Prayer in the Grove: Old Camp, Shiloh, and West Georgia’s revival story

An awakening tradition, close to home

The great awakenings can seem to belong to distant places and famous preachers. Here in Carroll County, church histories and contemporary newspapers preserve something closer: neighbors making room in their lives for extended worship, prayer, preaching, and the hope of spiritual renewal.

Georgia’s camp-meeting tradition grew during the Second Great Awakening, roughly 1790–1830, and continued long afterward. Old Camp and Shiloh belong to that later story. An arbor sheltered the congregation; the buildings called tents were often permanent wooden cabins where families stayed. These gatherings also gave scattered rural households time together. [2]

How Old Camp became “old”

Turner placed Old Camp’s last camp meeting in 1866, citing a later reminiscence. She connected the name Old Camp with Shiloh’s establishment as a campground in 1867. The older church continued after its camp meetings ended. [1]

Shiloh’s own archived history, compiled by Mrs. Rob Alexander, offers another detail: when New Salem near Mt. Zion dissolved in 1867, members brought their membership and building material to Shiloh. The account describes a larger church and places the first camp meeting in 1867 or 1868. [3]

That difference leaves the exact first year open. It also reminds us that a congregation’s beginning, a new building, and the opening of a campground are separate events. The story already contains a striking act of continuity: people carrying materials from one church community into another. [3]

A wagon ride into the meeting

In September 1878, J. W. Gardner left Carrollton with three companions in Bill Benson’s spring wagon, pulled by two mules. They laughed, sang, and discussed the cotton crops along the road. Gardner was going to Shiloh to report for The Carroll County Times. He arrived about half an hour before sundown and found people visiting around the tents. [4]

His account moves from that cheerful journey to serious preaching. On Saturday night, he heard a sermon on future punishment by a preacher named Bond. Gardner described people approaching the altar seeking salvation and church members responding with praise. These are the impressions of a sympathetic eyewitness, preserved in a report written while the meeting was still underway. [4]

He also distinguished what he had heard himself from what others told him. Of one later sermon he missed, he reported only its favorable reception. That small admission helps us read his account with care. [4]

The neighbors argued about the numbers

A year earlier, the newspaper had carried another Gardner report on Shiloh. A follow-up in the September 28, 1877 issue challenged his attendance estimate. The correspondent, signing as J. A. R., claimed at least 3,000 people were present at eleven on Sunday. [5]

The same correspondent reported fifteen people received into the church and an unspecified number of conversions, treating those as distinct results. These are contemporary reports, not independently checked totals. Their distinction is useful: attendance, membership, and a profession of faith describe different things. [5]

Even then, a large crowd did not come with a reliable head count. We can preserve the excitement without making one participant’s estimate more exact than the record allows.

A meeting could end with disappointment

The most revealing voice may be the least triumphant. In August 1885, a Burwell correspondent signing as J. A. R. wrote that he had spent nearly a week at Shiloh. He praised the preaching’s force and earnestness, yet regretted how little seemed to have been accomplished and described local religious life as being at a low ebb. [6]

This was a believer’s disappointment, not a dismissal of the gathering. He expected more than a well-attended event or an able sermon. His candor matters: the people who kept the tradition could also recognize seasons when the renewal they hoped for had not widely come. [6]

The year Old Camp remembered

Turner identified 1905 as a particularly memorable revival year at Old Camp. She wrote that W. O. Butler served for one year and received 44 members. That is a retrospective membership figure; it does not establish 44 conversions at one meeting. [1]

A contemporary newspaper supplies a separate glimpse ten years later. On July 29, 1915, The Carroll Free Press reported that a ten-day revival at Old Camp had just closed. It named pastor W. O. McMullan, described strong interest, and reported additions to the church without giving a number. [7]

The two accounts belong beside each other, with their dates attached. The 1915 report supports Old Camp’s continuing revival history; it does not independently verify the remembered events of 1905.

More than a gathering place

The story also survives in the arrangement of a community. In her 2002 University of Georgia preservation thesis, Claudia Head Deviney described Shiloh’s church, cemetery, and campground, with a historic school building and store nearby. She saw a crossroads community worth understanding together. That is a dated survey, not a statement of present building conditions or public access. [8]

A church, a place to stay, a school, a store, and a cemetery trace needs that extended beyond the annual meeting. Their proximity gives us a reason to ask about ordinary life as well as memorable sermons: who taught, who welcomed visitors, who cared for neighbors, and what endured after everyone went home.

