Uchee was one of the oldest white settlements in the Chattahoochee Valley before and after the removal of the Indians, with land deeds between whites dating back to 1832, the year Russell County was founded. The town took its name from an Indian name for a nearby creek, and in its early years it was a cultural, political, and religious center where three academies were established: Good Hope, Spring Grove, and Andrew’s Chapel. Among the pioneers there was Nimrod Washington Long, Russell County’s first member of the Alabama House of Representative. On this lot stands Good Hope Baptist Church, the oldest continually active church in Russell County, constituted July 29, 1837. Its present building, like that of the Methodist church, was constructed in 1857 by L.S. Johnson, and the two are the oldest continually used church structures in Russell County. Good Hope began with sixteen original members bearing the names Jelks, Covington, Miles, Davis, Turner, Wallace, Ivey, and Thomas, along with a slave of E.C. Thomas, and its congregation grew rapidly as the church became a wellspring of Baptist activity in the county.