HOLLY GROVE PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CHURCH
(File submitted by Jane Newton, The Monroe
Advertiser, May 14, 1940)
By Eugene Anderson
You'd have to be looking for it, to
discover where Holly Grove church is, that century old,
historic building wherein was one of Georgia's
first bitter fights over religion, and where a few faithful
souls stood by it through the trials and tribulations of
pioneers.
Today it is flat on the ground, and the
white shafts in the surrounding grave yard seem deserted.
Only one member, Mrs. Lon Taylor,
formerly Miss Frances Colbert, remains active in the
membership. " The church with only one member" is the way
Holly Grove is referred to now;
but that member is a granddaughter of the little lady who
rode her small gray pony and prayed and worshiped on the
steps when the building
was closed against all members during the fight about
missions and foot washing. She prayed the organization
should not destroy itself.
The lone member now worships elsewhere,
but she says she wants to be buried beside her relatives in
Holly Grove. Now 76, she
looks much younger.
The storms destroyed the roof of the old
church, and it was rotting and falling down. The pews
and furniture had been loaned to
the new little church at Dames Ferry.
"What a shame to let that building and
that organization be lost", exclaim some who know about it.
But it is not to be destroyed. When
Dud McCord sought to buy the salvage from Mrs. Taylor, she
didn't feel she had any right to
sell it, even if she had been for years carrying the weight
and had spent money to keep the church. She wanted it
perpetuated in some
form. Mr. McCord agreed to build her just such
pavilion as she wanted for funerals, or for other gatherings
there, a little building twenty-five
or thirty feet wide, is her idea.
"It shall be just as you want it," says
Mr. McCord, and he was told he could take the remaining
lumber and timbers and carry them
to his place nearby. So that seems to please the
friends of the dead in the sacred grounds. A well-kept dirt road fourteen miles long
connects Forsyth and Dames Ferry passing Holly Grove, and
every foot of it could reveal important
history if it had a voice. Wreck and ruin are hinted
by the lone chimneys where residences once stood, some of
them fine, others not so elegant.
About half-way is the church, where you are told the first
Georgia row occurred between Missionary and foot washing
Primitive Baptist. The
missionary crowd was termed the minority, and being locked
out of the building they held a meeting under one of the
magnificent oaks in the
grove. There deciding to go to law. This was
during a session of the Flint River Association, as guests
of the Holly Grove church. The
Towaliga Association was formed after the fight.
In the suit for the Holly Grove building,
Judge Start of the Flint River circuit ordered equal
privileges for each side. They called themselves
the minority and majority, and after two years of discord
they made a give or take proposition - one side to pay all
expenses of the fight and
take full control of the house. It has since been a
missionary Baptist church, and the official record says the
bitterness and confusion of the period
should be covered over with "the mantle of oblivion."
The "majority" moved away to a schoolhouse, but later became
absorbed by other
churches, more sympathetic.
Some great stories grow out of the
tradition, and written history takes note. The
minority is recorded as Edward Callaway and wife,
Jonathan Collins and wife, Frances Colbert, A.D. Steele, W.
M. Clark, J. W, J. Taylor, Gilbert Clark, Mary E. Clark and
Harriet Harmon.
These called in brethren and sisters from Mt. Zion, Forsyth,
and other churches, trying to find a way to restore harmony,
but the schism here
was permanent and was to be repeated in nearly every other
Primitive Baptist church in the state. The records are
full of them. The foot washing
Primitives feel that they have received sanction from as far
back as Jesus' visit to earth, and they cannot see eye to
eye with the Missionary
Baptist nor have they been able to dwell in the same house
in peace though aside from the religious differences, they
associate on the best
of terms as neighbors and friends.
It was in 1823, one month to the day
following Christmas, that Elders Frederick Crowder, James
Brooks, John Hambrick and Joshua
Callaway organized the following membership into a church in
a cabin on the farm home of Edward Callaway and Sister
Callaway named
it Holly Grove, because of the long rows of holly on each
side of the nearby branch, about two miles from the present
site. Richard Fletcher
and his wife, Edward Callaway, and wife, Obediah Satterwhite
and wife, Jeremiah Dunn and wife, Silas Monk and wife,
Robert Middlebrooks
and wife, James Monroe and Moses Dumas. Elder John
Hambrick was chosen pastor, after a day of fasting and
prayer to avoid a mistake
in selecting. Two years later a new site was selected
ner Rum Creek, on the land of Deacon Callaway. But in
a little while the permanent
site was chosen. In 1825 Elder John Blackstone was
called. Elder A. L. Moncrief was also pastor at a
later time. Job Taylor and Eden Taylor
appear often in the records, and J. E. Taylor, L. B. Thigpen
and T. J. Collier served on important committees.
"Practically every family in Monroe
County is interested in those graves in Holly Grove
Cemetery," says Mrs. Fannie Colbert Taylor
and I want to be buried there with my sone H. L. Taylor and
my husband F. L. Taylor and my other relatives. I
worship at Dames Ferry and am delighted with
our minister and congregation there, but Holly Grove is
home".
On the tombstones are these names:
Thomas J. Pritchett, Co. D 45th Ga Inv.; J. L. Allen,
1818-1902; Lizzie Mae, wife of R. F. Wardell; Tate Roquemore,
Co. D., 8th GA Inf.; three other Roquemores are in the
enclosure, including Betty, 1854-1854; W. F. Roquemore,
1854-1930; Lucy A. Roquemore, 1831-1913;
Dollie Mae Poole, died in 1899 at 6 yrs,., ; Edward D., son
of B,. F. and M. F. Taylor, 1871-1905; Sara J. Johnson, wife
of Marcus; ___Simmons, 1857-1883; Marcus Simmons, Co. D,
45th Ga. Inf; 1834-1881; William Clark, 1817-1878; Gilbert
M. L. Clark, Co. D, 45th Ga. Inf; Ida A. McCord, 1875-1920;
Sara B., wife of J. W. J. Taylor,a nd daughter of William
Be. George of Jones County, 1879-55 years old; Susie
L., wife of J. A. Jackson, 1889-1908; H. L. Taylor
1905-1920; R. F. Taylor, 1867 - 1922; Adiel
Colbert, 1881-1918; L. F. Thigpen, 1837-1908; Ida Mae, Wife
of W. T. Wright, 1897, 20 years. Another
W. T. Wright inscription is illegible, Many graves are
unmarked.
(note by Liz Robertson: See complete survey of Holly Grove cemetery along with pictures (Click here)
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