TALBOT COUNTY, GA - CHURCHES  SARDIS METHODIST CHURCH

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SARDIS METHODIST CHURCH 

LOCATION:
From Woodland, GA junction of Hwy 41 and Hwy 36 go north
on Hwy 41 for 2 miles, turn left on Hwy 116 and go 3.8
miles, turn right on Hwy 48 and go 0.7 mile 

Resource: There was A Land  by Judge Robert Jordan

A Later History of Century-old Sardis Church by Mrs. W.J. Braddy

Organized:  1828

Resource:
"Descendants of John and Robert Ellison, Fairfield
County, South Carolina. Allied Families, Adger,
Patterson, Capers."  by Clara Ellison Erath, Houston,
Texas, 1972.

 p.59.


"..After the death of his [John's] first wife, he married
Elizabeth Patterson, and by 1830, he and James Ellison
had sold their land and moved to the Flint Hill section
of Talbot Valley, Georgia.  The name "Flint Hill" was
carried from the Longtown area where John Ellison's South
Carolina plantation was located.  The Ellisons were early
settlers in this part of the state,  and having moved
into an undevelpoed frontier area, the two brothers
promptly began organizing and building a church.
Although the Ellisons of South Carolina were
Presbyterian, and John had served as a trustee of the
First Presbyterian Church (formerly Scots Presbyterian)
of Charleston, they are found to be Methodists in
Georgia, and this switch to Methodism had evidently
occurred before they left South Carolina.


From old church records of the Sardis Methodist Church in
Talbot County, near Shiloh, Georgia comes the story of
its origins. [Source: Church history published by the
Ledger-Enquirer, Sunday Magazine, Columbus, Georgia,
Sunday October 26, 1941.]  John Ellison, James Ellison,
their wives, and Mrs. Blackwood and Mrs. Harrell were the
charter members.  The two brothers built a hewed log
church, 24 by 32 feet, just halfway between their two
residences.  By 1834, the membership had increased and
the brothers had prostpered, so they built the church at
the present site, which still serves the people of Sardis
community.  To build this church, it was necessary to
haul framing and weatherboarding from a saw mill sixty
miles away, taking five days for a trip.  Every piece was
hand-planed and hand-matched, and the pulpit and altar
were hand-turned and carved."
======================

 We have no list of members until 1834, when we find the names of John Cook and family, Thomas Bryant and family, Rev. Leonard Rush and family, f.M. Trammell and wife, John Davis and family, Walter Pierce and wife.

'Brother James Ellison (b. 8 March 1777, d. 20 Dec, 1863) for more than forty years a faithful steward and class leader. Records show that during that time me attended every Quarterly Meeting except four, and even after infirmities of old age cam upon him, his punctuality in attending all the meetings of the church was still more remarkable.  He made it his constant business to look well after all the interests of the church and ministry. 

'Rev. Leonard H. Rush, whose tomb is in the church.
Inscription: For Seventy Years a Preacher of Righteousness
Known as "Uncle Rush", he lived near by and drove a gray mare with a blazed face, and was often gone a month on his ministerial journeys. He was a Circuit Rider.