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Organized in 1819, this Church is an outgrowth of Grant's Meeting House, the first Methodist
Church building in Georgia, erected 5 miles E. in 1787. In 1820, the Methodists built the first
church building in Washington. It was shared by other denominations. In 1823, Rev. Alexander
Webster, first pastor of the Washington Presbyterian Church, was ordained there. A Methodist
Sunday School was organized in 1871. A Woman's Missionary Society, started in 1878, was the
first in the Conference. On the site of the first structure, a second, now the Masonic Temple, was
erected in 1882. In this building, erected in 1907, the first Methodist Men's Club in Methodism
was chartered in 1919, during the pastorate of Rev. G. S. Frazer.
Bishop Francis Asbury visited Washington many times during his 17 trips to Georgia. He held
the second Methodist Conference in Georgia in the log Courthouse, near the site of the present
Wilkes County Courthouse. Rev. Hope Hull and Rev. Lorenzo Dow were among the famous
pioneer Circuit Riders to hold revival meetings in Washington. Rev. Lovick Pierce, leader in early
Methodism, was the first recorded pastor of this church.
Located on Spring and West Liberty Streets in Washington, Georgia
GHM 157-20, 1958
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