Climax Presbyterian Church

In its years at Westville in Lumpkin, many programs and weddings have taken place in this building-including a funeral service. Presbyterians were among the earliest immigrants to America. When Georgia was founded as a colony in 1733, individual Presbyterians were among the first arrivals. Highland Scottish troops, recruited by General James Oglethorpe to fight the Spanish in Florida, were the first group of Presbyterians to arrive in Georgia. By the mid-1700s Presbyterian churches had been established in the state and were active on the Georgia frontier.

In the 1830s several issues, including slavery, divided Georgia's Presbyterians into Old School and New School churches. In December of 1861, presbyteries from throughout the South met at the First Presbyterian Church in Augusta and organized the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America, which separated them from the national Presbyterian Church. After the Civil War, Presbyterians in the South became members of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, also known as the Southern Presbyterian Church.