Liberty County, Georgia - Chapter 16: Houses of Worship, 1903

There have been four houses of worship. The first, a temporary structure, built of logs, some three quarters of a mile or more to the east of the present site, near the plantation of Mr. Thomas Mallard, and erected in the year 1754, speaks of it as ''standing on the high road opposite the Sunbury road.' Rev. Archibald Simpson, in his visit in 1761, speaks of it ''as a large and well finished meeting house.''? It also had a vestry house near by. The ground upon which it was located was deeded by John Stevens and his wife, Mary, for the sum of four shillings. It contained good, and on all other sides by lands of John Stevens, and conveyed to all who had signed the articles of incorporation and their heirs and to the Stewarts and Graves', who expected soon to' move, some forty in all. The follow-

This house was burned by Lieutenant Colonel Pens and the British Friday morning, November 27, 1778. . Te & reason of this, I presume, was that the building was used as - a kind of fortification or barracks, a stockade being built - oe around it, according to Governor Ellis' statement. And for the same reason too, no doubt, the British burned the ee : . chester, South Carolina, meeting house, for it seems to have - e: been similarly fortified and used.

The third was a coarse building, with posts in the pee and filled with poles, and put up in 1784 after the revolu- - tion, upon the settlement of Mr: Holmes. As it was intended to be temporary, and to be used during the construc. - 3 tion of a more commodious one, it was located on the west ret side of the Darien road and south of the grave yard? It was enlarged the next year (1785) and a shelter also added - at the south side for the accommodation of the negroes. _ This house was used during the entire six years of Dr. Holmes' ministry. kg - The present house, a frame building, was erected in 1792, the second year of the ministry of Rev. Cyrus Gildersleeve. - = = Dimensions, forty by sixty feet, with twenty feetin the story, and located very nearly upon the spot where the one - burnt by the British stood. It had a high pulpit at the east __ side, with a quaint old time sounding board overhead, which the writer distinctly remembers seeing when a child,

_ with three doors; one in the north end, one in the west, and -_ one in the south end, with seats having doors, facing the pulpit. It also had a gallery with two flights of steps lead- _ing to the same from without. There was also a vestry house connected with it as the former had, located west of the road and south of the grave yard, which, as well as the church edifice, was painted red at first. In 1849 the pulpit 4 in the church was removed to the north end; the gallery ex- ___ tended to three sides opposite, and two of the doors closed, leaving only one entrance at the south that the people, as it was said, might be all forced to come out together and thus be compelled to mix and mingle more together. A side _ door on the east was, however, opened in later years. All around the house at convenient distances there were erected thirty or more little houses, which, to the stranger, presented quite a singular appearance, to which the different families resorted during the intermission between services, and where they partook of their lunch dianers. These were all _ destroyed during and after Kilpatrick's raid. Nota vestige ' of any of these is now to be seen. The old building still 'stands (1899), and considering its age, being now one hundred and seven years old, in a state of remarkable preser- Bes 2 vation, due to the fact of its frequent repairs, but chiefly from the fact that it was in the first instance built, as required by contract, of the '"'best wood.'"' Time, however, is 'a beginning to do its work, and it will not be long ere this 'old sanctuary, venerable with years-and dear to :o many hearts, will become a thing of the past.

As early perhaps as 1795, Mr. Andrew Walthour, having Pe a farm in that part of the district, began to spend the sickly portion of the year at what was then called the Sand Hills, SA now Walthourville. His example was followed by others, and by the early part of the present century there was ec A thal a little village formed. "4 at Among the early settlers may be mentioned the names of - i Andrew Walthour, after whom the place was called, John ee Bacon, General Daniel Stewart, Thomas Bacon, William I. Way, John Dunwody, Samuel Lewis, William Anderson, cy: Charlton Hines, Captain William Hughes, Dr. Samuel Axson, Thomas Quarterman, Joseph Hargroves, Joseph Way, , Mrs. John Stewart, William N. Way, Thomas Mallard, and - dn ee

As the population increased it became necessary to hater a i place of worship. There have been several of these. The ai first was a Union building erected about 1820, upon a piece a 4 of ground donated by Mr. Andrew Walthour. A second Union building was put up in 1830 and dedicated by Drs. Stiles and Jones. This second building was first abandoned - __ by the Presbyterians and afterwards by the Baptists, ane was then rolled a short distance for an academy. The first Presbyterian house erected was built upon a te cP. given by Mr. W.Q. Baker, about 1845 and dedicated cies Dr. Axson. This house was destroyed by fire May 1, 1877. The second Presbyterian house was built and dedicated in

July, 1878, the dedicatory sermon being preached by Dr. = Axson. It was erected upon ground purchased from the es- : tate of Walthour. This house was began bya storm in es August, 1881. ~ eee 3

The present building was put up on the same spotin1884, and dedicated July of the same year. It may be here also ~ added that a small building was erected for the colored people, during the pastorate of Rev. R. Q. Mallard.

