To begin our study of the history of the Baptist Church in antebellum Athens let us first define Baptists and look at where this denomination stood in national context. Baptists are Protestant Christians who believe in justification by faith, the authority of the scriptures, and that every Christian can experience a true relationship with God and pray directly to Him.1In the "Baptist Faith and Message” salvation or justification by faith “involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.2 Baptists also believe in baptism by immersion after redemption rather than infant sprinkling.

Begun as a product of the Sixteenth Century Reformation, the Baptist church has had significant influence on American religion over the years. During the Great Awakening movement in the Eighteenth Century, Baptist growth gathered speed in the United States. The antebellum period saw some changes coming the way of Baptists. These changes were tied to the most controversial subject of the era, slavery. Due to differing beliefs about the institution of slavery, in 1845 the Baptist church in American split and the Southern Baptist Convention was formed with its headquarters in Augusta, Georgia.

Athens is a city that was settled by the religious and the first church to be established in Clarke County occurred in the 1820’s. This first church was Trail Creek Baptist Church and was located a few miles out of town along the Oconee River. Trail Creek was an important stepping stone and impetus to the establishment of Athens Baptist Church, which is now First Baptist Church of Athens.3

During this foundation time for Baptist churches in Athens, the stage was being set locally for the successful establishment of the Athens Baptist Church. A controversy at the University of Georgia, over who was appointed to power led to the founder of the Athens Baptist Church coming to Athens. In 1829, Moses Waddel, Alonzo Church, and James Waddel were all given seats of power at the University of Georgia; president, successor, and professor of ancient languages, respectively. The problem to Athenian Baptists was that all of these men were Presbyterians or of Presbyterian ancestry.

Consequently, the Baptists and Methodists formed a coalition to stop what they perceived to be a grave injustice. They named their coalition The Clarke Party. This alliance sent an onslaught of complaints to the Columbian Star, the Baptist newsletter at the time, and soon they reaped the rewards.4 The pastor of Augusta Baptist Church was appointed at the University of Georgia to be the professor of ancient languages.

This new figure of power on the University of Georgia campus quickly set up a meeting on January 31st, 1830 to begin the Athens Baptist Church. He, his wife, and thirteen other Baptists, ironically met in the Presbyterian building and chartered this Baptist church. Jack Lumpkin, the pastor of Trail Creek Baptist Church, moderated at this meeting. Many of the fifteen Baptists present at this meeting were members of Trail Creek Baptist who were transferring to begin this new church in the heart of the village of Athens.

Rightly so, James Shannon was appointed the first pastor of Athens Baptist Church. The Baptist building during these first years was a “small-frame structure” located on the University of Georgia campus at the corner of Broad and Lumpkin. During the pastorate of Shannon, Mars Hill Baptist Church was incorporated into the county of Clarke. In 1834, the incorporation occurred and it officially reported in the Southern Banner’s “List of Acts” in January of 1835.5

The first deacon of Athens Baptist Church was Stephen Borders and the charter members were Shannon, his wife, Julius Hillyer, Winfred Callaway, Lucy Thorton, Sarah Cobb, Martha Jones, Rebecca Hillyer, Mary Milledge, Mary Borders, John Borders, Martha Jackson, Catherine Freeman, and Bennett Harris.6 The charter members of the Athens Baptist Church boasted of many noteworthy people. Including Mary Milledge, cousin of former Georgia governor John Milledge.

Also among this mix was Junius Hillyer. Hillyer made his mark on Georgia as a Judge of the Western Circuit Court, two times Congress member, four years as the solicitor of the United States Treasury, co-founder of the Georgia Railroad, and trustee of Mercer and University of Georgia. This distinguished member of Athens Baptist Church died in 1894 as the last surviving charter member.7 Evidenced by the quality of personage that began this church, Athens Baptist Church was destined for success.

During the years between the beginning of Athens Baptist Church and the Civil War, ten different men held the position of pastor. During this time Athens cultivated from a rural community to an active city. This city was thronging with college students and Athens Baptist Church also enjoyed a great deal of growth. Despite the rapid turnover in ministerial staff, the membership at the church grew from fifteen members in 1830 to 250 members in 1860.8 The antebellum years embraced the Baptist church in Athens.

