Pleasant Hill Methodist

Towns County
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Org 1875
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Photography by Tom Reed

Pleasant Hill is our first church in Towns County, located along the North Carolina border in the beautiful North Georgia Blue Ridge Mountains. The church you see above was founded by James Calvin Ellis, born in 1826 in Iredell County, North Carolina. He moved to Cherokee County, Georgia around 1847 and married Elizabeth Susanna Wallace in 1850. He eventually moved to Towns County where he became a successful farmer and a leading citizen. The little church sits on land that was part of the Ellis farm and was donated to the church at its founding in 1875. Until 1964, the property was owned by the Methodist Church, but it then became inactive and went through a series of land transactions involving multiple owners. In 2003, 128 years after the original land donation, the church was returned to the Ellis family who have done a superb job of restoration and maintenance.

According to the family, the church burned sometime around the turn of the century but was rebuilt to its original condition, including the shake roof you will see in one of the subsequent photos. The most recent renovation was done in 2004 by the present owners, Jerry and Lucy Ellis. The church had been inactive for decades and was being used for the storage of hay until Mr. Ellis was able to acquire it and bring it back to it’s original condition. This simple structure was typical of the mid 19th century rural church architecture in this part of Georgia. Most of them are gone now and all of us owe the Ellis family our sincere gratitude for their loving stewardship of this wonderful example of our Georgia heritage. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and the above photo will attest to that. The simple structure along with the fieldstone markers is a fitting tribute to the tough and hard working people who moved into this part of Georgia so long ago to carve a life out of the mountain wilderness.