Descendants gather at Fort Stewart to honor historic Pleasant Grove AME Church

FORT STEWART, Ga. — Generations after their historic church was forced to relocate, descendants of the Taylors Creek community returned to Fort Stewart on Saturday to walk the sacred grounds of their ancestors.

Liberty County Board of Commission Chairman Donald Lovette says nearly 100 descendants, community leaders, and historians gathered for a memorial visit to the original site of Pleasant Grove AME Church.

Organized on June 29, 1869, Pleasant Grove AME served as a cornerstone for African American families in the Taylors Creek settlement. The congregation was forced to relocate in the early 1940s when the U.S. government acquired the land to construct Camp Stewart—now Fort Stewart—ahead of World War II.

Hinesville Mayor Karl Riles, a descendant of the church’s first pastor, delivered remarks alongside Georgia State Rep. Al Williams, local historians, and community leaders.

The emotional centerpiece of the memorial came from 94-year-old Rev. Henry Frasier, Sr., a former Taylors Creek resident who shared personal memories of his family’s displacement and what it meant to step foot on his ancestral land once again.

The ceremony concluded with a ceremonial wreath laying, a tour of the historic cemetery, and children taking turns operating the church’s surviving hand pump.