Pilgrims Rest Primitive Baptist Church was organized in 1904 with just eight members and remained a member of the Alabaha River Association throughout its entire history. It was part of a group of churches often referred to as the Wiregrass Primitives.

The Wiregrass Region of the southeastern United States is characterized by longleaf pine, scrub oak, and sandy soils. This region stretches from the coastal areas of southeast Georgia and northeast Florida inland to southeastern Alabama. The name comes from a type of coarse grass well adapted to these sandy pine and oak habitats.

The roots of Primitive Baptist history go back to the 1830s and 1840s, when disagreements arose among Baptists over missions and other practices not explicitly mentioned in Scripture. The resulting schism led, by 1844, to two distinct groups: the New School Baptists (pro-mission, later becoming the Southern or Missionary Baptists) and the Old School Baptists (anti-mission, later known as Primitive or Regular Baptists). The term Primitive has often been misunderstood over the years. In this context, it simply means “of early times; original; first of the kind; very simple”—not backward or regressive, as sometimes mistakenly assumed.

Another split occurred during Reconstruction following the Georgia Homestead Act of 1868, which allowed individuals to restructure their debts. Among Primitive Baptists in southeastern Georgia, anti-homesteaders believed that taking advantage of this law was a breach of contract, even if legal. The disagreement was so divisive within the Alabaha River Association that it resulted in two factions:

• Pro-homesteaders, led by Elder Reuben Crawford of Shiloh Church, known as the Crawfordites

• Anti-homesteaders, led by Elder Richard Bennett of the Rome Church, known as the Bennettites

Pilgrims Rest was aligned with the Crawford faction, which had congregations in Brantley, Charlton, Ware, McIntosh, Pierce, and possibly other counties in Georgia, as well as in northern Florida. Today, only four Crawford faction churches remain active, served by just three elders.

Pilgrims Rest Primitive Baptist Church ultimately disbanded in 1964, marking the end of its 60-year history as part of this distinctive religious tradition.