The history below was contributed by Clay Ramsey, whose research into Georgia’s rural churches often uncovers remarkable stories. This account, adapted from his article for the Winter 2020 issue of Georgia Backroads magazine, includes one of the region’s most infamous legends—a blood feud between the Stanleys and the Tilleys that led to murder, witchcraft accusations, and tragedy in the North Georgia mountains.

On December 19, 1857, Martin Free deeded three acres near the Toccoa River to a group of believers who organized Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, predecessor to Tilley Bend Baptist. A log church was built the next year from timber cut on the Isaac Davis farm, and a congregation was formed south of Morganton. By 1879, a school operated in the church building. Dedicated teachers once chased off moonshiners running a still nearby. The school eventually built its own building in 1903, but closed in 1926.

In 1899, Benjamin M. Tilley deeded land to the church. When the Toccoa Electric Power Company built a dam in the late 1920s, the original church site was submerged under what became Blue Ridge Lake. The congregation moved to higher ground on Old Dial Road. Fires in 1950 and the late 1980s damaged the building, but the congregation rebuilt each time, adding indoor plumbing after the second fire. In 1958, they reorganized as Tilley Bend Baptist Church. Today, they remain a small but faithful congregation.

The church is also tied to a darker history. Around 1900, tensions between the Stanley and Tilley families turned violent whenthe  Stanleys opened fire on the Tilley Church during services, killing the minister and several worshippers. In retaliation, Tilley men attacked the Stanley settlement, killing several, including the husband of Elizabeth Jane Tilley Bradley’s daughter. Elizabeth, of Creek ancestry, was accused of placing a curse that caused every infant in both communities to die within a year. She was lynched and buried in the Tilley cemetery, facing west. When infant deaths continued, her sister-in-law, Mary was also killed, though she was given a Christian burial.

Today, the cemetery holds many unmarked or rough stone graves, and some believe the ground is haunted—its past echoing in both the church and the surrounding hills.