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I
GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 119
the time when the old fort rose in the wilderness to protect the infant settlement.
Says Doctor Williams, formerly rector of the parish : * "It was appropriately
named for the great pioneer Apostle, since it stood on the frontier line of civilization
in Georgia, and was not only the first church but for over fifty years the only church
of any kind in Augusta. Its rectors were of course missionaries of the Church of
England. The first of the number was the K'ev. Jonathan Gopp who came to take
charge in 1751. He found the conditions very difficult, lived in constant fear of
an Indian invasion, and wrote somewhat doleful letters, but he held services at
regular intervals, and, encouraged by the better class of people, he carried the gospel
into the neighboring country, within a radius of thirty miles. He was succeeded
in 1756 by the Bev. Samuel Frink, a delicate man, who, in spite of ill-health, went
everywhere, re-enforcing his sermons by the wholesome power of example. Next
in 1767 came the Eev. Edward Ellington, a missionary in the severest sense of the
word. He was seldom at home, except on Sundays, and frequently journeyed into
the wilderness for more than a hundred miles. He was followed in 1771 by the Eev.
James Seymour, who was rector of St. Paul's throughout the vicissitudes of the
Eevolutionary War.
"During the struggle for independence the fort was three times taken and retaken
and Mr. Seymour saw the church appropriated first by the Americans as a barracks
and then by the British for other military purposes. The parsonage house he will
ingly allowed to be used as a hospital for sick soldiers. The old churchyard became a
battlefield, drenched with the blood and sown with the bones of the slain, and the
church itself was practically destroyed by the fire of an American cannon mounted
upon a tower thirty feet high and raking the whole interior of the fort. At this time,
having been occupied and enlarged by the British, it was called Fort Cornwallis; and
it was this stronger fortification which was besieged in 1781 by the Americans, under
'Light-Horse Harry' Lee, father of our own general, Robert E. Lee. Hunted down
by a mob and driven into a swamp, because of his loyalty to England, Mr. Seymour
escaped after many privations to Savannah. When hostilities were over, he was in
vited to return, but he engaged in other wovk and never came back. Meantime, the
church and the 'glebe had been confiscated by the State. The property of St. Paul 'a
then comprised 300 acres. When the land was sold, the proceeds were given to the
Trustees of the Kichmond Academy, and' in 1786 the church was virtually rebuilt by
the town authorities. While Episcopal clergymen still officiated in St. Paul's, the
church was denied titles both to the building and to the ancient burying ground. In
fact, in 1804, the church was rented for five years to the Presbyterians and it was
not until 1818 that the Legislature of Georgia tardily restored the property to the
Episcopalians." Soon after the transfer was made, the present handsome old
edifice was built, in 1819, at a cost of $30,000, under the rectorship of the Eev. Hugh
Smith. He was succeeded in 1832 by the Eev. Edward E. Ford, who ably served the
church for thirty years, dying on Christmas eve, 1862, and at his request he was
buried under the altar of the church. Dr. Wm. H. Clarke Was then rector for sixteen
years, after which at his death he was given like honors of interment. Dr. Williams
became rector in 1878 and served the church with great usefulness for 28 years, at
the expiration of which time he resigned his office to labor in another field. He was
succeeded by the present rector.
Dr. Williams preached his farewell sermon on December 2, 1906. At the same
time a tablet was erected in St. Paul's Church by the vestry, commemorating the
events of which it became the historic center in Colonial times. Lettered thereon
is the following inscription :
This Tablet commemorates the founding of St. Paul's Church
A. D. 1750, nearby the King's Fort in the town of Augusta, in the
Colony of Georgia, under the English Crown.
Also the faithful services of its Colonial Rectors : Eev. Jonathan
Copp, 1751; Eev. Samuel Frink, 1765; Eev. Edward Ellington,
1767 ; Eev. James Seymour, 1771-1781 ; Missionaries of the Church .
of England and of the Society for the Propagating of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts.
L. L. Knight in ' ' Georgia 's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, ' ' Vol. I.
Story of St. Paul's Parish," a pamphlet, by Eev. Chauneey C. Williams, D. D.