Believed to be the oldest Methodists church in Laurens County is the old Dorsey church, now called Buckhorn church, probably because it is in the vicinity of Buckhorn creek. According to tradition the first house of worship was built by Seth Darsey, on what was known as the John Lord estate, called Bethsaida. (when he died in 1848, he was buried near the church, and a cemetery was started) Prior to the erection of the building, Methodist convened in the homes for services.
Methodism had come to Laurens county in the first quarter of the 19th century. This area was included in the Ohoopee Circuit, and Angus McDonald was sent through the country as a missionary. Till 1830 all Georgia Methodist Churches belonged to the South Carolina Congress. About the middle of the 4th decade, two middle Georgia conferences were made, the North Georgia and the South Georgia. The circuits had two preachers. Each preacher had about a dozen churches and preached twice each month at each appointment, preaching every day in the week except Monday. There annual salary was about $50. As there were no schools and no churches, they traveled with difficulty over blazed trails, to the far-apart log cabins of the settlers. Most of the time they made their way on foot from one pioneer cabin to another, holding services in the homes. Usually they were unmarried because the life they were forced to lead was too strenuous to be shared by a wife. The following experience was related by J. P. Knowles in the "History of Methodism" and is probably typical. "My cicuit abounded with rivers and creeks which in winter overflowed their banks, but never prevented the punctual fulfillment of my appointments. Sometimes they were swum on the back of my faithful 'Darby', at other times crossed in a dug-out. Women and children would walk miles with shoes and stockings in hand in very wet weather, putting them on before arriving at the church. Having lived mostly in the cities, the habits of my parish in the wiregrass region were rather novel to me. The whole family was often quartered in one room, but a more kind and courteous people I never saw. Some of my congregations were made up of the most wealthy and cultivated people in the state. My work included 28 appointments, so that I had but little time or opportunity for pastoral visiting and rest. My health, not very robust in early life - by horseback and exercise, eating sugarcane, and sleeping in well-ventilated houses, lighted and warmed by pine knots - astonishingly improved under my arduous labors." In the early part of the 19th century when land lots were drawn by the early settlers in western Laurens County and homes were built on these lots, the Methodist circuit riders came with fair regularity to minister to their needs. In 1824 a Methodist Society was organized in the area and a log meeting house was built on the church road, about 16 miles from the present county seat from Dublin. This is the site of the present church. In those days a road crossed the Chicken Road where the church was erected.
The distance from the Buckhorn creek was about one-half mile; a water hole in the creek was available for all members who desired to be immersed when they were baptized. All records of these early days of the church were destroyed by fire when the home of Mrs. J. R. Faircloth was burned. She had them in her custody in Dexter when this tragedy occurred; so the only written records date back to 1856. In this year, William H. Darsey, the son of Seth, made a deed of 2 acres of land to the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Around this time a tornado destroyed the original structure and another one of logs was erected. A framed building was constructed in the 1880's to replace the one of logs.
It was during this time, about 1883, the Lorenzo Dow, one of the most powerful evangelist of the Methodist Society, came through the section west of the Oconee. He declared that he had been ordered by John Wesley, in a vision, to preach to Georgia frontiersmen. He was a New Englander, who made 2 trips to Georgia, having been converted by Hope Hull, a pioneer preacher who visited New England. On his second trip to Georgia the Governor gave him a pass through the Indian County. He preached in the cabins of white pioneers along the Oconee and Ocmulgee Rivers and made a tremendous impact upon the Methodist ministry in the area.
Growth and inspiration came to Methodism in Laurens County, and the entire Dublin District, through the labors of another powerful minister. He was Reverend J. D. Anthony, loving known as "Uncle Jimmy, " or the "Bishop of the Wiregrass." Between the years 1879-1882 he was presiding elder of the Dublin District, which at that time, "embraced the territory now in the McRae and Dublin Districts, also Darien, Jesup, Hinesville, Taylor's Creek and Jonesville." This famous christened or baptized many of the residents of this area, and many of their descendants are still here. For more than 50 years he was connected with the South Georgia Conference and spent most of that time Wiregrass region.
For the most part, Methodist converts were made at camp meetings. People would gather and build a brush arbor at the meeting house and hold services for as long as two weeks at a time. The last such meeting at the Buckhorn Church was in 1914.
