CLARKE COUNTY, GA - CHURCHES   Crooked Creek Baptist Church

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:
 Tim Thomas  Speck4Christ@wmconnect.com 

**If you would like to honor your ancestors who were
members of this church with memorial offerings, please
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CROOKED CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH

A Commemorative Look At Our First 200 Years

PART I - "No other foundation", 1803 - 1808

"For other foundation can no man lay than that which
was laid, which is Jesus Christ" - 1 Corinthians 3:11

The Baptist Church of Jesus Christ at Crooked Creek was
constituted July 23, 1803. During that time, our
Almighty God has shown himself powerful, graceful,
merciful, and longsuffering time and again, just as He
promised in His Word. In compiling this history of our
church, the Bicentennial Committee has endeavored to
present its findings accurately while bringing maximum
glory to God, for in the 200 years of Crooked Creek
Baptist Church "it is He that hath made us, and not we
ourselves". 

Some of the information contained in this booklet is
unconfirmed, and has been assumed or reasoned by
researchers based on known facts. Readers using this
booklet for research purposes are encouraged to
independently confirm all information through other
sources. What is known without question is that Jesus
Christ died, was buried, and rose again for the
remission of sins; it is upon this and this alone that
we stand.

Crooked Creek was apparently situated very near a Creek
Indian village, and church lore indicates that the
cemetery may contain Creek Indian remains. Though no
list of founding  members is known to exist, various
historical documents and other research sources have
yielded a handful of names that Crooked Creek
researchers believe were on that first church roll.
Membership can be confirmed for eight men for the years
1804 to 1808. Among those believed to be early church
members were at least five Revolutionary War veterans,
two of whom were state legislators and one who signed
the Constitution of the State of Georgia.

The earliest confirmed members of Crooked Creek are
named in the minutes of the 1804 to 1808 Sarepta
Baptist Association's annual meetings. The association
was formed in 1799 in the midst of a revival which was
sweeping across northeast Georgia and western South
Carolina. The Holy Spirit apparently worked in a great
and enduring manner, as the revival is said to have
continued for several years. It was perhaps due to this
mighty work that Crooked Creek was one of eight "newly
constituted" churches that joined the Sarepta
association in 1803. Another eight had joined in the
previous year, nearly tripling the association's number
of member churches in just two years. 

Crooked Creek itself also experienced much early growth
in membership. Sarepta records indicate 18 members in
1804 with a net addition of one during the previous
year. If those figures are correct, there would have
been 17 members in October of 1803. Twenty new members
joined by letter in 1805, boosting the membership to
34. The 1808 total of 30 is the last confirmed
membership information until 1835. 

Crooked Creek's representatives to the October, 1804
Sarepta meeting were Joseph Humphries and William Pitt.
Since only three people joined the church in 1804, both
Humphries and Pitt are likely to have been founding
members in 1803. No further information has been found
regarding Pitt, but Humphries left a large footprint in
the history of Jackson County.

Joseph Humphries came from Virginia with his brother
Uriah and their families shortly after the Revolution,
in which both brothers fought. The Humphries brothers
and their sons are thought to have built Fort Strong
near Bear Creek and several other forts in the area,
and are confirmed to have built Barrow County's Fort
Yargo. 

Though the elder Uriah had been involved in civic work
in Virginia, it was Joseph who found his niche in
Jackson County's legal system. One of the county's
first Inferior Court justices in 1796, he was also a
delegate to the convention which produced the
Constitution of the State of Georgia that same year. He
served in the state legislature and as Justice of the
Peace before his death around 1810. Sarepta and legal
documents indicate that Uriah - who was inseparable
from his brother for all their adult lives - also may
have been a founding member.  It is also known that
Uriah Humphries' granddaughter Nancy (through son
George Washington) was on the 1850 church roll and is
buried in the church cemetery. It should therefore be
considered a distinct possibility that George
Washington Humphries was among the founding members,
along with his father and uncle.

Prior to Crooked Creek, Joseph Humphries' church
membership was with Jackson County's first Baptist
church, Cabin Creek. Joseph is listed among the Cabin
Creek trustees on a deed transaction from 1801. Also
listed as a trustee was Peter Kolb, who served as one
of Crooked Creek's Sarepta representatives in 1806.
Like Humphries, Kolb was a Revolutionary veteran, a
member of the state legislature, and Justice of the
Peace. Due to the two men's ties to Cabin Creek in 1801
and the fact that Kolb was also involved in the area's
civic work, it is believed that he also may have been a
founding member of Crooked Creek. The reason for their
move of membership may never be known, but it could be
that the relocation of Cabin Creek out of the city of
Nicholson in 1801 put that church farther away from the
Humphries and Kolb homesteads. Whatever the reason for
the move, it was apparently carried out on good terms,
for Crooked Creek and Cabin Creek remained in close
contact throughout the 1800s. 

