Beaver Creek Primitive Baptist Church, Piney Grove, Houston County, Georgia (GA)

Beaver Creek Primitive Baptist Church
Houston County,Georgia

Present Day Church Building at Present Day Location on Sandefur Rd.

Beaver Creek Primitive Baptist Church was founded in the early 1800's. It was first located in Piney Grove (just south of present day Bonaire), Houston County, Georgia. After their second church building burned, it was relocated in around 1940 to Sandefur Road (near Houston Lake Community) land donated by J. H. Davis. The Piney Grove property was sold to the Penn-Dixie Cement Corporation.

While many church records were destroyed by fire, the Houston Home Journal reported the following have served as elders since 1895: J. R. Reynolds, J. M. Woodward, J. R. Hunt, Morgan Williams, C. M. Green, J. H. Chance, Geo R. Hunt, W. H. Hancock, and C. E. Darity, and E. C. Watkins. The following have served as deacons: J. M. Heard, J. B. Hunt, W. S. Farr, Oliver Boone, W. E. Andrews, J. Frank Hunt, D. L. Davidson, Gray Lewis, J. W. Perdue, T. D. Mason, and W. M. Akin.

At the Piney Grove location is a cemtery that seems to have long since been abandoned. Possible burials include the following:

Jesse Pollock
Onslow Co, NC ca. 1765
Died ca. 1832
Revolutionary Soldier John M. Pollock
August 27, 1835
1852 Jesse E. Pollock
Born 1831 Mary [E. or B.?] Pollock
Born May 19, 18[11 or 41?] ___ Watson
Died 1885

UPDATES From Vance Pollock:

Obituary From the SOUTHERN BAPTIST MESSENGER
Vol. V111 No. 5 Covington, Newton Co., Ga. March 1, 1858
Dear Brother Beebe: - I send you the following obituary notice of the death of brother LEWIS POLLOCK of Houston Co., Ga. He was born October 11th, 1802 and was baptized October 8th 1852, by Elder James G. Davis, and was ordained a Deacon in the church at Beaver Creek October 2, 1856, and departed this life August 8, 1857. Brother Elder James G. Davis, preached his funeral on the 9th previous to the time of his being buried from these words. "Well done thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Brother L. Pollock lived a pious life, and we believe he died in the full triumphs of faith. He has left a large number of relatives and friends to mourn his loss; and though we feel the loss of such a one, yet we believe our loss is his eternal gain. May the Lord bless the bereft widow and comfort her in all her disconsolate hours and resign her to the will of heaven so that she may have a right so say, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away and blessed be the name of the Lord. CORNELIUS BUIE

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"April 1st, 2007 visit to Beaver Creek Baptist Church Cemetery.

As noted previously, the cemetery is on county land, likely at the site of the original church building dating to at least 1828. The gravestones I saw and made record of were all from the 1840s and 50s. I was accompanied by Frank Middlebrooks who is a member of the church, now located on Sandefur Rd. a few miles away from this location.

On this visit, we did not find the stone for a Watson woman which Mr. Middlebrooks saw 11 years ago on this site.

Houston County deed book G page 105 reads:

8-1-1828 William Hathorn of Houston Co. to Jesse Pollock and Frederick Watson of Houston, Trustees of the Baptist Church at Beaver Creek, 2 acres whereon the Meeting House stands, a part of lot 9, 11th D., and the liberty of the use of the spring of water as long as said church is kept up at said meeting house. Witnessed by Edmund G. Pollock, Lewis Pollock and Alexander Smith, J.P. 12-29-1836. William (x) Hathorn. Rec'd 3-7-1837.
---

also:

Deed Book H Page 16.
Houston Co., Ga. Sup. Ct.

Plat of Beaver Creek Baptist Church Tract Lot 9, Dist 11. 2 Acres near NW corner. Surveyed by James A. Bryan, December 9, 1839. (Surveyors illustration follows).
---

While these records make no reference to use of the church property as a cemetery, there is a grave with a stone which dates the cemetery to at least as early as 1844:

Mary E. D. Pollock
May 19, 1844 - Dec. 6, 1844.

This grave was the furthest north marked grave in what must have been a Pollock family plot. The space of several graves south was a stone for:

John M. Pollock
Aug. 27th 1835 - Aug. 28th 1852.

