This one is a sad reminder of what happens when you forget about history.

Located in what is now Montezuma, is an old church that is sometimes known as Twin Church,  on Twin Church Road.  As the decades have moved on, rumors began to swirl about the “haunted activity” within this church.  We’ll get to what is rumored about it shortly. First, of course, we share the history.

In the 1830s, Montezuma was just a little stagecoach stop by the name of Travelers Rest.  According to HRCGA, a man named David Jones spent a lot of money buying up land in the area after the local Native Americans were forced out and a lottery of the land began.  Jones actually gave up some of his land that eventually established Poplar Baptist Church (1832) which was becoming Travelers Rest Methodist Church.

The two churches shared the same sanctuary and cemetery  (hints the name Twin Church Road) until finally the baptist church built its own building next to Travelers Rest Methodist.  This is where is gets sad, but history must be presented.

In 1884, the then Travelers Rest Methodist Episcopal Church was deeded over and became the Travelers Rest Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.  The cemetery began to become segregated.  The change wasn’t officially recognized until late 1889.  After that, construction was added to the old church building making it tower the way it does today. 

It’s not clear when, but the “colored” title was later changed to Christ.  Much like the current status of the Methodist Church over today’s pressing issues, there was a split in the upper church over slavery and later, segregation.  Fortunately for all of us, those two subjects are nothing but history today.  We do know that its final congregation service was held in 1994, which is the year the church became forgotten.  Time and nature has now taken over both the building and the cemetery. 

Unfortunately, as we’ve come across many times before, there is not much known about the congregation or their history.  This is more than likely in part because it became an African American church during a very difficult period in their past and our nation’s history.  Little is known about the people in the cemetery behind the church as well.  It’s all been taken over by forest.

So, what are the claims of haunted happenings?  Nothing specific has come out of the area, but general tales of noises, apparitions and shadow figures have emerged.  It has always been a local stop for teens and paranormal groups due to its creepy structure and abandoned cemetery.   In fact, even in the daytime if you were to drive by it you may not notice it.  All of these are just allegations and more than likely fabrications.  We must remind you that it is illegal to be on these grounds at all without the permission of the owners.  Any attempt to visit it during the day or night should be considered trespassing and we condemn it strongly.  The structure is unsafe as well.  We did not visit nor should you.

Hey!  We hope you enjoyed this story about a well-known legend in Montezuma.  We hope we have presented this to you in such a way where you will not forget the terrible, uncomfortable parts of our history and to always fight to prevent it from ever happening again.  Also, we wanted to encourage you to never visit the location.  Instead, visit https://www.hrcga.org/church/travelers-rest/ where we got this information from to learn about how you can give back to forgotten churches in Georgia.

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