Family lore also points to Eli and Benjamin Browning as
founding members of Crooked Creek. The brothers are
known to have settled on lower Crooked Creek near the
current Clarke County line in 1802, and at least two
grandchildren are on the 1850 church roll. Though no
other information has been found to connect the men to
the church, we include the Brownings among our list of
possible founding members.

If one assumes that the known living spouse of each man
named above was also a member, we then have 12 adults
who may have been among those 17 original members in
1803 (we have no information concerning spouses of
William Pitt and Eli Browning). Adding to those 12 any
children under the age of 16 who likely would have been
residing in their parents' household, we have the list
of likely 1803 attendees shown on this page.

Beyond the founding, a handful of other men represented
Crooked Creek at the annual Sarepta meetings until
1808, when the association discontinued listing
representatives in its minutes for more than 20 years.
Aside from those already mentioned, Crooked Creek's
representatives during her first six years were
Lunsford Trawick, John Gilcoate, Jerome Miller Sr.,
John A. Cash Sr., and William Smith. 

Lunsford Trawick is noted in the 1805 Sarepta minutes
as a licensed preacher, the only Crooked Creek member
named as a minister prior to 1837. It seems likely,
given that the church had only 34 members at the time,
that Trawick served as pastor in 1805, though this is
unconfirmed. Trawick moved his membership to Mars Hill
near Watkinsville in 1807 and died two years later.
This seems to indicate that he may be buried in the
Mars Hill cemetery, but if so his grave is unmarked.
Trawick's daughter Esther married Johnson Freeman, and
the couple are listed on the 1850 Crooked Creek church
roll. Of note to local residents is the fact that
longtime piano teacher Miss Montine Head of Jefferson
was a direct descendant of Lunsford Trawick through
Johnson and Esther Freeman.

John Gilcoate eventually became an ordained minister,
but according to documents obtained through Internet
research, his ordination likely came after the family
had moved from the area. Gilcoate and John Cash had
each fought in the Revolution, and Cash is buried in
the Stone family cemetery, east of Center and just a
few miles from Crooked Creek. Jerome Miller's family
farm was at the headwaters of Crooked Creek, and his
descendants remained in the church at least until the
late 1800s. 

Nancy Humphries married Solomon Chandler shortly before
Uriah's death around 1817, and remained in Jackson
County when the rest of the family moved out of state.
The Chandlers are on the 1850 membership roll, and both
are buried in the church cemetery, though their graves
are unmarked. Peter Kolb moved his family south to the
Warm Springs area, where he died in the 1830s. The rest
of his family then moved to Kennesaw, and the Kolb
family farm and cemetery are today part of the Kennesaw
Mountain National Park. Uriah, Joseph, and George
Humphries' burial sites are as yet unknown. No further
information has been found regarding either William
Pitt or William Smith.

Nothing is known about the original church structure,
but a second was constructed some time in the mid-
1800s. The Jackson County government operated a school
on the property in a separate building for some time,
and it is possible that this school building was used
as the church meeting house until the membership
outgrew it.

PART II - "Firstfruits" - 1809 - 1849

"He which soweth bountifully shall reap also
bountifully" - 2 Corinthians 9:6b

Unfortunately, little more information concerning
Crooked Creek is available for the period 1809-1849
than for the first six years of the church. Currently
available church minutes go back only to May of 1850,
and as mentioned before, vital membership statistics
were apparently omitted from the Sarepta association's
annual minutes for more than 25 years. When those
statistics did return in 1835, Crooked Creek was in the
midst of a revival. 

Thiry-four souls were saved at Crooked Creek in 1835.
Total membership jumped to 76, and the little country
church seemed to be very stable after 32 years. Though
the names of those saved during the revival may never
be known, it is possible that many were children or
grandchildren of founding members. It is also possible
that some were converted Creek Indians who lived in the
nearby village. The last of the Creeks and Cherokees
were forcibly removed from the area in 1837 by federal
troops. Supporting both theories is the fact that the
Sarepta Baptist Association had begun to focus on
mission work to children, Indians, and even slaves some
20 years before. Though this view on missions was sound
doctrine, it had been the cause of great debate within
the association from 1815 to 1835, and eventually led
the group to split.

