Phillips Mill Baptist-1

by John Kirkland

Title

Phillips Mill Baptist-1

Artist

John Kirkland

Medium

Photograph - Digital

Description

Phillips Mill Baptist - 1785 - Wilkes County - Georgia

In the 18th and 19th centuries, grist mills, dotted streams and rivers and were very important to farming communities and many times a source of revenue but religion was also very important to these families. In June of 1785, 16 people assembled in a mill owned by Joel Phillips Sr., a Revolutionary soldier and organized Phillips Mills Baptist Church. Phillips was born in 1728, in Surry, Virginia. Family history shows that in 1760, he lived in Anson, North Carolina and married Elizabeth Harrington and they eventually had at least 10 sons and 3 daughters. Possibly moving to Georgia as early as 1768 when the Quaker Colony from North Carolina relocated to the historic Wrightsborough (Wrightsboro) community in McDuffie County, records do show him living in Wilkes County in 1773, which was formed in 1773 from land ceded by the Creek and Cherokee Indians.

Phillips Mill Baptist Church is one of the most historic, Baptist churches in Georgia. Silas Mercer, the principle organizer of church and its first pastor was one of early Georgia’s great Baptist preachers. Silas Mercer came from Kiokee Baptist Church in Columbia County, which was established in 1772 and was the first Baptist church in Georgia. Silas Mercer’s son Jesse was ordained by the church in 1789 and upon the death of his father in 1796 assumed the duties as pastor. Jesse Mercer also became a significant voice of the ever-growing Baptist institution in Georgia. Mercer University, in Macon, was named in his honor. Another significant event in Phillips Mill’s rich history is that the very first regular meeting of the Georgia Baptist Association was held there on October 15, 1786.

Phillips Mills Baptist Church is located on Georgia Highway 44 between Union Point and Washington, Georgia near the Kettle Creek Revolutionary War battle ground. In 1848, Phillips Mills Baptist purchased the Old Salem Presbyterian Church building and land where the present sanctuary is located which is about four miles from where the original structure stood. The current church building pictured here it the second building built on this site and was completed in 1907. According to Phillips Mill Baptist Church, 200 Years for Christ 1785-1985 by Emily Griffin Hill, the millstones that are part of the memorial monument in front of the church came from the Joel Phillips' grist mill and cut from rock found in the Seine River in France probably brought to Savannah by boat and then to this area by ox cart.

A beautiful church, well-kept and worth a visit. Read more at https://www.hrcga.org/church/philips-mill-baptist/.

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February 13th, 2022

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