign of rattlesnakes, too.

For cemetery and genealogical information:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gabrantl/cemlistbethlehem-1.html

Some references list this church’s address as Bethlehem Road in Hickox, but if you attempt to take that road from U. S. Highway 301, you will find an overgrown field road that leads to an inaccessible bridge. Since I had to access it from Bachlott, and due to the fact that it’s closer to that settlement, I listed Bachlott as its location.

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Filed under --BRANTLEY COUNTY GA--, Bachlott GA

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October 17, 2013 · 2:38 PM

Pilgrim’s Rest Primitive Baptist Church, Waynesville

I will post information on the history of this church when I can locate it.

Like other “Hardshell” churches in the region, the interior is as plain as the exterior.

The entrance gate (unique among these churches) is dedicated to the memory of James O., Sr., and N. Gertrude Jacobs Smith.

The cemetery is relatively small with burials dating to the early 20th century.

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Filed under --BRANTLEY COUNTY GA--, Waynesville GA

Tagged as --BRANTLEY COUNTY GA--, Alabaha/Crawfordite Meeting Houses, © Brian Brown/Vanishing Media, Churches of Brantley County GA, Hardshell Churches of South Georgia, South Georgia Board-and-Batten Architecture, South Georgia Cemeteries, South Georgia Churches, South Georgia Landmarks, South Georgia Vernacular Architecture, Waynesville GA

October 13, 2013 · 8:47 AM

Smyrna Primitive Baptist Church, 1890, Lulaton

Smyrna Primitive Baptist is among the oldest congregations in the area, having been constituted at a nearby location in 1824. The present church is the third and final location of Smyrna, which disbanded around 1990.

The lack of paint and other modern conveniences was an aesthetic of the Alabaha/Crawfordite congregations most prevalent in Brantley County.

This primitive design is even more evident inside, with exposed roof beams, bare walls, shuttered windows, and a haphazard floor plan. A good history of Smyrna Primitive Baptist Church is presently available online.

There is no piano, as “hardshell” folk don’t believe in musical accompaniment. It’s interesting, as well, that the pulpit is located on the side of the church, and not in the rear, as is the custom. There’s also no form of insulation or electricity.

In the cemetery at Smyrna Primitive Baptist Church are many of the pioneer settlers of Brantley County, including a large number of Confederate veterans.

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Filed under --BRANTLEY COUNTY GA--, Lulaton GA

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February 10, 2013 · 4:45 PM

Emmaus Primitive Baptist Church, Charlton County

Located just south of St. George is this iconic church. The congregation dates to 1858.

The artesian well-fed pump still works.

The privy is one of two on the grounds, as there’s obviously no plumbing. I believe the church must still be used for homecomings and funerals, at least.

The cemetery is nicely kept and is the final resting place of many pioneers of southernmost Georgia.

Many members of Emmaus were Confederate veterans.

Private Henry Gainey, Jr. Company G, 26th Georgia Infantry (1840 – 1864)

Private Gainey was likely killed in action, as his grave is marked with a Confederate Iron Cross. Beside his grave is that of another Gainey, probably his brother, who was in the Confederate service in nearby Florida.

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Filed under --CHARLTON COUNTY GA--

Tagged as --CHARLTON COUNTY GA--, Alabaha/Crawfordite Meeting Houses, © Brian Brown/Vanishing Media, Churches of Charlton County GA, Confederate Iron Cross, Hardshell Churches of South Georgia, South Georgia Board-and-Batten Architecture, South Georgia Cemeteries, South Georgia Churches, South Georgia Folklife, South Georgia Landmarks, South Georgia Pioneers, South Georgia Vernacular Architecture, The Civil War in South Georgia

Tag Archives: Hardshell Churches of South Georgia

Corinth Primitive Baptist Church, Charlton County

Crawfordite Meeting Houses of Southeast Georgia

Sardis Primitive Baptist Church, Folkston

Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church, 1927, Blackshear

High Bluff Primitive Baptist Church, Schlatterville

Oak Grove Primitive Baptist Church, Raybon

Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Chuch, Bachlott

Pilgrim’s Rest Primitive Baptist Church, Waynesville

Smyrna Primitive Baptist Church, 1890, Lulaton

Emmaus Primitive Baptist Church, Charlton County

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