HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Carroll's Methodist Church

Franklin County, Franklin County, Georgia

Marker Inscription

Carroll's Methodist Church 2 1/2 mi. Instituted in 1797, this church was named for the William Carroll family, among its first members. Families identified with the church through the years are McWhorters, Osborns, Starrs, Stones, Browns, Burtons, Sewells, Jacksons, Hemphills, Deans, Buffingtons, Cheeks, Mabrys, Turmans, Stricklands, Carsons, Hayes, Greens, Millers and many others. The present building, erected about 1835, was restored in 1951-52 under the leadership of Bishop John H. Baker. Rev. Nelson Osborn (1797-1873) was a lifelong member and minister for many years. A numbers of other well-known Georgia ministers have served the church. 059-3 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1957

Erected by Georgia Historical Commission

The Story

Instituted in 1797 among the first families to settle Franklin County on Georgia's early frontier, Carroll's Methodist Church took its name from the William Carroll family. The present sanctuary was raised around 1835 and restored in the early 1950s, and generations of local families and ministers, including the long-serving Rev. Nelson Osborn, have worshipped here.

Why it matters

The church records the founding of a frontier Georgia community and the central place of rural congregations in early American life.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · William Carroll
  • · Nelson Osborn

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Beth-Salem Presbyterian Church

Lexington, GA

Beth-Salem Presbyterian Church was organized in 1785 in the wilderness west of here under the licentiate John Newton, becoming the first in a chain of Presbyterian churches planted across North Georgia by the Presbytery of South Carolina. Newton served until his death in 1797; the congregation later relocated to this site and was chartered by the legislature in 1827.

Oconee Station

Oconee County, SC

Oconee Station stands on what was once the far frontier of the South Carolina backcountry. In the years after the Revolution, a stone blockhouse was built here as a military outpost guarding the fringe of settlement, and it later served as a trading post exchanging goods with the Cherokee. The site marks a meeting point of frontier defense, commerce, and the shifting boundary between settler and Native lands.

Bethlehem United Methodist Church

Bethlehem, GA

Organized in the 1780s, Bethlehem United Methodist Church is the oldest Methodist congregation in Barrow County, its earliest services held in a nearby log house. The present site began as a camp-meeting ground of arbors, tents, and cottages, and its arbor served as a mobilization center during the Civil War. The congregation has rebuilt on the spot several times, most recently in 1949.

Calhoun Gold Mine

Lumpkin County, GA

About a mile from here lies the Calhoun Gold Mine, said to be where vein gold was first found in Georgia by white prospectors. According to tradition, Benjamin Parks of Dahlonega stumbled on quartz gold while deer hunting in 1828, striking a find so rich it looked like egg yolk. The mine was later sold to Senator John C. Calhoun and worked by his son-in-law Thomas G. Clemson, whose fortune helped found Clemson College.