In 1915, members of Fork Chapel United Methodist Church erected a white frame building on three-fourths of an acre, in the small rural village of Greshamville – located northeast of Greensboro in the Oconee National Forest. More than a century later, this beautiful building still stands as a testament to the stewardship of a loving congregation. The history of Fork Chapel’s congregation, however, goes back much further.

So named because it lies in the fork created by the Oconee and Appalachee Rivers, Fork Chapel Methodist was originally the fruit of Reverend Hinton Crawford’s labor. Crawford, a local planter and Methodist preacher, was born in Greene County in 1798. In 1844, after the church had been functioning for some time, Crawford accepted a one-acre donation from Matthew Winfield and gave three acres of his own for a new building and a graveyard.

Fork Chapel is a lovely rural church in a bucolic little village setting. The cemetery, where the original church stood, is located about a mile away and is worth a visit. Many of Greshamville’s prominent early settlers are interred here. According to Georgia Places Names by Kenneth Krakow, Greshamville was named for an old fort built near the Davis Gresham settlement in 1786.

Sometime after the new church building was constructed, the old church building was demolished. In its place near the cemetery was erected a shelter, which attendees of the church’s annual homecoming made use of for quite some time. Now homecoming is celebrated every third Sunday in August, and it marks the beginning of the annual revival.