The Beginning of Presbyterianism in Bulloch County
Article # 7.
Mt. Zion was the beginning of Presbyterianism in Bulloch County in 1891. How did this Church come to be? Let us set the scene.
The census of 1880 shows that Statesboro was a village of 25 inhabitants and just 10 years later in 1890, the census shows a population of 525. In 1891, the village had dirt streets and boardwalk sidewalks, few buildings and houses, a wooden courthouse, and 2 churches. But it was a thriving, growing, community. The first bank was chartered in 1891, finally opening for business in 1896. By 1893, it had two newspapers.
The biggest industries of the area were the turpentine industry and the production of Sea Island cotton. Railroads came to move these products, turning the former village into a boom town.
The Naval Stores business was by far the biggest industry; these products were needed for the wooden ships built in those days. Plenty of pine trees were available in the area. Turpentine stills were located throughout the area, close to the source, the pine forests. However, the method of collecting the turpentine, "Boxing the Tree" was destructive to the trees. A large cup-like hole was cut into the body of the tree, the sap flowed into this "box" and was collected.
Naturally, such a wound injured the tree, not only weakening its power to withstand the weather, but also opening the trunk to disease. Such trees usually died within two years and created a fire hazard. forests worked by this method would die an decay within a few years. The owners of the turpentine stills were well aware of this and thus moved their operations every few years.
Into this setting came a group of people from the Fayetteville area of North Carolina. They were Scots descent Presbyterians, and they brought their religious belief and their church with them. They came to operate Carr's Turpentine Distillery at Riggs Mill (now known as Cyprus Lake. Since there were no houses available to rent or buy, they probably had to build their own. Their names are recorded for us in the Charter they received for their church in 1891. (Their former church in North Carolina had been named Mr. Zion, also.) Those ten charter members were: Mrs. Olive Barfield, Arthur S. Carr, Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Carr (Maggie), John A. Carr, Willie Kate Carr, Mrs. Margarette L. Hall, Wylie W. Harris, Graham McKinnon and Henry Pope. The small church only received tow other members during its existence: Mrs. W. W. Harris (Harriette E.) and N.D.P. McGeachy. Willie Kate Carr married J.L. Jones and moved to Moultrie in 1895, and Henry Pope moved his letter to First Presbyterian in Augusta in 1892.
Mt. Zion did not have a regular preacher, and met one Sunday a month, with a meeting in the morning at Riggs Mill and another in the evening in Statesboro. (Evidently some of those members lived in Statesboro). They had elected Deacons and Elders and a Clerk of the Session. The minutes of their meetings (as few as they are) can be viewed on our microfilm at the Statesboro Regional Library.
But, the turpentine industry being self-destructive, the members of Mt. Zion were soon ready to move on, and sadly, the church was dissolved as indicated in the minutes of March 28,1895. However, others had been attending their Statesboro services, because there was interest in ogranizing a church in Statesboro, put forth in those same Minutes.
Presbyterianism would continue. Statesboro Presbyterian Church was chartered just eleven months later in February, 1896.
Dot Odom, FPC Historian