Moss Methobapterian Chapel
Location:
N 34º 32.663 W 084 º 51.934
Pine Chapel Road
Gordon County, Georgia
This church is located out in the county, but it definitely meets the definition of vanishing. The roof is falling in, windows have been removed, and the masonry is crumbling. A descendent of the builder told me that it was probably going to be bulldozed. She was going to try and recover the marble plaque before the church vanishes.
I first encountered the crumbling church on a birding trip out on Pine Chapel Road. It was the plaque that caught my eye and tweaked my interest. Cut into the stone was the following inscription:
MOSS METHOBAPTERIAN CHAPEL
BUILT BY
C.L. MOSS 1937
For a few minutes I sat and wondered about this denomination. I could not say that I had even been in or heard of a Methobapterian church. I hate puzzles and word searches, but I was able to see the obvious roots of the name. Metho - came from Methodist, Bap from Baptist, and - pterian from Presbyterian. Boy did I think I was smart. I asked a couple of my friends that are more blessed in theology and the such and they had never heard of a church with this kind of name. Time passed and I had just about given up on learning anything more about the little church until I met a descendent of C. L. Moss out in front of the church. I did not ask her name – shame on me -- but the information she gave was very valuable. The chapel was built by her great grandfather Columbus L. “Lum” Moss as a nondenominational church to serve the people that worked on his farm. Mr. Moss was quite the agricultural giant in Gordon County. He was also a very influential politician serving at the local and state levels. The farm was the Old Governor Brown farm and apparently was very large. In 1866 Governor Brown’s Gordon County holdings were in excess of 1500 acres. Mr. Moss’s holdings must have been equally impressive. It was said that over forty families once lived and worked on Mr. Moss’s farm. So, while Mr. Moss and family attended Calhoun First Methodist Church the spiritual welfare of his workers was being attended to in a chapel dedicated to the honor and memory of his parents.
Sources
Bicentennial History of Gordon County, Georgia, 1976, Edited by Burton Bell
Joseph E. Brown, About North Georgia, http://ngeorgia/com/ang/JosephEBrown, assessed 1/15/09
Location:
N 34º 32.663 W 084 º 51.934
Pine Chapel Road
Gordon County, Georgia
This church is located out in the county, but it definitely meets the definition of vanishing. The roof is falling in, windows have been removed, and the masonry is crumbling. A descendent of the builder told me that it was probably going to be bulldozed. She was going to try and recover the marble plaque before the church vanishes.
I first encountered the crumbling church on a birding trip out on Pine Chapel Road. It was the plaque that caught my eye and tweaked my interest. Cut into the stone was the following inscription:
MOSS METHOBAPTERIAN CHAPEL
BUILT BY
C.L. MOSS 1937
For a few minutes I sat and wondered about this denomination. I could not say that I had even been in or heard of a Methobapterian church. I hate puzzles and word searches, but I was able to see the obvious roots of the name. Metho - came from Methodist, Bap from Baptist, and - pterian from Presbyterian. Boy did I think I was smart. I asked a couple of my friends that are more blessed in theology and the such and they had never heard of a church with this kind of name. Time passed and I had just about given up on learning anything more about the little church until I met a descendent of C. L. Moss out in front of the church. I did not ask her name – shame on me -- but the information she gave was very valuable. The chapel was built by her great grandfather Columbus L. “Lum” Moss as a nondenominational church to serve the people that worked on his farm. Mr. Moss was quite the agricultural giant in Gordon County. He was also a very influential politician serving at the local and state levels. The farm was the Old Governor Brown farm and apparently was very large. In 1866 Governor Brown’s Gordon County holdings were in excess of 1500 acres. Mr. Moss’s holdings must have been equally impressive. It was said that over forty families once lived and worked on Mr. Moss’s farm. So, while Mr. Moss and family attended Calhoun First Methodist Church the spiritual welfare of his workers was being attended to in a chapel dedicated to the honor and memory of his parents.
Sources
Bicentennial History of Gordon County, Georgia, 1976, Edited by Burton Bell
Joseph E. Brown, About North Georgia, http://ngeorgia/com/ang/JosephEBrown, assessed 1/15/09
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