You are looking at one of the most remarkable rural churches in Georgia. Located in the little hamlet of Jewell, not far from the Ogeechee River Shoals, Jewell Baptist is really the story of Daniel Ashley Jewell and his extraordinary accomplishments in this remote corner of Hancock County.
+ Continue readingDaniel was born in 1822 and migrated south from New Hampshire in the 1840s to seek his fortune. He found it on the shoals of the Ogeechee River when he founded a cotton mill in 1857 that came to be known as Jewell Mills. The mill prospered, and with it, the self-sufficient community of workers who settled in the village of Jewell. Daniel married Mary Shea, a local woman, and they had several children. One of his granddaughters, Ida Cason, later married Fuller Callaway in this church and became the matriarch of another great Georgia textile family.
As the village grew, so did the need for a church. In 1869, Jewell Baptist was established from the Long Creek Baptist conference. Services were first held in the local schoolhouse until Daniel Jewell funded construction of a permanent building, dedicated in 1870. Unlike most rural churches of its era, which were simple frame buildings, Jewell Baptist was built of handmade brick and modeled after the church in Winchester, New Hampshire, where Daniel was raised.
The church is a marvel of craftsmanship, with finely detailed carpentry and trims, and an unusual brick vestibule and belfry. When Daniel died in 1896, a memorial bell was cast in England by the royal bell maker and installed in the tower. Jewell Mills survived Sherman’s March but was destroyed by fire in 1927, ending the thriving mill village. Yet the legacy of Daniel Jewell lives on through this extraordinary church, lovingly maintained by its congregation. Daniel is buried in the cemetery across the road, where Rock Mill Methodist—fully restored today—also stands. The village of Jewell remains a jewel among Georgia’s historic treasures, with Jewell Baptist Church as its crown.