By 1810, the Sarepta association had grown in 11 years
from eight to 44 churches, and from 797 to 3140 total
members. But that incredible growth had begun to slow,
and representatives particularly noted that fewer
people were being saved and baptized each year. Their
concern for the lost led the 1810 Sarepta
representatives to earnestly seek God in prayer, and
they further set aside July 4, 1811 as a day of fasting
and prayer "for an outpouring blessing". As He promised
in His Word, God heard the prayers of his people, and
responded mightily. During 1811, 1265 people trusted
Christ - two for every five association members a year
earlier. 

Crooked Creek was chosen to host the July district
meeting in 1811, the first record of any meeting at the
church outside regular worship services. Two years
later, in 1813, the Sarepta association issued an
admonishment for its members to support the United
States government during time of war, and the following
year stated that opposition to an officially declared
war would be considered a sin. 

With its base much broadened after 15 years in
existence and now covering a large territory, the
association began to consider mission work much more
seriously at its 1815 meeting. A special conference was
set for June 13, 1816 to further discuss missions.
Hardshell Baptist members - who did not support
missions - took issue with the organization's new
focus. Indian missions in particular were discussed at
the 1818 meeting, and the establishment of a seminary
for young ministers was taken up the next year. In 1820
the Sarepta assocation officially announced that it
would begin accepting donations to fund a missions
program, and the rift with the hardshell members
widened.

Though the group began to split from within, support
was still strong enough to continue expanding mission
work. The first Sunday School in the state was
established at Trail Creek in 1819, and a circular
letter to members entitled "The Religious Education of
Children" in 1820 confirmed for many the need to fund
missions. The letter also addressed the need to better
educate and minister to slaves and Indians. A Cherokee
Indian mission program was established that same year. 

For nearly two decades the issue of missions was the
subject of much debate, until the association voted in
1835 to join the Georgia Baptist Convention, which was
solidly in support of missions. The Hardshell Baptists
responded by withdrawing membership, and the doctrinal
fight was over. A two-day conference in 1836 to discuss
doctrinal issues seems to have settled any outstanding
concerns, and contention over doctrine would not be so
great for generations after that. Later, in 1845, the
Sarepta Baptist Association joined the Southern Baptist
Convention, and remains with that group today. 

As stated earlier, the next mention of Crooked Creek
came in 1835. Crooked Creek's Sarepta representatives
that year were J.C. Neal and John Vandiver. The
aforementioned revival was apparently not confined to
Crooked Creek, as Candler Creek also saw a large number
saved - 42 in a church that previously had fewer than
60 members. Together, the two small country churches
accounted for more than forty percent of the
association's 173 baptized that year.

Perhaps just as important to the long-term history of
Crooked Creek was its donation of $7.75 to home
missions in 1835, the earliest documented mission
expenditure in church history. The amount grew to
$15.25 in 1836, and was accompanied by a $7.50 donation
for foreign missions. The revival had also continued
into that year, with 12 more being saved and baptized
at Crooked Creek.

The year 1837 was no doubt a monumental one for Crooked
Creek. After 34 years of service and its membership
having grown to 92, the church was selected to host the
1837 Sarepta Baptist Association's annual meeting for
the first time. The meeting was held October 20-23.
According to oral history, it may have been around this
time that the second church meeting house was
constructed, perhaps due to the incredible growth
experienced during the preceding years. It could well
be argued that the association could not have met in
what was likely a smaller original meeting house, and
that the second building must have been completed prior
to this date. Unfortunately, we may never know for
sure.

Though no membership information is available from
1837, Rev. John Harris is mentioned in the Sarepta
minutes as the moderator of Crooked Creek, a position
which was always held by the pastor except in extreme
circumstances. Harris is also listed as providing
membership information to the association for the two
previous years, making a strong case for his having
served as pastor from 1835 until 1837. Though she
hosted the meeting, there is no further mention of
Crooked Creek in the 1837 Sarepta minutes.

Rev. Jessiah Human and Solomon Chandler represented
Crooked Creek in 1839, indicating that Human may have
served as pastor for that year. The same is true for
the years 1845 and 1846. Chandler was a long-time
church member, and is on the 1850 roll along with wife
Nancy (Humphries) and son Early Mattison.

Rev. John Bullard may have pastored Crooked Creek in
1843, when he and J.C. Neal served as Sarepta
representatives. Other representatives for the period
1835 to 1849 included N.J. Sharp, J.H. Wilbert, and
Walter Mitchell. Of the 1835-1849 representatives
currently known, Human, Chandler, and Mitchell are on
the 1850 church roll. Sharp is thought to have died
prior to 1850, as wife Jane (Strickland) is on the 1850
roll and he is not. No further information has been
obtained concerning the other representatives for this
period.

