According to a local newspaper article, Oostanaula United Methodist Church was once one of the smallest congregations in Floyd County. At one time, only five members attended services, and pastors from other churches traveled in to lead worship. Today, the 144-year-old church on Battey Farm Road has experienced a revival, with Sunday attendance now averaging 60 to 70 people.

Methodist archives record that an indenture was made on November 29, 1871, by Solomon L. and Joanna E. Pope, formerly of Crawford, Georgia. Charter members included Jonathan Cowan, Caleb White, Marcellus L. Troutman, Henry B. Pope, Andrew J. Watters, James S. Troutman, and S. J. Henley, along with Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Pope. The Pope family donated the land for both the church and the cemetery. Local history also connects Solomon and Joanna Pope to Joanna Troutman Pope, celebrated as the “Betsy Ross of Texas” and the “Lady of Goliad.” In 1835, 150 soldiers from middle Georgia marched to Texas to aid in the fight for independence from Mexico. When they passed through Knoxville, Georgia, 17-year-old Joanna, the daughter of Colonel and Mrs. Hiram Baldwin Troutman, presented them with a Lone Star flag she had sewn from her silk skirts. The flag was given to Colonel William Ward on the steps of the Troutman Inn, later known as the Harris Hotel.

That flag flew during the Battle of Goliad and was later recognized as an early version of Texas’s official flag. Today, Joanna Troutman rests in Austin, Texas, beside a bronze statue of herself sculpted by Pompeo Coppini, a lasting tribute to her role in Texas history. From its humble beginnings to its renewed vitality, Oostanaula United Methodist Church continues to stand as both a house of worship and a keeper of remarkable stories that reach far beyond Floyd County.