Female Membership | Male Membership
According to Luke Tate’s “History of Pickens County“:
“The first Baptist church and probably the first church of any denomination in what is now Pickens County was the one at Talking Rock. Land for this church was deeded by James Morrison soon after the Indians were removed in 1838…A log church house was built and the Baptists began to hold their services here in about 1839.
The first records of the Talking Rock Baptist Church, which have recently come to light, give the names of some of the earliest members. On October 5, 1839, the following persons joined this church: Dicy [Leodocia Sandlin] James, Eddy Gibson, Jane Phillips, Jane Robertson, Hannah Blalock, Malinda Jones, and Milly Dickson. On October 31, 1839, the following were taken in: David R. Blalock, Isaac Mullinax, and Charles James, deacons; William Evans, Aaron Robertson, Jacob Gibson, Richard Howard, Grief Williams, John [Shelton] James and Moses James. The early records show that a number of negro slaves were members of this church along with their owners.
The first pastor of the church at Talking Rick was Rev. Robert Jordan. Other early pastors were [Rev] Basil Harris, Jimmy West, B. M. Stephens, E[zekiel] Akins, Willis West, W. F. Fleming, Thad Pickett, J. R. Allen, William Cagle, Jim McHan, E. W. Allred, and a ‘Rev. Mr.’ Chastain.”
There are 875 records, separated by male and female members! Posted here are only the names of those who joined/were baptized prior to 1930, in the interest of keeping information about any current living members private. The printed heading at the top of each page says “This is the permanent church roll. Use Ink. Start Each Associational Year on Ne4w Page. Total additions and decrease in membership can be kept.”
On the left hand side there are 4 columns under MEMBERSHIP RECEIVED: Membership Number, Date Baptized, Date Letter Received, Date Experience or Restoration. Then there are columns for Name and Address (of which almost none are filled in).
On the right hand side there are 4 columns under MEMBERSHIP DECREASE: Decrease Number, Date of Death, Date Erased or Excluded, Letter to Place and Date. Pages have been transcribed with original spellings and notations. If there is a question mark (?) beside a date or name, it was almost unreadable. Numbering sequences are as the transcriber found them — and some numbers are skipped. The list in total has 1,025 records; unfortunately, records 576-725 (amounting to 5 sheets of names) was not included.