Part III - "Earliest minutes, another revival" - 1850 -
1859

"And they continued steadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and
in prayers." - Acts 2:42

The year 1850 marks the earliest currently known
minutes in Crooked Creek's history. The minutes begin
on May 18 of that year, with the list of then-current
members found on Page 7. The first conference minutes
recorded are dated September 7. During that meeting,
the resignation of clerk Marion Watson was accepted,
and Walter Mitchell was appointed to take over that
position. Interestingly, Watson is not listed on the
May, 1850 roll even though he almost certainly must
have been a member. Apparently this may have been a
case where, in compiling the church membership roll,
Watson counted all the other church members but failed
to count himself.

The early 1850s were a time of steady growth at Crooked
Creek, but the latter part of the decade marked the
beginning of what may have been her most difficult
years. Church membership had callen steadily since the
high of 92 in 1836, but the salvation of 10 souls in
1846 ended the trend. Eleven people joined the church
by letter in 1854, and over the next two years another
revival apparently broke out, with 29 trusting Christ
and being baptized. Church membership stood for teh
first time at 100, 25 of whom were men and women of
color. The minutes confirm that most were slaves, as in
the mention of "Elmina, belonging to John Shackelford".
There were a few cases, however, where colored members
were not identified as belonging to anyone. This may
indicate that some were free, but it could have been an
oversight on the part of the church clerks. 

Only three men pastored Crooked Creek from 1851 to
1859, but most of their terms were for one year or
less. Stephen Reed Hood was chosen pastor for 1851 and
1853, with a term by Jessiah Groves Human in between.
Jasper Floyd Catlett was called in December of 1854. It
was apparently his first time pastoring a church, as
the minutes show that Crooked Creek asked Oconee
Baptist to ordain Catlett for the ministry. He served
for eight months, but resigned just prior to marrying
second wife Caroline M. Polk in August (his first -
Mary Ann Wilson - had died in 1845). Hood served out
the remainder of Catlett's 1855 term, and Catlett was
chosen again in 1856. His second term lasted four
years. Catlett later returned to pastor Crooked Creek
in 1882. He died in 1902, and is buried at Oconee
Baptist with both wives. A note of interest concerning
Hood: his wife Jane (Sewell) gave birth during each of
his three terms, to the couple's fifth, sixth and
seventh of 11 children. Hood went on to become the
first pastor of Advent Christian Church in Alabama, and
served as a captain in the Alabama Infantry during the
war. 

Several other items of interest may also be found in
the church minutes from the 1850s, particularly those
from 1851. Members approved the purchase of a hymn book
and a Bible on July 17. The Bible cost 62 and one-half
cents, while the hymn book cost 60 cents. In November,
a ballot to determine the pastor for 1852 resulted in a
tie. The decision was "laid over until the next
Sunday". Jessiah Human was called, but delayed giving
the church a firm answer until finally accepting the
following March. The 1851 minutes also list the
earliest detailed excommunication of a member (though
the practice had been carried out dozens of times
before), and the first record of Crooked Creek
observing the ordinance of Communion (August 10),
though it is certain that this was done before as well.


Aside from the May, 1850 church roll, the first
specific mention of black members was August 13, 1853,
when two men named Adam and Tilman were baptized. In
March of the following year, the minutes read: 

"Bro. Adam, a colored man, applied to the church for
leave to exercise his gift to speak in public. It was
moved and seconded that we see his master and examine
the law respecting his case." 

The following month, it was reported that Adam's master
had no objections, and his request was apparently
approved. If Adam spoke during that conference,
whatever he said was not recorded. It could be that the
phrase "exercise his gift to speak in public" referred
to being licensed to preach, but that is unclear at
present. Crooked Creek would go on to license black
members to preach as early as 1858, though it is highly
unlikely given the cultural environment at the time
that any licensed men of color ever preached at the
church. 

From church minutes dated September 10, 1858: 

"Received application from Jim (a colored brother
belonging to W.J. Few) for license to preach. The
matter was taken up, acted upon and decided in granting
license." 

As the 1850s closed, total membership stood at 89, with
20 black members. Though tensions with northern states
were already high, no one could have known what lay
ahead in the coming days. Within five short years, the
entire nation would undergo its most radical change
ever, with much of the South and Georgia in particular
lying in ruin. Crooked Creek, too, would see great
change during the 1860s. 

