Bethel United Methodist Church was founded early in the 1800s. The first church was located roughly a mile away. In 1849, the church relocated to the current plot of land on Scull Shoals Road and built a church. The current structure was built in 1916 for $7,000.
The church is still active, but it is no longer part of the Methodist Church. It is now an independent church known as Bethel Church.
Pompey’s Chapel Baptist Church was founded after the Civil War. The church’s property includes two structures. The smaller building was built in 1879. I believe it must have been the first church. It could have been a school, but I could not locate any schools associated with the church in early Wilkes County educational surveys.
The main church building was constructed around 1900, with an addition in 1940.
The Beth Salem Presbyterian Congregation was founded in 1785 in Oglethorpe County, a mile outside Lexington, making it the oldest Presbyterian Church in the area. In 1822, the congregation had a church built in Lexington. In 1893, the second building on this site was constructed. Until recently, it was the oldest Presbyterian congregation in the state, but membership dwindled over the years. In 2017, the town of Lexington purchased the church and now uses the Gothic Revival building for events.
Jackson Chapel AME Church was the first church built by freedmen in Wilkes County in 1867. The building has remained largely unchanged in its 150-plus-year history, although the windows were replaced at one point.
The church has close ties to the brothers Bishop Wesley John (founder of Big Bethel AME and Morris Brown College) and Reverend William Gaines. Both were enslaved by Robert Toombs and lived in Wilkes County. The Bishop and the Reverend were responsible for founding AME churches all across Georgia. Gaines’ descendants still attend the church today.
The Crawford Baptist Church, built in 1885 near the Crawford Depot, is notable for the carved details above the Gothic Revival stained glass windows.
The congregation of Sardis Baptist Church Began in 1814. The modest Carpenter Gothic church was built in 1899. Based on the Eldren Bailey headstones and Ancestry searches, I know the people buried here are African American, so I believe this to be a historic Black congregation.
The 1814 date on the sign makes me believe the congregation began as white, and local planters brought the people they enslaved to the church. A handful of Black churches throughout Georgia began before the Civil War, like the Strawberry Chapel AME in Laurens County. Still, I am not aware of any that started that early. I suspect this church became a separate Black congregation after the Civil War. Unfortunately, there are so many Sardis Baptist Churches that it’s been challenging to tease out the history from online searches, and the church does not seem to have a web presence. There also doesn’t seem to be a separate book written about Taliaferro (pronounced Tolliver) County.
I will update the post if I get more information.
Note: While the sign does say Sharon, this church is much closer to the community of Raytown.
