Pleasant Hill is our first featured church in Towns County, located along the North Carolina border in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia. The church was founded in 1875 by James Calvin Ellis (1826–1900), a native of Iredell County, North Carolina, who moved to Cherokee County, Georgia in the 1840s and later settled in Towns County. A successful farmer and respected citizen, Ellis donated part of his land for the establishment of Pleasant Hill Church.

For nearly 90 years the property was owned by the Methodist Church, but after the congregation became inactive in 1964, the land passed through several hands. In 2003—128 years after its founding—the church was returned to the Ellis family, who lovingly restored and preserved it.

Family history recalls that the church burned around the turn of the 20th century but was rebuilt to its original condition, even down to the distinctive shake roof seen in early photographs. Its most recent renovation was completed in 2004 by Jerry and Lucy Ellis, who acquired the abandoned building when it was being used to store hay. Thanks to their stewardship, the church once again reflects its original mid-19th-century form.

The simple, unadorned structure is typical of the rural churches built in this part of Georgia during the late 1800s. Most of those sanctuaries have been lost, making Pleasant Hill especially important. The surrounding fieldstone grave markers further testify to the rugged lives of the early settlers who carved a community out of the mountain wilderness.

Pleasant Hill Church is not just a building but a living link to the people who settled Towns County. Thanks to the dedication of the Ellis family, this piece of Georgia’s heritage has been preserved for generations to come.