The church began in 1827 as arm of Phillips Mill Baptist Church.
The Town of Washington, Georgia, in the Ceded Lands of original Wilkes County, was 47 years old before a Baptist church was constituted within its boundaries.
James Armstrong, pastor of the Fishing Creek Baptist Church, could have been the leader in erecting a building in which to organize the Washington church. On March 10, 1826, with four others as trustees- Bolling Anthony, John M. Butler, William G. Gilbert, and Osborne Stone- a lot was purchased. These men are listed as "trustees of the Baptist Church in the town of Washington," with Armstrong as chairman.
On March 10, 1827, Phillips Mill Baptist Church minutes report the establishment of an arm in Washington with "James Armstrong and James Carter of Fishing Creek present." The first record of a building is found when the General Association of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia, held April 27, 1827, "convened in the house of worship just completed in the town for the Baptist Church."
No detailed description can be found of the building which seems to have been last used for the centennial celebration of the Georgia Baptist Association in 1884.
The Phillips Mill minutes report a conference held at Washington on May 26, 1827, when several were received into the fellowship and one was dismissed. On December 8, 1827, the Phillips Mill minutes report that the "branch of the church at Washington petitioned to form a constitution and become a separated church." This was done on December 29, 1827, with James Armstrong as Moderator and Billington Sanders as clerk.
The Washington minutes begin on this date and indicate that the newly-formed church held a conference on January 20, 1828, and called Jesse Mercer as pastor. His years as first pastor include a record surpassed by few pastors in Georgia. The church itself remained small. Minutes show 230 additions during his pastorate, with 135 of them black. Ninety-nine of these came by letter, mostly for the rural churches. Eighty-five of the blacks were by "experience."
Jesse Mercer had the qualities of statesmanship in a high degree. He played the leading role in the organization of the Georgia Baptist Convention for collective counsel and co-operation, in the founding of Mercer University for the training of ministerial and lay leadership, and in the purchase and publication of The Christian Index from 1833 to 1840. This publication was later given to the Georgia Baptist Convention and is the oldest continuing religious newspaper in America. His Cluster of Spiritual Songs, many of which were produced by him, went through several editions and was a worthy contribution to American hymnology. An exceptional biography has been written of Mercer entitled, A Piety above the Common Standard: Jesse Mercer and Evangelistic Calvinism.
Other pastors and some of their accomplishments outside the church and association include the following:
Dr. N. M. Crawford served as president of Mercer University, 1854- 56 and 1858- 66.
Dr. H. A. Tupper left Washington to become secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Dr. J. J. Brantley and S. G. Hillyer were both professors at Mercer University.
Dr. Homer L. Grice held the earliest Vacation Bible Schools of the Southern Baptist Convention at the Washington church and became head of this work in 1924 as the first secretary of the Vacation Bible School Department at the Baptist Sunday School Board. He is also the author of the "Pledge to the Bible" still widely used today.
Dr. D.V. Cason developed relationships with blacks in the Georgia Association and later became head of this work with National Baptists in the Georgia Baptist Convention.
Albert W. Huyck Jr. was instrumental in developing Penfield Christian Home into a part of the Georgia Baptist Convention. He has been chairman of trustees for Tift College and a director of the Alumni Association of Furman University.
William Johnson maintains two blogs dedicated to historical research concerning our pastors and church: http://www.pastorswfbc.blogspot.com &http://www.historywfbc.blogspot.com.
Pastors of First Baptist Church - Jesse Mercer (January 1828 - September 1841)
- C.F. Sturgis (September 1841 - August 1842)
- N.M. Crawford (December 1844 - October 1845)
- L.J. Roberts (October 1846 - October 1848)
- V.R. Thornton (October 1848 - May 1853)
- H.A. Tupper (June 1853 - February 1872)
- B.W. Whilden (April 1872 - July 1873)
- I.M. Springer (April 1874 - April 1875)
- J.J. Brantley (January 1876 - April 1877)
- H.A. Whitman (May 1878 - December 1880)
- S.G. Hillyer (August 1881 - May 1887)
- W.M. Harris (June 1887 - December 1891)
- A.L. Tull (March 1892 - July 1893)
- J.L. Gross (September 1893 - September 1899)
- F.W. Barnett (December 1899 - December 1901)
- E.J. Forrester (October 1902 - December 1905)
- D.W. Key (January 1906 - February 1912)
- W.S. Dorsett (September 1912 - January 1915)
- Homer L. Grice (September 1915 - September 1924)
- S.H. Bennett (January 1925 - July 1930)
- W.T. Evans (October 1930 - February 1935)
- D.V. Cason (June 1935 - June 1939)
- Waymon C. Reese (November 1939 - September 1945)
- Raymond Collier (December 1945 - January 1947)
- John C. Busby (June 1947 - December 1952)
- Law M. Mobley (March 1953 - September 1957)
- Thomas O. Kay (January 1958 - March 1965)
- Montague Cook (October 1965 - September 1969)
- J. Harold Rowland (October 1969 - June 1973)
- Albert W. Huyck, Jr. (June 1974 - October 1997)
- John M. Childers (January 1999 - October 2005)
- Klay A. Aspinwall (October 2008 - Present)
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