Wayfair Primitive Baptist Church (not to be confused with Wayfare Primitive Baptist in Echols County) stands as the only known Crawfordite meetinghouse in McIntosh County. Tucked among longleaf pines and palmetto palms, it reflects the austere architectural tradition of the Wiregrass Primitive Baptists: plain, unpainted, rectangular buildings without steeples, porticoes, or decorative features of any kind. The congregation was organized in 1873 with sixteen members and disbanded in recent years. A small cemetery adjoins the church, with its oldest marked grave dating to 1927—though the remoteness of the area and the devastation after the Civil War suggest that older, unmarked burials may exist. Local lore even hints that hurricanes in the 1890s may have forced the relocation of the church, though that remains speculation.
The story of Wayfair cannot be told without understanding the Primitive Baptist tradition. Since their beginnings in Georgia, Baptist congregations organized themselves into associations. By the 1830s, a deep division emerged over missions, Sunday schools, and other innovations not explicitly mentioned in scripture. The “New School” or Missionary Baptists supported these efforts, while the “Old School” or Primitive Baptists rejected them, holding fast to the principle that worship and church life must remain simple and scripturally grounded.
An additional fracture came during Reconstruction, when the Georgia Homestead Act of 1866 allowed debt restructuring. Many Primitive Baptists opposed participation, but some—including the son of Elder Reuben Crawford—did. When Elder Richard Bennett condemned the practice, a bitter split formed in the Alabaha River Association. By 1871–72, the Crawford and Bennett factions had formed, and Wayfair Primitive Baptist, founded in 1873, aligned with the Crawfordites.
For the Crawfordites, simplicity was both theological and practical. They believed comfort and ornamentation distracted from worship, insisting that their meetinghouses reflect the unadorned creation of God. While other Primitive Baptist churches eventually added glass windows, paint, and conveniences, the Crawfordites maintained stark sanctuaries without embellishment. Today, only a handful of these austere meetinghouses survive, and Wayfair is among them.
Unfortunately, little written history remains. Primitive Baptist churches kept minutes at the local level, and with no larger denominational hierarchy, records often vanished when a congregation disbanded. Still, the persistence of Wayfair into the late 20th century speaks to the strength of its founders’ convictions. Among the Crawfordite “articles of faith” was a commitment to baptism by immersion, communion, and even the washing of feet—rituals they believed must be perpetually observed.
Wayfair Primitive Baptist Church, simple in its form but rich in its story, stands as a rare example of Crawfordite faith and practice in Georgia’s coastal wiregrass country.