I am unable to locate much information on the church. The cemetery is active with burials as recent as 2021. The names on most of the headstones were some version of Clements, Clemons, and Clemmons. Several of the headstones had impressions on the back of the headstones.
Founded in 1852, the Piney Woods Primitive Baptist Church is located in the crossroads town called Rico, which now makes up the town Chattahoochee Hills. It has a mixture of box slab crypts, seashell-covered graves, field stone markers, and traditional late 1800s headstones.
The church moved from the site by 1856, but the cemetery remained active until 1900. One side of the cemetery contains burials with no markers. It’s believed they are for men and women born into slavery of the church’s founders and the town of Rico.
The seashell-covered graves were a Southern phenomenon. In the Christian tradition, they represent a person’s travels through life, and the final passage involves crossing water into the promised land. An article that provides further details can be read here.
I don’t know the age of the church and school, but this shows how close some schools, churches, and cemeteries can be when a congregation provides for all three to its members.
Located on a dirt road in Quitman County is Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church. This church was built in 1886 for a congregation that was founded in 1876.
Founded in 1886 in a bush arbor, the Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church was named because of the year-round green forest that surrounded the church. Perry Hudson, Louis Cherry, and Isaac Shorter founded the church. By 1898, the church began to host school in the church building. Unfortunately, the church was destroyed by a tornado in 1919.
By 1920, the church was rebuilt on land given by Heddy York. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by fire a mere four years later. Another church was built and opened by 1927. In 1937, a school built and used by white schoolchildren was no longer used. Known as the Wesley Chapel School, the building was moved and renamed the Green Grove School. It still stands today. The school was used until 1958, when schools were closed for consolidation.
The church is still active. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Source- Willie Marie Porter’s book A Grateful People: An Historical Account of the Founding of a Community