After James Shannon left the pastorate in 1835 to become the president of the State College of Louisiana, Shaler Granby Hillyer took his place. Hillyer, a man with a great future in ministry and education, only remained at Athens Baptist Church until 1837. During his time at Athens Baptist Church, he was a definite asset, for he had a reputation as “a superior theologian.”9 It was many months after Hillyer’s exodus that a new pastor was appointed. In the meantime, a man that was called “a brother Selman” preached for almost a year, according to Wilson Lumpkin.10

During this transition time, the membership of Athens Baptist Church did not suffer. There was a revival taking place in Athens. Begun in the Methodist church in Athens, this renewing of spirituality did not remain just in the lives of Methodists. It overflowed into all the religious denominations in Athens. The Baptists gained a substantial amount of members during this time in addition to the Methodists and Presbyterians.11

In 1939 A. William Chambliss was appointed to the pastorate of Athens Baptist Church. It was November of 1939 that the Southern Banner printed an article announcing his arrival and the first Sunday in December he preached his first sermon.12 After Chambliss left, Albert Williams took over as the fifth pastor of Athens Baptist Church. Williams was only in Athens for a short amount of time in 1842, due to his poor health. He had to resign the pastorate and seek a place that could accommodate his physical condition.

Early in the year of 1843, William Cary Richards came to pastor the Athens Baptist Church. He was a highly educated, artistic man and a native of England. He started off his time in Athens by offering a series of lectures on natural sciences at the Baptist church.13 Though Richards did not stay in the pastorate long, he and his family proved to be “great additions to the growing town in the forties.”14 Richards ran a bookstore, his wife ran a prominent girl’s school, and both added the flavor of cultural citizenry to a still rural township.

Former pastor Shaler Granby Hillyer filled in the year between Richards and his successor. Then in January of 1847 Sylvanus Landrum came to Athens Baptist Church. He proved the most faithful pastor in a while by staying three years. Landrum can be credited with a very successful pastorate in terms of membership because it doubled during his time of ministry in Athens. He also oversaw the erection of a building for the black members of the congregation to worship in, since they were only allowed in a certain section of the main church for communion. Athens Baptist Church saw another accreditation to its functionality in the Baptist realm by hosting the Georgia Baptist Convention Meeting in 1849.

When Landrum left Athens, William T. Brantly came to pastor Athens Baptist Church. Brantly could be described as one of the more influential pastors of the church in the antebellum period. Brantly stayed as the pastor for eight years. The stability of his comparatively long stay was almost as much of an asset as his intellect and prominence. You see, Brantly was a well-educated honor graduate from Brown University. During his stay in Athens, he also earned a Doctorate of Divinity from the University of Georgia. Brantly was a prominent figure due not only to his eloquent form of speaking but his kinship to Georgia governor, Charles McDonald and his former pastorate of Augusta Baptist Church during the time that the Southern Baptist Convention was formed there.

In 1850 there had been marked growth since in the Baptist church in Athens since Trail Creek Baptist Church had been formed in 1830. Baptists in Clarke County now had seven churches that would hold approximately 2,500 people. The total property value of the Baptist holdings at this time was $4,650.15

It was during Brantly’s pastorate at Athens Baptist Church that the decision to build a new church was made. In 1856 the proposal for a new building was made by Brantly due to the fact that the membership was increasing progressively and the old frame structure was beginning to fall apart. The proposal was well-received by the congregation and in 1858 construction began at the new site of Athens Baptist Church on the corner of College Avenue and Washington Street.16

In March of 1857 Brantly left Athens and Dr. Patrick Hues Mell filled in while the church searched for another pastor. Mell was only available to serve for one Sunday per month because he was pastor at two other area churches at the time as well as Professor of Ancient Languages at the University of Georgia. Mell selflessly served without a salary so that Athens Baptist could put all of its resources towards the building of their new church. His few months at Athens Baptist were just a stepping stone to a very distinguished life in education and the ministry, marked by 17 years as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Early in 1858 Littleberry Richard Logan Jennings became pastor of Athens Baptist Church. Not long after his arrival Athens experienced its most noteworthy antebellum revival. This revival, like to the one that occurred in 1838, began in the Methodist Church. In March of 1858, the Methodists experienced a great outgrowth of spirituality that can only be termed a revival. By April, this same revival had taken hold of the Baptist congregation in Athens. This led to an increase in membership and faithfulness by those who were already members.17

This time of growth led to the establishment of two mission churches in the Athens area. In December of 1858, thirty members of Athens Baptist Church went to begin Buena Vista Baptist Church, also known as Barrett’s Meeting House. Again in 1859, Jennings led the institution of another mission and seven members left to begin Princeton Factory Baptist Church.18

On March 11, 1860 Athens Baptist Church proudly moved to their new building on the corner of College Avenue and Washington Street. Reverend William Brantly returned from Philadelphia to dedicate the new building. This location is the current location of the First Baptist Church in Athens and an obvious stepping stone in its history.

