About 1786, John Bush built a brush arbor as a community center for camp meeting at what was then called “Crackers Neck.” From this grew Liberty Chapel, the “Cradle of Methodism” for this section. In 1797, Rev. James Jenkins, a leader in the early days of Methodism who was then on the Washington Circuit including Greene, Taliaferro, Wilkes, Lincoln, Elbert, Hart, Franklin, Madison, and Oglethorpe Counties, preached here and reported in his Journal that, after a “fiery exhortation,” a man in uniform came down the aisle and fell at his feet, crying for pardon. Others followed and, according to Jenkins, the Methodist custom of “going to the altar” then began at Liberty Chapel. The meeting became so noisy, he continued, that it was a wonder the horses did not take fright. Most of the great men of early Methodism were identified with this church. Bishop Francis Asbury preached here several times and, in 1808, when the South Carolina Conference met here, he and Bishop William McKendree attended. At Liberty Chapel, Rev. Lovick Pierce was ordained an elder and Bishop William Capers was admitted as a preacher on trial.