CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ga. — A church in Crawford County started 162 years ago.
Cool Spring Baptist Church now sits across from where it was originally founded.
Lawrence Lucas is now 62. He began going to Cool Spring at the age of ten, and has heard the history passed down through generations.
"E.L. Dukes was the owner of the land and you've got to know at that time it was probably a plantation because houses used to be all up that hill and people was working for these people," he surmised.
George Walker is a deacon at the church.
"Tina Jackson was the originators name that actually started the church," he said. "The church actually started as a bush arbor and that's across the road from where we are sitting now."
Today, the property across from Cool Spring Baptist Church where Tina Jackson invited other people to worship with her is residential. The original tree is gone and power lines cross the woods.
"Very few churches, especially black churches was in the area at that time," Walker said.
Walker says kids used to walk or ride their bikes down a dirt road to get to Sunday school at Cool Springs.
Lucas also remembers those times.
"We had fans in the windows and had a pot bellied heater in the middle of the church," he recalled.
They both refer to an older building that was torn down in the early 90's in favor of the current sanctuary.
"On the first Sunday in November we'll be burning the mortgage here at 11:00 a.m.," Walker said with a smile.
They'll say goodbye to a $450,000 debt, which is a big deal for a small country church that took a hit during the pandemic.
The congregation still does social distancing out of concern.
"We as deacons inside the church did a lot of work ourselves," Walker said.
And they are not done. Walker and Lucas are helping to bring back the old baptismal pool that sits down a short wooded path about a thousand yards from the church.
Cool Spring is named after the water that flows through the pipes.
Both men were baptized in the concrete structure.
"I remember I was about ten years old I remember it being cold," Lucas said.
Tina Jackson would no doubt be proud of the way her humble congregation grew and worked together to form a house of worship that is well positioned for the future.
Gallery: An inside look at Cool Spring Baptist Church
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