Brick (Bethel) Church
Screven County, Screven County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
Brick (Bethel) Church. On Dec. 5, 1827 the Rev. Peyton L. Wade conveyed to John Green, John H. Smith, Robert W. Lovett, Richard Herringtom, Sr., Jacob Lewis, Elijah Roberts and John H. Nessmith, Trustees, two and three quarter acres of land on which to build a Methodist Episcopal Church to be known as "Brick Church." Construction was started immediately. The building now on the site is the original. "Brick Church" was a successor to Lessing's Meeting House, a log building, on nearby Rocky Creek at Scott's Spring. Rev. John Crawford, who died in 1822, was the founder of Methodism in this community. His widow, Sarah Maner Crawford, married the Rev. Wade in 1823. 124-20 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1956
Erected by Georgia Historical Commission
The Story
In 1827, on land deeded by the Rev. Peyton L. Wade, Screven County Methodists raised a brick sanctuary they simply called 'Brick Church,' successor to an earlier log meeting house on nearby Rocky Creek. The congregation traced its roots to the Rev. John Crawford, remembered as the founder of Methodism in the community, whose widow later married Wade. The original 1827 building still stands on the site.
Why it matters
It marks the spread of frontier Methodism through the early-nineteenth-century South, when a rural church often anchored a whole community's social life.
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Related people
- · Peyton L. Wade
- · John Crawford
Themes & tags
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