Town of Oxford, Georgia Historic Shrine of the United Methodist Church (side 2)
Continued from side 1
Many prominent southern Methodists have been associated with the town and the college. Oxford was the longtime residence of bishop James O. Andrew, whose ownership of his wife´s inherited slave girl, Kitty, precipitated the division between northern and southern Methodism in 1844. Kitty´s cottage now stands beside the historic Old Church, built in 1841. From this sanctuary in 1880 Atticus G. Haygood, then president of Emory College, delivered a Thanksgiving Day sermon titled: ´The new South: Gratitude, Amendment, Hope´, which marked a turning point in race relations and social reform in southern Methodism and in the south. Allen Memorial Church, built in 1910, was named in memory of Young J. Allen, an 1858 Emory graduate who became the first Methodist missionary to China, serving from 1860 to 1907.
Oxford Historical Cemetery was a part of the original plan of the town. It is referred to as ´The Westminster of Georgia Methodism´. Bishops James O. Andrew, Atticus G. Haygood, and Warren A. Candler as well as eight Emory College presidents and many professors and ministers are buried here.
SHRINE NO. 16 GENERAL CONFERENCE,
THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 1972
Plaque courtesy Lat34North.com.
Original page, with additional info, here.
Photo credit: Byron Hooks of Lat34North.com.