Baptist history in Georgia!

I was reading about my ancestor's who came from North Carolina to Coffee County and other parts of South Georgia.

There was a Sandy Creek Church in North Carolina that was a founding Church for a lot of other Churches. Many Churches can trace their roots to Sandy Creek.

Southern Baptists come from four groups, the Charleston tradition, the Sandy Creek tradition, the Georgia tradition, and the Landmark tradition.

The Sandy Creek members were known as "Separate"
Baptists and came about during The Great Awakening.
The pioneering preacher of that Church was Shubal Stearns. Sarah Stearns, a first cousin of Shubal married Micajah Paulk, Sr. and moved to Georgia. Eventually to Irwin County. Micajah Paulk, Jr. was a preacher at Union Primitive Baptist Church in Lax.

The first Sandy Creek Association church was Kiokee Baptist Church founded by Elder Daniel Marshall, circa 1771. Daniel Marshall came from Sandy Creek as well as some of the Paulks.

The Kiokee Baptist Church in Appling, Georgia is the oldest continuing Baptist congregation in the state. Jesse Mercer was baptized at Kiokee. Mercer University was named after him. Many Baptist Churches in Georgia can trace their roots to Kiokee.

It's interesting in the diversity of these historical groups and that many of us have ties to these pioneers.

I was fortunate enough to have been married in the old Kiokee Church building. It is probably the third building used by the Church and dates to 1808. It is located in the woods outside Appling, several miles from the current building and about a half mile from the Daniel Marshall home site and even older site for the meeting house.

There is a family historical connection with Kiokee that goes back a bit. An ancestor,David Stanford, was appointed in 1807 to be one of three trustees appointed to "make out a bill and subscription" for the construction of the new brick building. Other ancestors mentioned in the early 1800s are the Darsey/Dorseys, G.W., T. and T.E; the Uptons and the Banks.

I have a copy of A History of the Kiokee Baptist Church in Georgia written in 1952 by Mosteller. My copy is a 1972 reprint by the Wilkes Publishing Co. It encompasses a history of the development of the various flavors of Baptists and how they came to GA.

Copies of the book are not easy to find now. I was told that the Church did not have one when I moved back to the area a decade ago. I will share my copy with you if you have an interest.

JustUs4All said:

I was fortunate enough to have been married in the old Kiokee Church building. It is probably the third building used by the Church and dates to 1808. It is located in the woods outside Appling, several miles from the current building and about a half mile from the Daniel Marshall home site and even older site for the meeting house.

There is a family historical connection with Kiokee that goes back a bit. An ancestor,David Stanford, was appointed in 1807 to be one of three trustees appointed to "make out a bill and subscription" for the construction of the new brick building. Other ancestors mentioned in the early 1800s are the Darsey/Dorseys, G.W., T. and T.E; the Uptons and the Banks.

I have a copy of A History of the Kiokee Baptist Church in Georgia written in 1952 by Mosteller. My copy is a 1972 reprint by the Wilkes Publishing Co. It encompasses a history of the development of the various flavors of Baptists and how they came to GA.

Copies of the book are not easy to find now. I was told that the Church did not have one when I moved back to the area a decade ago. I will share my copy with you if you have an interest.

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I might want to borrow that book one day if I get into the history a bit more. Did you grow up in Columbia County or just come over to get married?

James D. Mosteller is buried in McDuffie County;

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gacolum2/church/marshall/marshall.htm

Is the monument in the middle of the road in Appling for Marshall?

Interesting how all of these Churches with various beliefs all came together to form conventions. It must have been hard to all sit down and decide.

The book pages in your link are from the book that I have.

I grew up in McDuffie, but I can see Columbia from my place. Four branches of my family were in Columbia County for a very long time. Three were in he Appling area and the fourth, newcomers around the middle 1800s were down toward Dearing, known then as Lombardy and part of Columbia until McDuffie was created in 1870.

If you want to take a look at the book just let me know.

Art, my wife and I drove the back roads yesterday from Hilton Head, SC to Odenville, AL. I was surprised by the number of Primitive and Landmark Baptist churches that we saw. It was a nice drive.

I recently learned I have a distant ancestor on my mothers side who was a Baptist preacher from Virginia. Apparently at that time Virginia had a regulatory role in theology and didn't take kindly to Baptists. He was jailed for preaching without a license and the story goes that he pressed his nose so tight against the bars while preaching as to make himself bleed. He left Virginia and was among the first settlers to Elbert county Georgia. No doubt he would be ashamed to learn this descendant is an atheist.

gemcgrew said:

Art, my wife and I drove the back roads yesterday from Hilton Head, SC to Odenville, AL. I was surprised by the number of Primitive and Landmark Baptist churches that we saw. It was a nice drive.

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What route did you take through Georgia?

Here is some pics of one in Blackshear but I doubt you came that far south;

http://hrcga.org/shiloh-primitive-baptist-pierce/

Here is one on the edge of Arabia Bay in Clinch County. This is one of the bays that was burning a few years back;

https://vanishingsouthgeorgia.com/2...baptist-church-arabia-cemetery-clinch-county/

atlashunter said:

I recently learned I have a distant ancestor on my mothers side who was a Baptist preacher from Virginia. Apparently at that time Virginia had a regulatory role in theology and didn't take kindly to Baptists. He was jailed for preaching without a license and the story goes that he pressed his nose so tight against the bars while preaching as to make himself bleed. He left Virginia and was among the first settlers to Elbert county Georgia. No doubt he would be ashamed to learn this descendant is an atheist.

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Seems like one of those preachers I was reading about was jailed or run out of town as well. That was probably quite common back in those days.

In Georgia the Primitive Baptists were the conservatives and the Missionary Baptists were the new "institutions of the day." There were a lot of schisms.