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.
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.
While this church sits abandoned in the woods, a newer church is on the property. The congregation was established in 1885, and tax records indicate the church was built in the same year.
Based on the death certificates on a findagrave and the obituaries I located, this is a historic Black congregation.
Below are three of the obituaries I located online at the Atlanta Constitution.
Pierce’s Chapel Methodist Church started on the Little River Circuit in Wilkes County and is one of the earlier Methodist meeting houses in the area. The church’s first house of worship was built in 1846. According to church history, the congregation began to fundraise for a new building in 1899. By 1901, they had a new place to worship, which is the building you see today.
