HISTORY OF PIERCE MEMORIAL METHODIST CHURH
Sparta has a very significant place in the history of the Methodist Church in America. Founded by Revolutionary War veterans (including 2 generals) from Virginia and South Carolina, the town was laid out in 1795 as the “seat of justice” for the newly formed Hancock County.
John Lucas arrived from Dinwiddie County, Virginia with the first settlers. He built a fine home in the Tidewater style and called it Old Dominion for his native state. He was a war veteran, the first merchant in the town, and a citizen of great wealth. Though an Episcopalian, Lucas was a follower of Devereux Jarrett, an Episcopal priest who was a friend of Methodism in the newly independent colonies. Methodism had grown in Georgia since the arrival of its founders John and Charles Wesley in 1735. They began evangelism on the coast and in Savannah until they left in 1737.
The first Methodist Church in Georgia was built in 1797 in Wilkes County. Sparta followed quickly with the arrival of evangelists like Bishop Francis Asbury. Though a frontier town, Sparta became the regular preaching place in 1799 for the Oconee Circuit.
The first church was built in 1805, the land being donated by Robert Flournoy, and a cemetery grew up around it. This is now Sparta City Cemetery. The first regular preachers arrived in 1806 when the South Carolina Conference held its annual sessions in Sparta. Lucas and a few other prominent men in town hosted the first Methodist Conference in Georgia at Old Dominion. Here was organized the Sparta Circuit, attended by Bishop Francis Asbury who presided over appointments. Jesse Lee, who is credited with planting Methodism in New England, also attended and asked to be assigned to the Sparta Circuit so as to incorporate Methodist in the South with his congregations located in the North.
Sparta Methodist Episcopal Church South was born. The first pastors were J.H. Mellard and Reddick Pierce. A great camp meeting was held three miles outside town (now the site of Knowles Chapel) to strengthen the church. Its association with the Pierce family has been a long and close one. Bishop George Foster Pierce served as an original Trustee of Emory University in Georgia. He became the first Georgia born President of Emory in 1848. His brother was Reddick Pierce, an original pastor of Sparta Methodist Church. Bishop Pierce led the community through the hard years of the Civil War.
A plaque was dedicated to the memory of Bishop Pierce by member Williams Stevens, an Englishman who came to Sparta. It now has a place of prominence in the Narthex of the current church.
As the town grew, so did the original building and in 1875 under the supervision of Pastor George Patillo, it was remodeled and improved. In 1891, it was “transformed into a thing of beauty…handsomely refitted and furnished at an expenditure of more than $600.” The reopening was celebrated with another large camp revival meeting. It is estimated that more than 100 new members were received.
A surviving photo of this church shows a traditional wooden Methodist Church, very Victorian in its design, surrounded by graves of the first settlers and members. It was still standing in 1906, when its centennial was celebrated, led by Pastor S.R. England. After serving the town for 104 years, in 1910, the building caught fire., and was totally destroyed. Fortunately a few items were saved, including some pages of the original membership rolls. Within a few weeks, a committee was hard at work on plans for a new church, to be built across the street in a lot originally planned to be the site of a parsonage.
A few months later, the corner stone was laid, and dedicated with a program, which included this hymn:
“On this stone now laid with prayer,
Let thy church rise strong and fair;
Ever Lord, thy name be known,
Where we lay this corner stone.”
The new church was stunning, built in the Byzantine style with a dome and covered in cream brick veneer. It boasted a two story annex with Sunday school rooms. Spacious and well suited for a town much larger than Sparta, members were proud of a building that would be adequate for many years to come in a much larger town.
The accomplishment of such a splendid building only lasted 17 years. It met the same fate of the original church in 1927 when fire once again destroyed the efforts of such devoted members.
Times had changed considerably. A world war and economic downfalls by 1927 left a congregation hard pressed to accomplish such an undertaking as it did in 1910. Nevertheless the determination and perseverance of Spartan residents soon produced plans for a new red brick and fire-proof building, designed in the Colonial Revival style. This time it included a basement for Sunday school rooms., and a two-story annex to the rear for other offices. The Great Depression was in its beginnings, but the basement was completed enough for services to be continued there.
Finances were fleeting until 1934 when the building committee elected new members under Rev. Edmund Rudisill. The heating system was installed, and by 1939 the current church was completed. The plans for the annex were dispensed with until the current annex was built in 1960 in a more modest one story.
The Methodist Church underwent four schisms in its 250 years in America. By 1956 Sparta Methodist Church South had become simply Sparta Methodist Church. It was renamed in honor of Bishop George Foster Pierce that same year. In 1968 it reunited with the Methodist Churches in the United States who formed the United Methodist Church. In 2024, the Methodist Church split along cultural lines, and Pierce Memorial Methodist Church joined the Global Methodist Community of churches. It is still going strong 208 years later.
