Culloden Methodist (Monroe County, Ga.)

The Culloden Historic District is significant in architectural, educational, and local history. Culloden is located in an area where the first official, state-sponsored settlement began with the Land Lottery of 1821 in which the land in newly created Monroe County was distributed. This land had been ceded to the state by a treaty with the Creek Indians in 1821. Traditional accounts place the origins of the town of Culloden in the late-eighteenth century as a trading post, due to its geographical location where the Indian trails crossed from Columbus to Indian Springs, and Alabama to Augusta. William Culloden, the town's namesake, is said to have arrived in the area in the late 1700s, and following official settlement in 1821, a post office was established here on March 29, 1825, with William Culloden as postmaster. Records indicate that a congregation was organized here in 1802, making it one of the oldest Methodist churches in Georgia. A church was erected that year, however it burned before they could use it. The second church was built of brick in 1809. In 1832, the second church building was replaced by a two-story brick structure. The bricks for this building were hauled from Savannah by an ox cart. Culloden was early a seat of learning and within the town's first decade, the Culloden Academy was chartered in 1830, Culloden Female Academy in 1834, and Culloden Male and Female Academy in 1837. Classes were held in the two-story brick church building on the first floor while church services were held upstairs.  The church flourished as the only church in Culloden until 1844 when dissension arose and a new church congregation was formed, diminishing the size of this congregation. The church struggled in the years following the Civil War but had been revived by 1884. The town found renewed activity when the railroad lines arrived in 1888 and it was time to build a new church, so the old building was torn down. Construction on their new church began in 1893, made of bricks from the 1832 building. The present church, completed in 1894, sits at the center of Culloden's Historic District. In 1924, the church was renovated, adding 2 Sunday School rooms downstairs, and a balcony with 3 classrooms, and in 1980, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.