Old Summerour Church

Old Summerour Cemetery is on Old Summerour Church Road in Crandall, Georgia. The community was named after the Summerour family who owned land there. Old maps of Murray County show a chapel there. The church that is remembered by most people now living in Murray County is a later church. It, too, was very old. It was built as, or became, a Methodist church.* Summerour Methodist Church was located less than a mile west of the old chapel, on Old Summerour Church Road. The little white-framed church was built in the late 1800s and stood for 105 years. Across the road from it is Summerour Methodist Cemetery. (My great aunt had a son buried there). One year, the church survived a tornado that knocked the building off of its corner stones, but didn't do too much harm, and it was placed back on a better foundation. Summerour Methodist Church had simple-but-pretty purple, textured stained-glass windows. On sunny days, the church was filled with a pleasant, pink-tinged light from the windows. The church was sitting empty in the 1970s and '80s. I remember that some of the windows had been broken by vandals. Amazing Grace Baptist Church renovated the building and began to hold services in the little church some time after that. There were enough stained-glass window panes left that they were able to form a purple cross in each window by putting the glass in the center panes only. The little church was a landmark ~ its steeple was visible from a long way down the road. Sadly, the church building was destroyed by arson in the 1990s (as I recall). Amazing Grace built a new church on the premises, and it is very like the old church, though not quite as pretty. Amazing Grace also has a new cemetery behind the church. The church and cemeteries are about 1 1/2 miles from Cohutta Springs. *I'll try to research and clarify some of these things as I go!