Grooverville Methodist (Brooks County, Ga.)
The church history below is courtesy of Clayton H. Ramsey. "Grooverville Methodist Church began as a brush-arbor meeting place on the property of William H. Ramsey. In 1832, Mr. Ramsey moved with his family from Bladen County, North Carolina, to Thomas (later Brooks) County, Georgia. Without an established church in the area and anxious to worship according to Methodist practice, he began services for his family and slaves in a temporary shelter on his land. As families with Methodist convictions gradually settled in the area, they sought out others with similar religious affinities and decided a sturdier structure should be built for their times of Sabbath meeting. A log-church was built one-half mile north of Mr. Ramsey's home, on the road that led to St. Marks, Florida. They named the church Lebanon, and while there were no regular services visited by ordained clergy, the church served as a focal point for the developing Methodist community there. The faith of the congregants sustained the fellowship until Lebanon was added to the Methodist circuit in the 1840s as a regular appointment. Near Lebanon was a center of trade known as Station No. 18, then Key, and finally Grooverville. Grooverville's commercial success was due in no small measure to its placement on the stage road from Tallahassee to Thomasville and Troupville. Attracted to the growing town, the members of Lebanon Church decided to move their congregation to Grooverville and were granted an acre of land by deed of gift from the owner of the property, Mr. Malachi Groover. Richard Ramsey, M.W. Linton, and W.R. Joiner were appointed Trustees of the deed in 1856. With the move, the name of the church was changed from Lebanon to Grooverville Methodist Church. Mr. Linton, with a team of slave and free carpenters, sawed and planed the pine planks for the existing church building. Shuttered windows and a belfry, with sides of wide planks painted white, mark the modest style of the church that was designed in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Methodist Discipline. It remains in a quiet stand of pine as perhaps the oldest church building in the county, and at one time the largest church on a circuit that included Grooverville, Beulah, and Prospect. Church members stopped meeting in December of 1998, and the church fell into disrepair. In early 2017, a private individual with family ties to the area purchased the building with the expectation that the historic church will be renovated and used as a resource to rebuild community in the Grooverville district. Grooverville Methodist Church served as a linchpin of the religious and social life of Grooverville for generations. The hope is that it may yet again."
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Grooverville Methodist (Brooks County, Ga.)
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