The following abridged history is from Smithville, Georgia: A Glimpse Into the Past (1976). “Sometime after the Civil War, a number of Methodist families living in Smithville
community banded together and erected a meeting house near the Sumter and Lee
County line, about one mile Northwest of Smithville. This building was by the side of
the Old Smithville-Dawson Road, near the present site of the colored Primitive Church.
The earliest official record of the Smithville congregation occurs in 1878 when the
South Georgia Annual Conference created the Dawson and Smithville Circuit. Rev. W.
M. Hayes was appointed pastor.

At the beginning of 1881, a new pastoral charge was created with Smithville as
head. The congregation was moved into town and erected a new house of worship on
Whitaker Street. This building set well back into the lot; its architecture was typical of
the day, featuring a spacious porch with wide columns across the front.

In 1912, the prosperous Smithville congregation erected a new building, featuring
a corner tower. Rev. N. H. Olmstead was pastor and was serving his second appointment to the Smithville Circuit. This structure on Whitaker Street was the home of the congregation until the end of World War II. At that time, the building had fallen into ill repair, due to wartime restrictions on materials and labor.

The congregation under the leadership of Rev. J. D. McCord boldly erected a
concrete-block building in a modified Gothic style on Church Street in early 1946. It
was dedicated in October of the same year by Bishop Arthur J. Moore.“