This congregation dates to 1844 and is the namesake of the surrounding community.
Hopeful Baptist Church
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My Grandpa is buried in that cemetary. Cliff Harvey was his name. He lived in the brick ranch on River Rd behind Aunt Telane and Joe Lee.
Was this the church Eli Holland ministered at in 1860s-1871?
The Davis family came to the area from Burke County about the time the church was founded. One of the oldest graves in the cemetery is that of T.R. Davis, whose birth date was 1788. Many of his descendants are buried here. When in Burke County, the family had been members of Hopeful Baptist Church there, and they brought the name for the church, and later the community, with them.
The old church in Burke County is very beautiful and worth a visit.
My Aunt Telane says I am related to everyone in the cemetary!!! I have family members for the Lee’s, gray’s Dodsons and am proud of my family from Hopeful GA!
The memories of this church will be etched in my mind for years to come. This is where I attended when visiting my grandparents during the summers. I went to VBS almost every summer there when I was young. I even remember the building of the new social hall. Oh gee, the memories are flooding back now. Camp Tucker, Mrs. Bagwell’s cats, the sandpile behind Mrs. Gray’s house, the thousands of daylillies that my grandmother planted behind thier house, Coca Cola and Stage Planks from the general store, being amazed at the number of peanut wagons parked under the sheds at the mill, bobwhites, the old cinder block “clubhouse”, the dirt road behind the clubhouse. Every memory I have of time spent in Hopeful with my grandparents is a treasure to me. I can’t think of one negative thing that occured during the years that I visited.
The church is beautiful and quite large for a rural church. I attended this church for many years from the age of 10 until about 17 or 18. The way the church is situated has always bothered me. The front of the church faces the cemetery and the back of the church faces the main highway that goes thru this community.
I have always wondered what the original roads were like when the church was built here.
The orginal road was in the front. When the road was paved from Camilla to Bainbridge they had to change the route(per T.R. Davis Jr.)
To Tom Robinson: You wont believe the comments that I got as a child when I told people I lived in Hopeful. Some people were just cruel and said I guess you are Hopeful that you will get out of that place one day. Actually it is a very nice community and has great people and a great history.
I was baptised in this church when I was in the ninth grade. I think the year was 1986.
You have to love and respect a community whose name is ‘Hopeful’…
MY grandfather’s family is buried in the cemetery across the road from this church.