by Natalie Bradley, Flint Energies Community Connections Specialist
When you come in from Highway 90 entering Talbotton from the Taylor County area, there is this beautiful dark wooden church called Zion Episcopal Church, located at the corner of Washington Avenue and Clarke Street. For almost two years now, I’ve driven past it and have wanted to go in and learn more about this interesting place.
I am a lover of architecture, in particular historic churches, and this one caught my attention because it doesn’t look like a typical historic southern church in this area. I could also see that the church was loved and looked to be in impeccable shape, which really stands out in such a small community.
Luckily, just a few weeks ago, I was given a personal tour of Zion Episcopal Church by David and Katherine Johnson of Zion Church Restoration, Inc. and Mary Stevens from the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce. Volunteers, board members of the Zion Church Restoration, Inc. and community members have poured their heart and soul into restoring and taking care of this historic landmark and I enjoyed myself for over an hour learning all about Zion!
First, I want to share some interesting facts about the church and then we’ll delve into some personal history that really makes this rural treasure come to life.
Zion’s Construction and Restoration
The church dates back to 1848 and was founded by eleven families. They were able to fund the construction of the church along with the help of the Episcopal Bishop of Savannah, the church in Savannah and wealthy plantation owners, including some plantation owners from South Carolina. Zion Episcopal Church is a Tudor-Gothic style of architecture, featuring many fine details from the crenellated parapets on the roof to the triple-arched entrance. During a time when most of the rural churches were quite primitive in style, Zion also has detailed interior construction in addition to the exterior.
Each family had their designated pew, and you can still see the names carved in some of them while other pews were designated for guests attending church services. Zion also has an upstairs gallery where slaves were seated separately, where regular religious instruction took place, as was encouraged by the Bishop of the Diocese and Zion parishioners.
Zion was placed on the national register of historic places in 1974. At that time the church had not held regular Sunday services in decades, and this extraordinary piece of history began to show years of disuse. Thankfully a restoration project successfully occurred in the 1980s. By 2019 the outside of Zion was in critical condition, and it required over $300,000 of restoration work. The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta deeded Zion to the Georgia Trust, who then deeded it to Zion Church Restoration, Inc. In 2019, this group received the public participation grant of $100,000 from the Historic Columbus Foundation. Other foundations, including Flint Energies Foundation, as well as many individuals. gifted Zion with the additional $200,000, and restoration was completed in early 2021. That year Zion Church Restoration received the Chairman’s award for "excellence in restoration" by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, which is evident when you see the church in person. The work and care that went into the renovation is just exceptional!
In 2023, Zion raised an additional $27,000 to restore the 1850 Pilcher organ. I had the pleasure of being able to play this organ while I visited, and it sent chills down my spine to be able to hear such an old organ being played as if it were brand new.
Zion Church is truly a treasure in Talbotton, and is a wonderful place to visit, especially if you are a history buff. If you follow Zion Church Restoration, Inc., on Facebook, which I have linked here, you will find that they host a series of concerts, blues, festivals, and other events, in order to raise funds and awareness for the preservation of the special place continually.
It is evident from the amount of financial support the church has received that it is a treasure for this rural region, and they are serious about preserving, protecting and enjoying it.
Ruby’s story
The really intriguing part of this whole experience is that on September 15 of this year, I had a conversation on the phone with Ms. Ruby Jefferson. I’ve read about interesting stories of how people discover incredible things about their own history, how they’re connected to certain places, they find relatives they didn’t know existed, and it changes the course of their lives, but I’ve never had a personal chat with someone who has had such an experience.
Ruby Jefferson of Perry, Georgia, is a descendant of one of the founding family’s slaves and through some interesting developments, she is now a board member for Zion Church Restoration, Inc. Her story made me tear up and I cannot wait to meet her in person and give her a huge hug. What an amazing soul she is! Following I share some of our wonderful conversation to hopefully relay how important this historic church is to this community and the many people who are connected to it in all sorts of interesting ways.
Many times, Ruby drove by Zion Episcopal Church on the way to work and thought to herself, “I’d love to go in Zion and learn more about it,” but she never stopped. Until one day, she watched an episode of Historic Rural Churches of Georgia on Georgia Public Broadcasting that featured the church, and she picked up the phone and arranged a tour of the property.
She explains that “as she took a few steps into the slaves’ gallery upstairs, she completely lost it,” not expecting to feel such emotion. She said, “it felt like this energy or feeling of my ancestors waiting for me…and a feeling like they were saying what has taken you so long to come?” Ruby shared with me that she doesn’t have an ancestral home, and going into this space was the closest thing she could touch that her ancestors also touched and where they spent much of their lives. It made her really feel a connection with her ancestors. It made her really think about what they must have felt coming from Africa, enslaved and terrified, entering a new country with a foreign language and strange customs, and having to figure out this new life as slaves.
Around the same time that Ruby visited Zion for the first time, she took a DNA test and discovered on her grandmother’s side that she had a living cousin — her fourth cousin — out in Waco, Texas, traced from the Matthews family. Her name is Peggie Storey. Dr. Christopher and Susan Matthews were among the founding families of Zion in 1848, and Dr. Matthews brought Ruby’s ancestor as a slave with them from Charleston all the way to Talbotton. Peggie is a descendant of the Matthews family, and Ruby is one of her only living relatives through that family line.
On August 10, 2022, Ruby Jefferson and Peggie Storey met in person for the first time. As you can imagine, many emotions, history, and stories were shared between the two women, and they now consider each other family. What an incredible moment for these women that has also become a part of Zion’s long history and gives me chills thinking of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous speech in which he said, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
What a historical moment, truly!
Talbotton has a lot of rich history, like many of our rural communities, and I highly encourage you to come out and experience Zion yourself at the BluesFEST in May or at one of the concerts and events that take place there.
You can truly feel the lives of the people who have touched this place over the years. And perhaps, Ms. Ruby Jefferson will be there, and you’ll have the pleasure to talk to her in person and hear her beautiful story yourself!
This Sunday, December 3, I will be attending A Service of Lessons and Carols at 3:00 and enjoying the reception to follow. I know it will be a meaningful service and reception, and I am so excited to meet Ms. Ruby in person! I hope you’ll join me too and experience this beautiful place for yourself.
To find out about future events, please make sure to like and follow Zion's Facebook page here.