_ As in the case of Walthourville and following their exam- _ ple, several of the members commenced settling at Gravel Hill, now Flemington, about 1814. Among the early settlers were William Fleming, after whom the place was named, John Osgood, Oliver Stevens, Peter Farly Winn, Joseph Norman, Simon Fraser, Major John Bacon, and Rev. Murdock Murphy, who lived near the place owned by Rev. E. Q. An-

Previous to this, the little house used for magistrates' court and for muster ground, was the place for occasional services. About 1836 a frame house was erected near the log house, which was still continued in use as a school house, and where the writer obtained most of his early education ; the road, being one night set on fire by someone and burned. This first church building had a shed around it, and a small belfry at the west end. The ground, some four acres, was

The present building was erected about 1851 and upon the same site as the other. The bell in the steeple is the one used at Midway so long, it having fallen to the Flemington people in the distribution of the effects of the old church. Its removal from the old steeple to its present resting place was search after a healthy location crossed over Bulltown swamp and penetrated the piney woods some three miles, and there located their village. It was named Jonesville after the first settler, Samuel Jones, and was located not far from the ranch of Moses Way, one of the early settlers, who had built a stockade for his cattle somewhere in that localt ity, the country there furnishing excellent pi s Fe stock, with which the neighborhood abounded, and i the origin, I suppose, of the primitive, though not has sical name of the swamp near by. . Among the early settlers were Samuel Jones, John: w Louis LeConte, Nathaniel Varnedoe; and later, W. L. Jor Moses Jones, Thos. Sheppard, Mr. Deane, Edward Quarte man, T. W. Fleming, Capt. P. W. Fleming, Joseph Bacon, yore B. Barnard, and Dr. J. M. B. Harden. Here Dr. Axson spent the last years of his ministry among this people, Bent having first lived at Walthourville, until the burning of thers parsonage in that place. Until the time of the war it was a delightful village with about eighteen families, but like Sunbury and some of the other dead towns of Georgia, its glory : is gone; its inhabitants scattered; its houses pulled down, . and soon to be a thing of the past, without even a single | vestige left to mark the spot. How appropriate and seemingly prophetic the subject of one of the addresses which the writer heard, and so well remembers, delivered at a school © exhibition in said alae in 1850, from the words "sic ator are still ringing in his ears, but the occasion, the aut ence, and the very lips that uttered them, are all now buried forever 1 in the silence of the tomb!

S This place was settled in 1843. Upon the suggestion of : Rev. T. S. Winn, then a private teacher in the family of Dr. C. i z C. Jones, the propriety of settling upon a high and dry ridge, half way between Midway and Sunbury, was favorably - considered and several families soon after began to build. g Several owners of houses in Sunbury had them taken down - 4 and removed to this newly formed village, which was called - ; Dorchester in commemoration of former places ofthatname. - se Among the early settlers I mention B. A. Busbee, Captain Abiel Winn, Captain Cyrus Mallard, W.S. Baker, Dr. Ed- - ward J. Delegal, William Thompson, Dr. Benjamin King, Be John L. Mallard; and later, Thomas Mallard, Benjamin Bia 2

: ae bow ie a number of years, as aay special service ell as the Sabbath-school exercises, could be held in the lemy. A church building, however, was erected in 1854, and still stands. The lot of four acres, upon whichit stands, : was given by Mr. B. A. Busbee, the date of the deed being une 14,1852. At first the house was used only for sumacy bell, which for so many years was used forso many different purposes; for school, market, church and town. Before the pulpit stands a still more precious relic, in the orm of a marble font, the gift of Dr. William McWhir, and vhich formerly stood in the old Midway church, at which any hundreds (including the writer), both whites and