Primitive Baptist Church and Family History
Research Assistance for Butts County, Georgia
CHURCHES:
OLD BETHEL (1789)
SANDY CREEK (JACKSON)(1824)
The History of Butts County 1825 1976 tells us that Sandy Creek Church was organized in October of 1824 under an oak tree at the home of Elijah McMichael, two miles north of the present church, which was then in Monroe County. Brother William Lacy was the first pastor. Elijah McMichael was elected as the first Deacon of the church. Brother McMichael had offered the land for the church to be built and according to the deed from 1826, sold the property to the trustees of the Baptist Church for $10. The first meeting house was completed in 1825 and the church paid Elijah McMichael six dollars for building the pulpit. 22 members were added to the church that year, including three African American members. The minutes of the church record receiving black members from 1826 through 1857. During the Civil War, services were stopped but resumed in January of 1866. The second pastor was a Revolutionary War veteran who had moved from Jasper County to the new county of Butts. The longest tenure of any pastor was Jason Greer, who lived in Putnam County. He served for sixteen years even though it required a horseback ride of 35 miles each way. By 1831, the congregation had outgrown the original church. A building committee was appointed and a site selected near the home of Robert Bickerstaff, where the church stands today. The church was originally a Baptist church but there was a schism in the Baptist denomination in the 1830s regarding church doctrine. Primitive Baptist churches were very conservative and did not subscribe to newfangled institutions such as missions, Sunday Schools and other progressive movements in the church. Sandy Creek became a Primitive Baptist church during this period, and some members left the church to form a new one. The Sandy Creek cemetery has over 900 interments and is the largest rural cemetery in the county. Some of the earliest pioneers of Butts County are buried here along with numerous veterans of all of our nations wars.
LIBERTY
NEW FELLOWSHIP
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