If you’ve ever looked at the Farm Security Administration photos in Georgia, you likely stumbled across Jack Delano’s work. He took photos of this home in Temperance Bell and called it the “Plea Flucker House.”
I always felt confident that the house no longer stood because of its condition in 1941. Wondered why it was called “Plea Flucker.” Knowing that houses are often named after the first owners of a home, I dove into Ancestry records to see if I could determine who or what “Plea Flucker” was. Based on Census, Findagrave, and tax records, I was able to determine that this was Palemon Fluker’s home. Several generations of Flukers lived in the area, and Palemon is buried in the Woodville Cemetery, which is next to Temperance Bell. I am guessing Plea was either a nickname, a misunderstanding of the name, or Delano misread his notes once the photos were printed.
Springfield Baptist Church was founded right after the Civil War. Newly freedmen and women were removed from the First Baptist Church, a white church. Conference minutes of the church reveal that for many years there were more enslaved congregants than white parishioners.
Church members purchased two parcels of land, one of them being the railroad depot where they held their first services. In 1907, this brick building was built with the bricks from the recently demolished Methodist church.
You can read more about the church on their website. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
Organized in 1802, Baird’s Baptist Church was once known as Fishing Creek Baptist Church. Records for the first fifty years of the church were lost in a fire so much is not known about those years.
According to church records, there were at least 100 enslaved members of church. Different than other white Southern churches, this church allowed Black members to hold services of their own on the second Sunday of each month after the main service. The church did contain separate galleries for white and Black members.
After the conclusion of the civil war, the church was used by white and Black congregations.
