In 1868, the Nickville community in Elbert County had no Black churches. That year, the white Webb family gave brothers Elzie Moon and Byrd Eberhardt two acres for a church. Both had been enslaved by different owners, which is why they had different surnames. The deed read, “As long as there is a Rock Springs CME Church, you will have two acres of land.” The church was named for a nearby spring whose water flowed between two rocks, a natural landmark still present today.

The first one-room sanctuary served the community for 15 years before Antioch Baptist was built nearby. Both congregations shared the Rock Springs cemetery until the 1980s. Rock Springs was formed only three years after the Civil War, meaning its founders were all born into slavery. Most could not read or write, and many had only recently chosen surnames, some taking the names of former enslavers, others selecting new ones. Like most freedpeople in rural Georgia, the founders worked as sharecroppers or domestic servants. Census records and death certificates from the late 19th and early 20th centuries reveal their gradual progress, gaining literacy, learning trades, and, in some cases, joining the Great Migration north.

The Rock Springs cemetery holds many early congregants, including formerly enslaved people and numerous unmarked graves. The surname Rucker, tied to Joseph “Squire” Rucker—the largest slaveholder in Elbert County and Georgia’s first reported millionaire, appears frequently, reflecting the area’s intertwined histories.

The present church building, constructed in the 1970s, replaced the original structure but preserves its memory. Members have safeguarded a painting, an old photograph, and pews from the first church. These artifacts, along with the cemetery, tell a powerful story of resilience, faith, and community-building in the post-Civil War South. Rock Springs remains one of the oldest African American congregations in rural Georgia, worshiping on the same site for more than 150 years—a lasting testament to the strength of its founders and the generations who followed.