For Christians, that last question deserves particular care. Ephesians 2:8–10 places salvation in God’s grace, received through faith in Jesus Christ, with good works following as its fruit. Galatians 5:22–23 describes the Spirit’s fruit in people’s character. Those passages guide our reflection; an old newspaper cannot establish the condition of every heart. [9] [10]

These records preserve earnest prayer, reported conversions, growth, and disappointment in particular church communities. They do not establish one sweeping awakening across all West Georgia. They give us something worth remembering on its own terms: neighbors seeking God, and witnesses who left enough detail for us to listen carefully.

What would help us learn more

Turner acknowledged missing records, including the original church register. Her history combines records and remembered testimony. The 1941 recollection she cited for the last camp meeting has not been recovered in this research. [1]

Our date-only searches of Georgia Historic Newspapers returned no digitized Carroll County newspaper pages for 1905. That is a gap in the available archive, not evidence against the revival account. A surviving membership register, dated letter, diary, or newspaper held elsewhere could help establish more.

We make no claim to be the first to find these records. The contribution here is bringing several voices together and keeping their differences visible. If your family or church preserves a relevant document or photograph, the source-and-correction link below offers a way to share it for review. Please include where it came from and permission to use it.

Sources and further reading

Sources reviewed October 18, 2026. Bracketed numbers lead to the supporting records below. Dates and measurements describe the historical record.

1. Laura Haygood Turner, History of Old Camp Methodist Church, Carrollton Georgia (1951)
   Pitts Theology Library, MSS 028, Box 20, Folder 12. Foreword; printed pp. 2–3 and 24 (PDF pp. 6–7 and 29). The 1905 total and prayer memory are retrospective. Scanned text inspected.
2. Claudia Head Deviney, “Camp-Meeting Grounds,” New Georgia Encyclopedia
   Published 2006; revised 2018. Secondary context for the Second Great Awakening and camp-meeting buildings. Its statewide history does not establish the results of a particular local meeting.
3. Mrs. Rob Alexander, Shiloh church history, Carroll County (archived typescript)
   Pitts Theology Library’s North Georgia Conference church histories, pp. 1–2. The typescript combines records, informants, and memory; it bears 1950 but includes later ministerial entries. First camp meeting given as 1867 or 1868. Scan inspected.
4. J. W. Gardner, “Shiloh Camp Meeting, 1878,” The Carroll County Times, September 1878, p. 3
   Columns 4–5; Digital Library of Georgia. Scan inspected. Archive date: September 20; printed masthead: September 21. The sermon’s printed Bible citation should be Matthew 25:46. Attendance figures are estimates.
5. “Billow Brevities,” reported by J. A. R., The Carroll County Times, September 28, 1877, p. 3
   Column 1, Georgia Historic Newspapers, Digital Library of Georgia. Scan inspected. Follow-up challenges Gardner’s attendance estimate and reports fifteen church accessions alongside an unspecified number of conversions.
6. “Burwell,” reported by J. A. R., The Carroll Free Press, August 21, 1885, p. 3
   County News, column 4. Georgia Historic Newspapers, Digital Library of Georgia. Scan inspected. The short quotation preserves the correspondent’s assessment; the archive marks the newspaper image as public domain.
7. “Successful Revival at Old Camp Ground Church,” The Carroll Free Press, July 29, 1915, p. 1
   Column 3 near the bottom. Georgia Historic Newspapers, Digital Library of Georgia. Scan inspected. Contemporary ten-day meeting report; no total of additions given.
8. Claudia Head Deviney, From Spirit to Structure: A Study of Georgia’s Historic Camp Meeting Grounds (2002)
   University of Georgia, Master of Historic Preservation thesis, printed pp. 105–106. Describes the surrounding community and illustrates Shiloh’s church and arbor. Research used a full-text copy; the survey does not confirm current conditions.
9. Ephesians 2:1–10, King James Version
   Biblical basis for the closing Christian reflection: grace and faith, with good works as their result. This is theological reflection, separate from the archival findings.
10. Galatians 5:22–23, King James Version
    The fruit of the Spirit concerns character; attendance figures alone cannot establish it.