History of the Birmingham United Methodist Church (Pleasant Hill Methodist Church) By: Claude Stephens, a former member on June 3, 1952 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm Contributed by: Carole Johnson Email: In the 1830s there lived in what is now the Birmingham Community, one Thomas Jeremiah Darter, who was a practicing physician, merchant, and local Congregationalist preacher. In about 1835 this Congregationalist preacher organized a church,which was located two miles southwest of the present village of Birmingham, a short distance east of Little River. (now nown as Taylor Road). This Congregational Church was known as Darter Chapel of 18 years. About 1847 a large family by the name of Hook, from Orangeburge District, South Carolina, moved in the the vincinity of Darter Chapel. Some settled on the west side of Little River and some on the east side of the stream. In this family of Hooks was Dr. JCP Hook who lived near Darter Chapel and practiced medicine in the vicinity until the time of his death in 1872. Dr. Hook had a sister Mary who taught school in the vicinity for several years. These Hooks were devout Methodists. They, with the aid of Jonathan L. Pruitt and his two brothers, Frank and Taylor and perhaps others changed Darter Chapel into a Methodist Church about 1853 and named the church, Pleasant Hill Methodist Church. Dr. Darter became a member of the new Church. After the death of Dr. JCP Hook in 1872, the church was moved to the young and growing village of Birmingham (GA). The church was located on a beautiful two-acre tract of land donated by the community near the center of the village. The church in its new location served the community for a place of worship and a school. Johnny Johnson, a local Methodist preacher, educator, and later state senator, was one of the early teachers in this new school and church. In 1889 a new church building was erected on the same two-acre plat. About the time the new church was completed, a local Methodist preacher, educator, and promoter, Professor Lamont Gordon, came to the community from England. Professor Gordon with the help of the church and community, influenced the North Georgia Conference to build and support a school in the new, growing community. On this two-acre church plat, a "big", tow story building was completed in 1893. Professor Gordon was the first principal of this big and expanding school. In 1894, this school opened with boarding students from Big Springs, Orange, Alpharetta, Cumming and other points. After a few years, Professor Gordon moved on to another community where he built another school through the help of the Northern Methodist Church. Rev. J.C. Brand was sent by the North Georgia Conference in 1897 as a pastor of the church and superintendent of the school. Out of this school came a Baptist educator and preacher, Rev. W.J. Ballew, two prominent attorneys, one doctor, and several school teachers. (Harold and Edith Walker, Harold and Mary Steppe, Imogene Loggins, Annite T. Castleberry, and Louise Pruitt Rudasill Brown attended school here.) A few years after the turn of the century, the North Georgia Conference withdrew its support, and the school was turned over to the county Board of Education. The school had a rapid decline and in the course of time faded away. Just about the time the church was moved from near Little River to Birmingham, a family of Neeses, W.P. Neese, Mollie Neese Adair, Joseph P. Neese, and Dr. Neese moved into the community. These Neeses, with the help of J.D. Harris, Burnett Day, G.W. Holcombe (grandfather of Harold Steppe), and George Smith and their families put new life into the church. The Joseph P. Neese family has been a pillar of the church from the time it was moved to its new and present location until the 1950s. In 1941 a new brick church was built making the third or fourth church building. (Mr. Sam Darby of the community tells that the building got to leanin' bad, so they had to tear it down.) (Another sotry coming out of the community is that some of the wood from the old church was used to build one of the barns next to the church on the south side.) The church has witnessed many great revivals under the preaching of the Tilmans, Sullivans, Whitfiels, Singletons, Hughes, and other great men. (Some church members in 1985 remember stories that the Baptist church in this community used to hold meeting in the same building until their building was open and functional.) The church was growing so much, that in 1952 it was decided that a Sunday School annex was needed. A banker offered an unlimited loan if two church members would sign for it. C.C. Nix and Bill Merriman had enough faith to sign, so the present building was constructed and the loan was paid. The plat of ground on which the church is now located has been the center of various community enterprises for many, many years. NOTE: As of February 2003, I have not found any evidence of a Thomas Jeremiah Darter having been in Georgia. An Issac Darter and wife (no children) were found on the 1840 Gwinnett County census and were in the area by 1850 (Cherokee County, Milton was not yet formed). I have found no further evidence of Darter Chapel and would like to know. I have proven that the Hook and Pruitt families were very active in the early church. Jonathan Pruitt is buried in the church cemetery on Taylor Road as are Jacob and JCP Hook. In 1895 the deed to the cemetery is clarified with the cemetery deeded to the trustees of the church. There is a deed from PJ Wilson in 1871 for the present site of the church on Birmingham Highway. I am continuing to research county, community and family archives. Source: On file at the Pitt Library at Emory for Pleasant Hill/Birmingham UMC ---------------------------------------- Former Pastors/Circuit Riders for former Pleasant Hill Methodist Church and current name Birmingham United Methodist Church in North Fulton County, Georgia Compiled from Incomplete Records: 1848 Wm. A. Smith 1849 J.B. Wardlaw 1850 W.J. Cotten 1851 A. Wright 1855 John W. Burk 1859 George Allen 1860 William Brewer 1861 M.F. Molsby 1862 J. R. Gaines 1866 John Newell 1867 J.R. Parker 1871 B.E. Ledbetter 1872 Mac Harden 1874 Wm. Holbrook 1875 J.N. Myers 1876 R.L. Campbell 1877 J.J. Harris 1879 Perryman 1881 W.T. Bell 1883 A.J. Hughes 1884 E.H. Wood 1886 Jerry Reese 1887 J.G. Worley 1888 R.F. Smith 1889 C.C. Fleming 1890 J.F. Tyson 1892 A.J. Sullivan 1893 Wn. Singleton 1895 J.P. Erwin 1900 D.C. Brown 1903 E.G. Thomason 1905 J.W. King 1906 L.H. Ward 1909 L.B. Hughes 1910 L.E. Wright 1913 J.H. Bailey 1915 R.I. Johnson 1918 W.B. Hughes 1919 Fred Ray 1922 Harvey King 1923 J.L. Moore 1928 Elbert Davis 1929 Sewell Dixon 1930 Hoyt L. Gurley 1932 Newton Wise 1934 V.O. Gentry 1935 W.B. Mills 1937 T.E. Sherwood 1938 J.B. Ward 1940 Wm. E. Purcell 1949 Jimmy Riddle 1950 Robert Bringman 1951 Frank Ray 1953 John Sills 1955 Eugene Pelt 1958 Donald Cockburn 1959 B.L. Barton 1961 Wm. M. Winn 1963 M.P. DeLoach 1964 Charles Alvord 1966 G.T. Whittington 1967 Luther E. Cooper 1968 William Britt 1969 Harry Hawkins 1970 Marvin Wicks 1971 Linton A. Chapman 1973 Donald W. Crews 1974 Sherwood Keiser 1981 Freddy Boswell 1982 Russell Bean 1983 Harry F. Andrews 1986 David Unkles 1988 Larry Hannah 1990 Gerry Davis 1991 Ken Hall (June to Sept) 1991 Tom Salzer (Sept. to June 1993) 1993 John Wolfe *Until John Wolfe, ministers also served other churches in the North Georgia Conference as well. Early circuit riders were in as many as nine churches in the charge and had to travel as far as Dahlonega to North Fulton.