On the 6th of December, 1752, Mr. Benjamin Baker and Mr. Samuel Bacon, with their families, arrived at Midway, in Liberty County, Georgia. This place was called Midway, because it stood about half way between the rivers Altamaha and Ogechee. Mrs. Baker died the day after their arrival. Their minister, Rev. Mr. Osgood, finding a general desire among those who remained in Carolina to remove, accompanied them to Georgia, where the whole Church and society eventually settled. The secretary of the Colony of Georgia, in a letter to Benjamin Martyn, in England, dated August 7th, 1755, sets down the number of those who removed from Carolina to Georgia (in 1752), as 816 men, women and children. He also wrote in the highest terms of the character of these settlers, whose reputation had preceded them and had grown as they became better acquainted. He says, “I really look upon these people moving here, to be one of the most favorable circumstances that could befall the Colony.” More than one hundred years have elapsed since their removal to Midway, and their descendants still retain those traits of character which in their ancestors called forth the praise of the Secretary of the colony. They still adhere to the Congregational system of church government, and “the village church and the village school” have been and still are the glory of the place.

This settlement has furnished Georgia with two governors; two of its most distinguished judges; the Theological Seminary of South Carolina and Georgia with an able professor; the Methodist Episcopal Church with an influential and pious bishop; the Presbyterian and Baptist Churches of that State with many of their ablest and most useful ministers; and six of her sons have been called to professional chairs in collegiate institutions.

Their minister, Mr. Osgood, died in August 1773, and different persons officiated for them until 1777, when Mr. Moses Allen, of Northampton, Mass., was settled. He was taken prisoner by the British in 1778, and confined several months in their prison ships. Being a true patriot, and wearied with confinement, he attempted to regain his liberty by throwing himself into the river in order to swim to an adjacent point, but was drowned in the attempt. The enemy, under General Provost, burned the meeting-house and many of the buildings of the place. In 1785, Rev. Abiel Holmes (a well known antiquarian, who died a few years since in Cambridge, Mass.), was settled with them in the ministry. Ill health made it necessary for him to relinquish his office in 1791. Rev. C. Gildersleeve, of New Jersey, succeeded him. Rev. Murdock Murphy, a native of North Carolina, followed. Rev. Robert Quarterman came next, and Rev. I.S.K. Axson was settled as his colleague in 1836; but now, 1856, is President of Greensboro Female College. Their present pastors (1856) are Rev. D.L. Buttolph, of New York, and Rev. John F. Baker, of Pennsylvania.

The patriotism of the people of Liberty County, during and previous to the Revolutionary war, was known throughout the country. They chose to take part with their brethren in the contest which they supposed would ensue, and not being able at first to bring the people of Georgia up to their standard, they joined the Continental Congress on their own account, and chose Dr. Lyman Hall to attend the same at Philadelphia, where he signed the Declaration of Independence. Soon after, four more delegates were sent from Georgia. Dr. Hall was a native of Connecticut, a graduate of Yale College, and in 1783 was elected Governor of Georgia.

Rev. Dr. Holmes remarked the great difference between these people and the natives of the place, and observed that they “differed as greatly from all surrounding inhabitants as did the Jews from the Canaanites.” The late Rev. Dr. Codman, of Dorchester, visited this place a short time previous to 1830, and was struck with the same peculiarity.

Source:
Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society, The History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, Ebenezer Clapp Jr., Boston, 1859, pp. 264-266

Submitted by Bob Franks