1828

This is a record of activities of First Baptist Church of Washington, Georgia, during the church year shown in the title above and ending September 30 of that year.

The church elected Jesse Mercer as pastor on January 20, 1828, and he remained as pastor at the end of the year.

The church began in 1827 as arm of Phillips Mill Baptist Church.

The Town of Washington, Georgia, in the Ceded Lands of original Wilkes County, was 47 years old before a Baptist church was constituted within its boundaries.

James Armstrong, pastor of the Fishing Creek Baptist Church, could have been the leader in erecting a building in which to organize the Washington church. On March 10, 1826, with four others as trustees- Bolling Anthony, John M. Butler, William G. Gilbert, and Osborne Stone- a lot was purchased. These men are listed as "trustees of the Baptist Church in the town of Washington," with Armstrong as chairman.

On March 10, 1827, Phillips Mill Baptist Church minutes report the establishment of an arm in Washington with "James Armstrong and James Carter of Fishing Creek present." The first record of a building is found when the General Association of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia, held April 27, 1827, "convened in the house of worship just completed in the town for the Baptist Church."

Georgia Baptists: historical and biographical

 By Jesse Harrison Campbell:


6. The sixth session was at Washington, in April, 1827. The Flint River auxiliary was admitted as a constituent: John Reeves and Benjamin Willson, messengers. Fifty dollars were appropriated for theological works for indigent ministers, and J. Toole andThomas Walsh (lately a Methodist) were beneficiaries.

No detailed description can be found of the building which seems to have been last used for the centennial celebration of the Georgia Baptist Association in 1884.

The Phillips Mill minutes report a conference held at Washington on May 26, 1827, when several were received into the fellowship and one was dismissed. On December 8, 1827, the Phillips Mill minutes report that the "branch of the church at Washington petitioned to form a constitution and become a separated church." This was done on December 29, 1827, with James Armstrong as Moderator and Billington Sanders as clerk. The Washington minutes begin on this date and indicate that the newly-formed church held a conference on January 20, 1828, and called Jesse Mercer as pastor. His years as first pastor include a record surpassed by few pastors in Georgia. The church itself remained small. Minutes show 230 additions during his pastorate, with 135 of them black. Ninety-nine of these came by letter, mostly for the rural churches. Eighty-five of the blacks were by "experience."


The Georgia Baptist Association of churches met at Shiloh Baptist Church in Greene County on October  10-13 following the end of the church year. This church elected as messengers to that meeting the members shown as labels below.

The church letter reported  members gained by baptism: 9, gained by letter: 6, lost  by dismissal: 0 , lost by exclusion:  0, lost by death: 1, and total remaining 24.