In 1861 Athens Baptist Church was again honored to host the annual meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention. The convention occurred this time in an entirely different setting than the last time it was in Athens in 1849. This year all around Athens, as well as the entire South, Confederate soldiers were mustering together and Athens was preparing for a possible war. Jennings remained in Athens until 1862 and was its final antebellum pastor.

Athens and its Baptist church have a very colorful history throughout the antebellum period. Its pastors consisted of a group of very transient men, ranging from local town-folk to foreign-born, educated elite. A close look at Athens will demonstrate that this town and its Baptist church were not so very different from the rest of the nation.

One the primary similarities between Athens Baptist Church and the nation’s Baptist churches in the distinction of each church as independent body governed by the members who are led by the Holy Spirit. Athens Baptist Church drew up their own Constitution in 1831 when the church began. In it they discussed how the church would run and that its membership is made up of born-again believers.19 Nationally, throughout history Baptist churches have demonstrated this independence and self-governing.

Another similarity between Athens Baptist Church as well as its mission churches and the nation is the racial makeup of its membership. When considering Protestant religions nationally during the antebellum period it is obvious that a great deal of white people are Methodist and black people are Baptist. Athens kept this national trend in one aspect. Most of the black people in Athens were Baptists. Fourteen of the seventeen black churches in Athens were Baptist according to Walter Hill in A Rural Survey of Clarke County, Georgia.20

The Baptist Church in Athens also resembled the rest of the nation in the traditional use of the church as a place for town meeting and events to occur. Nationally, churches, and not just Baptist churches, were the center of a town’s culture and a great deal more than just a place where worship services were held. In the Southern Banner we see evidence of the church’s use as a meeting place. There is an announcement about a meeting called on a Monday for the community.21 Further evidence of the Baptist church being used for outside community interests is evidenced by the non-Sabbath lectures on natural science that William Richards held at Athens Baptist Church in 1843.22

The formation of the Baptist church in Athens was a large cultural step for this developing village. In the antebellum period the Baptist belief found a home in Athens, Georgia. Today evidence of this history can be seen in the number of Baptist churches in Athens, as well as the beautiful sprawling buildings of First Baptist Church, which was formerly Athens Baptist Church.

1. “Baptists,” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2002. http://encarta.msn.com; accessed 9 November 2002.

2. Southern Baptist Convention, “Baptist Faith and Message”; available from http://www.sbc.net/bfm/default.asp; accessed 11 November 2002.

3. Gagnon, Michael, Transition to an Industrial South; Athens, Georgia, 1830-1870, (Atlanta, Emory University, 1999), 217.

4. Marshall, Charlotte, Glimpses Into the Antebellum History of the First Baptist Church of Athens, (Athens, 1981), 4.

5. “List of Acts,” Southern Banner, 8 January 1835, p. 1, Col. 5.

6. Hynds, Ernest, Antebellum Athens and Clarke County Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1974), 115.

7. Marshall, 22.

8. Marshall, 23.

9. Hynds, 116.

10. Marshall, 24.

11. Hynds, 108.

12. Untitled Article, Southern Banner, 30 November 1839, p.3, Col. 3.

13. “Lectures on Natural Sciences,” Southern Banner, 28 April 1843, p.3, Col. 13. Marshall, 25.

14. Marshall, 27.

15. Hynds, 109.

16. Hynds, 116.

17. Hynds, 109.

18. Hynds, 110.

19. Hynds, 115.

20. Hill,Walter B., A Rural Survey of Clarke County, Georgia, (Athens, Ga.,The University, 1915), 51.

21. Untitled Article, Southern Banner, 9 January 1845, p.3, Col. 1.

22. “Lectures on Natural Sciences,” Southern Banner.