Corinth Primitive Baptist Church belongs to the Wiregrass Primitive Baptist tradition, a small but enduring religious group concentrated in a few counties of south Georgia’s Wiregrass Region. These churches are instantly recognizable by their plain, unpainted wooden structures. Decorative embellishments are intentionally absent, as members believe they detract from the true purpose of worship. The movement began in the early 1800s and remains active today, still rooted in the same geographical area.

Wiregrass Primitive Baptists are organized into Associations, which are sometimes divided into smaller factions. These factions often emerge from differing interpretations of Primitive Baptist theology. In the 1870s, the Alabaha River Association split over the Georgia Homestead Act, passed during Reconstruction. Elder Reuben Crawford and his followers supported the Act, while Elder Richard Bennett and his supporters opposed it. The Crawford group became known as Crawfordites. Due to their austerity, several Crawfordite meeting houses, including Corinth, survive much as they were in the late 1800s.

Over time, further divisions occurred, and Corinth Primitive Baptist Church became part of the Elder Sammy Hendrix faction, which broke away from the Crawford line in 1952. Corinth was Elder Hendrix’s home church, and he also led Emmaus and Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Churches in Ware County. When he died in 1987, the Hendrix faction dissolved. He had been the only elder during their years apart from other associations, and without a pastor, no one could occupy the pulpit or administer church ordinances.

At his funeral, Elder Hendrix’s casket was placed on the church stoop while the congregation sang hymns. Because the faction was not in fellowship with any other churches, no outside elder could lead the service. After a viewing, he was buried in the churchyard cemetery.

When the Hendrix faction folded, its churches disbanded. Mount Olive was later “taken up” again by the Alabaha River Association (Crawford faction) and restored to fellowship in 1996. Most of the remaining Hendrix members eventually rejoined the Crawford group, bringing this chapter of Wiregrass Primitive Baptist history full circle.