The present church building was erected in 1903, but many _______?________ to keep it modern and efficient. The brick veneer outside houses six Sunday School rooms and a large social hall in addition to the sanctuary. The oldest church register is from 1897. Then their was 66 men and 99 women enrolled. Today there are 180 members. Since 1975 there has been a full-time ministry. Other pastors, from 1869 to the present, are these:
Quay Cook (1975- )
John Deas (1974-75)
W. L. Peed (1970-74)
C. E. Croft (1966-69)
William F. Chidres (1965-66)
W. E. Allen (1961-64)
Carroll Tinsley (1960)
Clarence Newton (1956-59)
C. B. Studstill (1951-56)
I. M. McDuffie (1950-51)
John A. Godfrey (1944-49)
C. C. Long (1939-43)
O. H. Rhodes (1936-38)
C. J. Mallette (1934-35)
R. L. Harris (1932-33)
S. James Brown (1931)
Frank Gilmore (1930)
J. S. Willis (1929)
J. M. Thompson (1928)
Ralph Crosby (1927)
E. A. Sanders (1925-26)
M. P. Webb (1924)
H. E. Wells (1922-23)
J. C. Griner (1920-21)
Thomas H. Tinsely (1918-19)
D. S. Smith (1917)
George R. Stephens (1916)
L. E. Brady (1915)
Silas Johnson (1914)
C. S. Bridges (1912-13)
S. S. Bridges (1911)
J. W. Bridges (1910)
C. C. Lowe (1908-09)
J. P. Bross (1907)
J. P. Dickinson (1906)
L. A. Snow (1905)
H. C. Ewing (1905)
L. A. Snow (1903-04)
W. O. Davis (1902)
M. L. Watkins (1901)
E. L. Tucker (1899-1900)
H. C. Fontriss (1897-98)
Guyton Fisher (1896)
E. M. Wright (1895)
C. C. Hines (1893-94)
E. L. Phillips (1892)
Daniel G. Pope (1892)
E. L. Phillips (1890-91)
L. R. Allison (1889)
Gordon F. Roberts (1888)
J. G. Cooge (1887)
Daniel G. Pope (1886)
George M. Prescott (1885)
Daniel G. Pope (1882-84)
F. W. Flander (1881)
H. A. Hodges (1880)
Charlie A. Moore (1879)
Joseph Langston (1878)
G. B. Walter (1877)
W. F. Bearden (1876)
J. E. Rorie (1875)
Daniel G. Pope (1874)
W. D. Bussey (1873)
L. A. Darsey (1872)
H. C. Fentriss (1870-71)
J. J. Morgan (1869)
On September 27, 1975, and event was held at Possum Hollow on Highway 257 between Dexter and Chester. This was surely a unique happening because it was an arts and crafts festival with public speaking and auction, and music all designed to make money for the parsonage for the Buckhorn United Methodist Church. Spearheaded by Cecil Passmore Jr., the "Something '76" launched the Bicentennial festivities in Laurens County. According to local legends, the area selected for the fair was once thick with persimmon trees and, therefore, was a ground for opossums. Naturally hunters came to trap the animals, and the place got it's name. At the time of it's selection as a site for the event, however, it was pasture and woodland.
The theme of the fair was "God and Country." Originally
expected to attend was 4,000 visitors, including specially invited guests, U.
S. Senator Herman Talmadge, Representative W. S. Stuckey, Comptroller-General
Johnny Caldwell, Commissioner of Public Safety Herman Cofer, Commissioner of
Agriculture Tommy Irvin, Secretary of State Ben Fortson, Miss Georgia Teenager
Lynn Miller, and Miss National Teenager Lisa Lyon. Then when the day came,
people came and came and came. They came on the 27th, and they came on the 28.
Some 10,000 people came, and
when it was all over, Buckhorn United Methodist Church parsonage was about
$10,000 closer to it's goal of being paid for. Anyway, the building was
completed and occupied the next month.
From Chicken Road to Possum Hollow may not be many miles, but in 152 years Buckhorn Methodist Church has come a long way, and more and more can be expected as it continues in the work of the Lord.