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HISTORY OF ALC VY viliT uDIST ChLRCn Decatur-Oxfo d District

~orth Georgia Coaference larch 1957

'As far as can be ascertained, the p esent Alcovy ethodist

Church was first org&nized during a brush arbor revival meeting

1(1 1886. he everend Tom Greer and the Reverend Joe cGarity

held a meeting there. The Lord mi8htily blesse their ef1'orts

tnere a~d a revival resulted that last d for a month or longer.

During this m~eting about fi teen or twenty persons u ited with

the newly or "ani zed church. ome of the charter memLers were:

Mr. and Mrs. Alex Cox ~w. and I~s. Bese Berry ]r. and s. Alex Higginbotham ~,"r. and 1 s. eab liley iss Fanny Berryiss Jetlny . erry r. Will Berry

Miss Le a ',viley M,iss J lia Wiley 1\1 iss Mary Ewing Miss Lua Ewin Miss Jen~y star~a

Duria the first two years of its existence meetings were

held in the schoolhouse lle8r the site of the Alcovy Station of

the Georgia ailroad during the winter a_ld und.er the brush

arbor during the summer o!lths. The Reverend Tom Greer, one

of the founCLers, Wi;S the first pastor and served for several

years. The nam8 of this first orbanization was the Rocy cut

Protestant ethodist Church.

Page Two

I 1888 he people felt that the church should be housed.

On Fetruary 18, 1888, a deed was filed in the courthouse of

~ ei'lton COU£lt , Georbia :".y • D. Hight i hich ecorded the

tra sfer on June 18, 1888 of one square acre 0 . land owned by

. D. Hight to he rotest~nt etllOdist Chu ch of Georgia to

be used for church -ur oses. The exact wording of the deed

i this co ection is:

One acre lear the Alcova tation on the Ga. '. bou ded east by Covi~gton So. Circle road, north by right of way of Ga. RR. outh & west by lands of • D. HiDht to be one square acre: but the church at no time is to use any ~art of said la d as a curi, 1 round, or to permit anyone else 0 to use the same. If at a2Y time the C urc e,Lando s the la d then it is to revert to S. D. 'ght: a.d if it is used or an:/ other ;Ju Jose than as a church lot it is to be returned to Hicht, that is the chu ch pr0gerty its claim ~y such use exce t the same ce used or school purposes u~der

the co.trol of the church.

The first real church bUilding used by the ock Cut

congreGation 1'/ S erected duri . the year by l~lr. ill

tewart w 0 served as contractor or bUilder. The bu'ldi g

fas completed in 1888 and OCCll 1 d ~Y the con rebatio , which

cha~ged the n me from ROCK Cut to Alcovy rotestant et 0 1st

Church, a ter the e1' bori r ilroad stet ion. Those serving

the pastorate there durL.g the early years we:

The .evere d.Joe lcC~rity

T e Reverend Dave 0 ley The .evere d Jim ~artick

Page Three

During the years of 1910 and 1911 Theolo5ical tudents

from old Oxford College came down and or ani zed a Bundny

School there which was very successful. TILe Reverend Henry

H. Jones, who is . w·Executive Secretary of the Board of

Pe sions of the Iorth Georgia Co fere ce, was one of the

studcQts who participated in the work. There were a number

of others whose names we do not remem~er.

The Chu ch was moved to its present location around the

year 1915. The move resulted from h ving a larr,'e number

of members who lived between Alcovy and Jersey. The~ felt

that the church would be more centrally located there and tIle

Official Doard and membership asreed to moving it.

}W. ~le~ Stanto , a wealthy planter of this section,

exchanged the tract of land that now belongs to the church

for the old church. He also erected the new building at no

cost to the membership. Lr. ~e..rlton Greer was contractor in

char5e a~d :~. Dave Gibbs and ~~. Jim Simoas served as

carpelters with the e~tire commu~ity and membership iving

free labor to make the new buildin possiLle. !{r. Stanton

only gave the tUildiag materials.

The church was a Protestant ~ethodist Church until the

union in 1;39. We are sorry we do not have a list of all of

the pastors serving before the union. A fe\l of them are

as follows, (but we do not Imo\V' the years they served the

pastorate there):

Page Four 7 The eve end IvIr. Crenshavl The Reverend I- r. DrisKell The Reverend Iir. ''! • C. Harris The Reverend r·1r. s. C. Camphell The everend Mr. Hanley

After the church vias put i the union in 1939 here is

a list of the pastors as far as we IDlo~ up until the ~resent

time:

The Reve end Clyde Lee_ The Revere.1.d J2.ck lJichols The .I. everend Clifton ree an The Reverend 1~ • I. Sams The everend E. Caldvlell•The Reverend Ben Petty The Reverend Bob Vlilcox

e Revere d Jimmy Jones The Reverend Leslie . Ratb The Reverend Tommy .l. anlcivell The everend Alfred Ha.l.1.ner The ev read Ne\\rton Scott

The present church bUilding was just a one-room structure

until seven or ei&lt years a 0 vmen the church was remolded on

the inside ~nd the back part vas made into two Bund y School

rooms. Then in 1956 two more unday School rooms were added.

The ~oard of Stewards for tne church at the ~resent time

are:

r. 2ar~s McI.tosh De.veClport

C. • Arnold Cli to CasperDan cCart

£!Ir. Artis Casper

There rre lso two Junior Stewards:

Larry 'cInt sh enneth McDaniel

The Church now has about eighty members, but about half

of them are inactive.

fIr.