Not more than two or three spaces south from this grave is a stone:

Pinkney J. Pollock
April 10, 1841 - Nov. 20, 1858.

The next space south, the last marked grave we found in this plot, is covered with broken stones marked:

Jesse F. Pollock
Sept. 2nd 1831 - Sept. 5th 1857.
and what would appear to be the footstone for that grave:
J.F.P.

This section of the cemetery is covered with sunken graves (15-20?) densely covered with small trees and briars. At least one of these Pollock stones was complete, perhaps 2 feet tall, and the inscription is grouped tightly at the top of the stone as if the lower portion were buried in the ground to hold the stone up. The others are broken in half just below the inscriptions and there is a base stone which may have held the "J.F.P." footstone up. I also observed pieces of broken stones sticking up at ground level near the Jesse F. and Pinkney J. graves.

Anyone going back to scour the graveyard should carry a strong small rake, as the ground is covered with a layer of leaves and soil, and gloves, long sleeves and clippers to deal with removing vines and briars which choke the spaces between the trees and surround the graves.

The county work road which was used to reach the landfill just beyond the ridge where the cemetery is located actually crosses over the top of at least two sunken grave-shaped impressions several yards south of the Pollock graves.

The graveyard is located to the left (east) of the county service road between two clearings, the second being the end of the road and perhaps a quarter mile from Old Perry Rd. The service road is gated and marked "No trespassing" on the west of Old Perry Rd. between Woodard Rd. and Wilson Rd. near Piney Grove.

It is easy enough to drive a vehicle to the first clearing, where the road becomes wet.

At the left of the second clearing behind some brush and grass, though not covered with the small trees like the Pollock plot, are the ruins of the Woodard family plot. This section is a horrible mess, though at one time it would have been a very fine monument. There are busted slabs of marble which would seem to have covered at least half a dozen graves, likely more, There are two standing end pieces which suggest that there may have been marble boxes erected over the graves supporting flat slabs with inscriptions. It would take a couple of strong folks to work through the rubble and try to make sense of this large plot. The slabs are fallen and scattered and look as if (not to suggest they have been) the plot were run over with a bulldozer.

I found one inscription on a slab:

James A.(?) Woodard
Born Aug. 7, 1843
died "about 6 years"

The fact that this child's birthdate is known, yet the only death information is a guess, literally inscribed "about 6 years", would lead me to believe that the burials made here were much earlier and that someone later had what would have been very expensive monuments raised there. I would guess that the Woodard plot stone and inscription dates from 1860-1885.

I collected crayon and newsprint rubbings of the 5 stones with information found here. I made a video of the actual drive from Old Perry Rd. to the site and of the graves. I also took a few sample photographs. Mr. Middlebrooks has a key to one of the padlocks on the gate along Old Perry Rd.

There is a bit of pink plastic ribbon strung around some trees on the left just above the first clearing along the service road marking what someone has guessed would be about where the cemetery starts. Right after the ribbon you can observe the first depressions which likely represent sunken graves. The ground is soft there, and damp and smelly. Deposits from the nearby landfill have apparently seeped into the area around the cemetery and caused it to deteriorate worse than it would have been in its natural state.

This is the most endangered cemetery I have ever encountered in many years of historical hunting.

...and I still believe it is the resting place of Jesse Pollock, Revolutionary soldier and original trustee of the church. See his will in the Houston County books dated 1832.

The three young men buried in the Pollock plot are undoubtedly now the sons of Lewis Pollock, born ca. 1808 and died some time after 1855, will recorded in Houston County. Lewis signed as witness to the church deed.

See the listing for the Lewis Pollock family in the 1850 Houston census.

I further believe that the mother of these children was Mary "Polly" Watson, who was likely the daughter of original church trustee Frederick Watson. Mary "Polly" is mentioned as the grandmother of Pinkney Daniel Pollock, Mercer University President 1898-1905, in one biographical sketch which I believe incorrectly identifies his grandfather as Morris (where it should have been reported as Lewis).

Looking at the family of Lewis Pollock in 1850, we find three of those sons buried here. It is quite sad to think of a family losing three grown sons so young within just a few years. One of the sons to survive, however, was James Greenberry Pollock, the father of a college president... named after his uncle Pinkney who died at 17 just a year or so before his birth."

POLLOCK Family Notes

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