TALIAFERRO COUNTY, GA - CHURCHES  Bethel Springs Baptist Church  (Crawfordville Baptist)

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Terri Saturday <tlsaturday@nu-z.net>


Bethel Springs Baptist Church was established at
Bethel Springs about two miles south of
Crawfordville.  At first this was the first
Protestant Church in the Taliaferro area and
originally was established in 1802 by Rev. Jesse
Mercer and Rev. James Matthews.  There was no
cemetery for this church.  

In 1827 the Bethel church was moved on land given by
William Janes, one of Georgia's largest planters.
The first pastor was Rev. James Robertson; first
deacons were John Walker and Etheldred Wilder. Known
widely for its liberality, this was renamed
Crawfordville Baptist Church and granted the use of
its building to other denominations while their
churches were being organized. Many fiery political
speeches have been made in the church building. One
pastor at the Crawfordville Baptist Church was
Billinston M. Sanders.  B. M. Sanders was a witness
of the sister Salley’s will, and Salley could not
have had more scholarly or more illustrious man as
pastor and friend. Brother Sanders had established
Mercer Institute, named for Rev. Jesse Mercer.  

This Institute was established in 1833 in the
beautiful Village of Penfield, Green County,
Georgia. (Mercer Institute is now known as Mercer
University and is located at Macon, Bibb County,
Georgia.)


Salley was the sister of our forefather Etheldred
Edwards.  Etheldred, Salley, Julia Ogletree Edwards
and son William Cosby Dorsey Edwards all attended
the Crawfordville Baptist Church.  (I would love to
hear from you if you may have attended this church
too.)


Penfield was the cradle of Mercer University.  It is
seven miles north of Greensboro, and here in this
obscure village much of the history of the Baptist
Church of Georgia has written.  

Here the famous University of Georgia Baptists was
founded and here the great Jesse Mercer sleeps on
the old college campus. 

In Salley’s will, there was mention only of slaves
and personal property, as “sundry bedding clothes”,
but in the 1849 division of her estate, land in
Wilkinson County, Georgia, proceeds were to be
divided equally between the two brothers -Thomas and
Etheldred. Value of these nine slaves in 1849 was
$3,200.  

There were two adults, Everett age 40 and Chloe
between 35 and 40 years; and their seven children.

Thomas drew: (1) Chloe the mother; (2) Stephen age
13; (3) Martha age 8 and a deaf mute; (4) Dolly age
3; and (5) Eli age 2.  Etheldred drew: (1) Everett
the father; (2) James age 11; (3) Catherine age 6
and (4) Olivia age four. James, age 11, had been a
particular cause for contention.  

According to Etheldred, James had already "been
taken away to Alabama" presumably by Thomas' sons,
John and Benjamin, who were in Talladega County,
Alabama, by 1849.

A specific term of the settlement was that if James
were drawn by Etheldred and the brothers could not
agree to a trade in relation to him, "he is to be
delivered to said Etheldred Edwards by the first of
January next unless he should die before that time."

There is a family tradition in the Edwards family
that Etheldred was stern and forbidding and
something of a character.  This image probably grew
out of the suit between the two brothers over this
estate of their sister Salley.
 
What an interesting story, I thought.
Until my next adventure
Terri Kimbrel Saturday

Originally printed as a column in the Advocate-Democrat.