PART IV - "Divided nation, smaller assembly" - 1860 -
1865

"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not:
for it was founded upon a rock." - Matthew 7:25 

Whether due to the political tensions of the time or
simply to indifference, Crooked Creek's conference
meetings and record-keeping became less of a priority
as the 1860s began. There were no conference meetings
for three months beginning in November of 1959, and
only six in all of 1860. This continued for at least
two more years, and it seems that some pages of minutes
from the time of the war have been lost. Participation
in the Sarepta Baptist Association's annual meetings
also took on less importance in the years immediately
following the war. Though representatives were chosen
each year, Sarepta minutes show that Crooked Creek was
represented at the annual meeting only once from 1864
to 1869. 

In March of 1861, church minutes note that a family was
"occupying the school house", indicating that the
county's school operations at the site had likely been
discontinued prior to this date. A committee was
dispatched to "demand possession of the house". 

An updated list of members was apparently compiled some
time in 1863-4, but only the last three names from that
list remain. They were Sarah M. Millican, Nancy C.
Millican, and Angelina Lester. Pastors for the years
1864 and 1869 are unknown, and conference minutes for
those two years are missing. 

It is unclear whether any Crooked Creek members were
killed during the war, though several served in the
army of the Confederate States of America. According to
Sarepta records, seven members died during 1863 - the
most of any year on record in the 1800s. As far as is
currently known, none of those seven deaths may be
directly attributed to the war, but this is an area
that should be researched further. A former member,
Robert J. Millican, died at Big Shanty in Cobb County,
GA. Disease was the primary cause of death at Big
Shanty, and was likely to blame for Millican's death.
Millican, an attorney, was the brother of Colonel
William Terrell Millican, who lost his life at Antietam
and was recognized for his bravery there in the memoirs
of General Longstreet. 

Though the involvement of Crooked Creek members in the
war is mostly unknown, one particular story has
survived. Elizabeth Abitha Emeline Chandler, a daughter
of Crooked Creek members Solomon and Nancy Chandler,
had married William Willis Bobo in 1838, in a ceremony
performed by Jessiah Human. It is believed that
Elizabeth was likely a member of Crooked Creek at the
time, given that Human may have been pastor in 1839 and
Elizabeth's parents were long-time church members.
During the war, Elizabeth allowed her home to be used
as a hospital for soldiers from both sides. When a
Yankee officer entered the home on horseback looking to
kill a wounded Confederate, Elizabeth bravely held him
off until another officer arrived and ordered the first
to apologize. 

Though information on Crooked Creek in particular is
sparse from the period during the war, the Sarepta
association continued with its sound record-keeping.
The mintues of the 1862-1865 annual minutes reflect the
great spiritual needs of the area during this time. The
association determined in 1862 to send missionaries to
soldiers in the field, and reported that "our churches
have been, generally, in a cold condition, though some
of them have been much revived". A regular section of
the minutes titled "State of Religion" was used in 1863
not only to describe the overall state of member
churches, but to blast the North: 

"Both our churches and state have been suffering the
horrors of a cruel war which spreads desolation before
it, and thus waged by a malignant foe" 

A year later, however, Sarepta representatives seem to
have realized that their focus as servants of Christ
may have been off course. Twenty-six member churches
reported no additions by baptism in 1864 and the
association as a whole reported only 187. The unusually
low numbers of people being saved must have shaken
association leaders back to the realization of their
primary cause. 

"We fear our ministers and members are not alive to a
sense of their responsibility ... preach less of the
cruel and bloody war that is still raging in our
country, and more of Christ and Him crucified" 

As had been the case before, the renewal of focus did
not go unnoticed by Our Lord. Again He responded with
an outpouring of His Spirit, and 694 souls accepted
Christ as their Savior in 1865, the same year the war
ended. Unfortunately, vital statistics for Crooked
Creek are not available for that year, and conference
minutes are incomplete. 

A couple of items do bear mention from the minutes
which are available. Hugh and Emily N. Rowe joined with
the church in September, 1865. This is believed to have
been the same Hugh Rowe who was editor of the Athens
Daily News around that time. Mr. Rowe had apparently
also joined Crooked Creek in 1855 and must therefore
have been dismissed at some point from 1855-1865, but
this action has not yet been found in the minutes. 

Pages of minutes from November, 1865 to March, 1866 are
missing, but the next available page begins: 

"The money for minutes left in the hands of Bro. Rich
to be used for a church fund. Resolved to make up a sum
to pay the preacher." 

This is the first mention of the church compensating a
pastor for his services. John B.S. Davis was pastor at
the time. 

(continued in next file)