Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

422 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
Darien having been obliterated by the Spanish wars, and the church at
Midway having ceased to exist as an active religious organization. But
the Independent Presbyterian Church at Savannah is without organic
connection with the Synod of Georgia. (4) In colonial times there was
a group of Presbyterian churches in Burke County, on Brier and Beaver
creeks. These afterwards united to form a single church in the town
of Waynesboro. There was also a Presbyterian community at Queens-
boro, on the Oconee River, a few miles to the south of the present town
of Louisville, near the site of a trading post afterwards known as
Galphinton. On the outskirts of the town of Washington, there still
stands an immense poplar under which the first Presbyterian evangelist
to be ordained in Georgia, Dr. John Springer, took the vows of ordina
tion, on January 21, 1790. Georgia was then a part of the old Presby
tery of Hopewell, in the Synod of South Carolina. This tree measures 155
feet in height. The circumference of the trunk is 28 feet, its diameter 9
feet, and the lowest branches are 50 feet from the ground, To state the
size of the tree somewhat differently, it is said that a man on horseback
stationed behind it is entirely screened from the view of persons on
the side opposite. This famous old landmark in Wilkes is not only one
of the largest but also one of the oldest poplar trees of the tulip-bearing
variety in the United States.
On January 21, 1790, the spreading boughs of this magnificent forest
giant formed the roof of God's first Presbyterian temple in the county
of Wilkes. At this time the Presbytery of South Carolina sent commis
sioners to Washington for the purpose of ordaining Rev. John
Springer, an educator of wide note in the early pioneer days. Either
for the reason that enclosed quarters were not to be obtained in the
town or -because the balminess of the surmner weather lured them into
the open air, the Presbyters of South Carolina decided to hold the serv
ices of ordination under the branches of the great poplar. It was quite
the common thing in pioneer days to hold religious meetings out of
doors.
The statement is often made by partially informed people to the
effect that the first Presbytery in Georgia was organized on this historic
spot. No such body ever met here. The whole of the State of Georgia
was at this time embraced in the Presbytery of South Carolina; and,
while the commissioners from the other side of the river met to perform
what was virtually an act of the Presbytery of South Carolina, they
did not constitute a meeting of the Presbytery itself. The historic
associations which belong to the Presbyterian poplar proceed from the
fact that it witnessed the first ordination ever performed in Georgia
under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church. There were ministers
of this denomination in Georgia prior to this time, but they were
ordained before coming into the state.
Smyrna Church, a time-honored old house of worship, which stands
in a grove of pines, on.the Augusta road, six miles from Washington,
was organized by this early evangel of the frontier.
John Talbot, the wealthiest land owner in Wilkes, was an elder in
Smyrna Clrarch; and, beside him, in the little graveyard at this place,
sleeps his distinguished son, Matthew Talbot, a former governor of
Georgia.