Midway, Georgia
Under the direction of the late Thomas G. Little, historical architect, Midway Museum, a raised cottage style house typical of those built on the coast in the 18th century, was patterned after homes which stood at Sunbury and at Riceboro. The home in Riceboro was sketched by Basil Hall on his trip through Georgia in 1828 and described as follows: "a frame-house, being made of timbers squared and fastened together, and afterwards covered with planks at the sides and ends, while the roof is either boarded or protected by shingles, a sort of wooden slate, two feet in length, and six inches wide. Almost all the houses in that part of the country have verandahs, or what they call 'piazzas'. " Since its completion, the Midway Museum has served as the pattern for numerous private reconstructions and renonvations.
Exhibits, documents, and furnishings placed in the Museum commemorate and reanimate the love of Liberty which distinguishes the Midway Society from the Colonial period through its last annual meeting in December, 1865.
The museum is owned and administered by the Midway Museum, Inc., a private non-profit organization. Overcrowded settlements and worn-out lands in South Carolina not being "capable of supporting the Gospel" among them, the Society sent representatives to consider the Midway district in Georgia. After a favorable report, the Society petitioned the Council of Georgia and received 31,950 acres of land. The Articles of Incorporation of the Society provided that those who took up grants should be members of the Society though not necessarily of the Church.
The first permanent Meeting House was erected in 1756, and the first service was held January 2, 1758. The Midway settlers were substantial people whose wealth was based on the cultivation of rice, indigo, and other crops. They held strong opinions and took an active part in the politics of the newly created St. John's Parish (1758). They colonized the entire parish, forming permanent settlements whose congregations were served by associate pastors from the main metting house at Midway.
St. John's Parish took an early stand for independence. Georgia's First Provincial Congress met January 18, 1775. St. John's Parish had previously assented to the Continental association and refused to take part in the Provincial Congress unless that body joined the association. As only five of Georgia's twelve parishes were represented at this Congress, little action was taken. When Georgia's Second Provincial Congress convened July 4, 1775, St. John's Parish was represnted by Midway men: James Screven, Nathan Brownson, Daniel Roberts, John Baker, Jr., John Bacon, Sr., James Maxwell, Edward Ball, William Baker, Sr., William Bacon, Jr., John Stevens, and John Winn, Sr. This congress elected delegates, Dr. Lyman Hall among them to the Continental Congress which was to meet in September. A year later, two St. John's Parish men, Lyman Hall (a Midway Church member) and Button Gwinnett, along with George Walton of Augusta signed the Declaration of Independence, Nathan Brownson, another Midway figure, served in the Continental Congress from 1776 to 1778, but was absent at the Signing. In 1777 because of this outstanding devotion to Independence, St. John's Parish along with St. Andrews and St. James' became Liberty County. Colonel John White posted about one hundred continentals with two pieces of light artillery at the Midway Church and constructed a breastwork just south of it, hoping to hold off Prevost until help arrived from Savannah. When General James Screven arrived with some twenty militiamen, the Americans moved their position 1 1/2 miles south of the Church. During the skirmish which followed, General Screven was wounded and captured; he died while in the hands of the enemy. Outnumbered, White retreated to Midway Church. He succeeded in slowing the British advance by a clever deception. He arranged for a fictitious letter ordering the retreat as a trap to fall into their hands. Informed that Fuser had not reached Sunbury and that the Colonials were planning a vigorous stand at Ogeechee Ferry, Prevotst retreated, burning Midway Church, houses, Negro quarters, and other buildings in the area. After the war, the Midway Society rebuilt the church and building destroyed by the British. The present church was completed in 1792. After a period of prosperity, however, the land was again laid waste by war. Part of General William T. Sherman's army under General Judson Kilpatrick ravaged the entire area in December 1864.
The Midway Church and Society produced an astonishing number of men in positions of public trust. The members and their descendants have furnished eighty-six ministers, seven foreign missionaries, governors, United States Senators, Congressmen, and Cabinet members. Among the Midway ministers were the Rev. Abiel Holmes, father of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the author, and grandfather of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes; Dr. I. S. K. Axson, grandfather of the first Mrs. Woodrow Wilson; and the Rev. Jedidiah Morse, geographer and father of S. F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph. General Daniel Stewart, a member of the congregation was the great-grandfather of Presendent Theodore Roosevelt. Five counties were named for Midway men: Baker, Gwinnett, Hall, Screven, and Stewart. Characterized by patriotism, public service and industry, the Midway Society and Church were unique in their influence upon Georgia's history. The interrelation of religious faith and public spiritedness, which made the Church and Society almost synonymous, produced outstanding leaders of state and national importance.
The text of this page was taken from a brochure "Midway Museum". All photos taken by Faye L. Dyess.
On August 28, 1754, a colony recently arrived from Dorchester, South Carolina, organized the Midway Society in a log meeting house on Midway Neck. Some of these people were descendants of a small group of Puritans who had come with their minister, the Rev. Joseph Lord, from near Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1695 to make a church centered community on the Ashley River in South Carolina. Midway was a continuation of their Dorchester Society, a congregationalist community in which Christianity and daily living were closely inter-related.
Delegates were appointed to the Second Continental Congress which was to meet in May of that year, but these men, feeling that they did not represent the majority of Georgia's citizens, did not attend. Georgia's failure to send delegates to the Congress cost her the good will of the other colonies. St. John's Parish indignantly curtailed trade with the rest of the province and even asked to be annexed to South Carolina. Being denied this request, St. John's Parish sent their own delegate, Dr. Lyman Hall, to the Continental Congress. 
Toward the end of 1778, the theatre of war was transferred to the Southern Provinces, and the British planned an invasion of Georgia from East Florida. General Augustine Prevost sent one force, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel L. V. Fuser, by sea directly to Sunbury, near Midway, and another, under Lieutenant Colonel Mark Prevost, by land to rendezvous with Fuser at Sunbury. Colonel Prevost's force set out in November, 1778, toward Sunbury, destroying and plundering the plantations in its path.