Hillsboro Methodist (Jasper County, Ga.)

In the early 1800s, John Hill, a farmer of moderate means and limited education, made his way from North Carolina to Jasper County, Georgia. He believed in religion, temperance, and education for his sons and dedicated his life to these principles. In addition to farming, he built near his homeplace a church where he was steward and class leader. He built a school where he was a trustee. Then he built a temperance society of which he was president. According to church records, the church was founded in 1808, likely meeting under a brush arbor until 1818 when the first deed for a building was issued. The next structure was built in 1852 on the former site of a Baptist Church but it was eventually moved. The records don't state the reason, but in 1877, they called for a new structure to be built and by 1884, the third church house had been finished on land donated by Mrs. Frances McCullogh. By 1912, they had also outgrown that building too and, led by the efforts of the Women's Methodist Society and Mrs. J.T. Garland, bought new land to expand and add Sunday School Rooms. John Hill's son, William Pinkney Hill, entered the Methodist ministry serving this area, known as the Cedar Creek Circuit.