Lexington Presbyterian Church

One of Georgia's most historic land-marks is the old Presbyterian Church at Lexington, in the sacred precincts of which repose two illustrious Georgians: George R. Gilmer and Stephen Upson. It was organized in 1785, two years after the Revolution, by a noted pioneer evangelist, the Reverend John Newton; and, unless an exception be made of the Independeny Presbyterian church, of Savannah -- never in organic connection with other religious bodies of this faith -- it is probably the oldest Presbyterian church in the Synod of Georgia. At Darien there was a church prior to this time; but it suffered complete extinction during the Spanish wars. At Midway there was a center of Presbyterianism, but the church at this place was organized upon Congregational lines.

Mr. Newton, who was the first Presbyterian minister to preach the gospel on the frontier belt of Georgia, served the church as pastor for twelve years. When he died, in 1797, he was buried in the old church-yard; but, one hundred years later, in 1897, his body was taken up and re-interred in the Presbyterian cemetery, at Lexington. Mr. George C. Smith, the present clerk of the session, assisted Mr. Newton's grandson in accomplishing this removal.

The original agreement between pastor and people, executer in 1785 when Mr. Newton first took charge, is still in the possession of the church. The munificient salary which the pastor was to receive, according to the terms of this contract, was fixed at fifty pounds and twenty shillings per annumn. Mr. Smith is the custodian of a precious keep-sake in the nature of a little book, containing the texts from which this pioneer divine preached while pastor of Beth-salem church, from 1785 to 1787; and he also treasures a record of baptisms, to which great value attaches. Both of these genuine relics of the early days of Presbyterianism in Upper Georgia were sent, through Mrs. C. A. Rowland, of Athens, to the Jamestown Centennial Exposition, where they attracted much attention.

It was at Lexington, in 1828, that the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, now located at Columbia, S. C., was first established, and the house in which this famous school of the prophets was organized was still standing in 1912 -- after the lapse of eighty-four years.

There will be found elsewhere in this work a statement to the effect that the first Presbyterian minister ordained in Georgia was the Reverend John Springer, whose ordination occurred in Wilkes, under the famous poplar. The apparent contradiction may be easily explained. Mr. Newton preceded the latter into Georgia by at least six years; but he was already an ordained minister when he entered the State, while Mr. Springer was not until the dramatic scene in which he figured in 1791 occurred.

From Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, Vol. I, by Lucian Lamar Knight, The Byrd Printing Company, Atlanta, Georgia, 1913