Canaan Baptist Church
Richmond Hill, Bryan County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
Canaan Church. This congregation of the Canaan Baptist Church, primarily African-American, was organized in 1913 by Rev. David Boles, Sr., who was pastor, and Brother Fred Gilbert, Deacon. It was the only organized denominational church in what is now Richmond Hill during the early 20th century. The present sanctuary was built with support from Henry Ford. Many of the original congregants of the church were descendants of the antebellum rice plantation slaves of nearby Cherry Hill and Silk Hope plantations.
Erected by Coastal Bryan Heritage Trail
The Story
Canaan Baptist Church, a primarily African American congregation, was organized in 1913 by the Rev. David Boles, Sr. and Deacon Fred Gilbert—the only organized denominational church in what is now Richmond Hill in the early 20th century. Its present sanctuary was built with support from Henry Ford, who developed extensive holdings in the area. Many founding members descended from the enslaved people who had worked the antebellum rice plantations at nearby Cherry Hill and Silk Hope.
Why it matters
The church roots a coastal Georgia Black community directly to the rice-plantation slavery that preceded it, and to Henry Ford's unusual imprint on the region.
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Related people
- · David Boles, Sr.
- · Fred Gilbert
- · Henry Ford
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Burnt Church Cemetery
Bryan County, GA
Established near here in 1830, Bryan Neck Presbyterian Church was the oldest organized congregation in Bryan County, serving the planter families of a lower-Bryan coast that had become one of the most productive rice-growing districts on the south Atlantic. Its burial ground lay beside the wooden sanctuary, and here rest members of prominent early families such as the Clays, McAllisters, and Maxwells. After the church accidentally burned in 1882, a new building rose in 1885 several miles east near Keller.
Bryan Neck Missionary Baptist Church
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Bryan Neck Presbyterian Church
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On the plantation coast of lower Bryan County, a group of wealthy rice planters organized this Presbyterian congregation, certified by the Presbytery of Georgia in 1830 and built into a frame meeting house by 1839. Fire claimed the first sanctuary, and the present church—the oldest public building in the county—rose in 1885. The founders' world of tidal rice fields depended entirely on enslaved labor, and the old burial ground, Burnt Church Cemetery, still holds the graves of these prominent early families.
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