[3] Its location three miles distant from Marietta seems trivial today, though undertaking that journey along dirt roads in a horse-drawn buggy would have been arduous even under ideal conditions.
The inter-denominational nature of the Chapel reflected its group of Trustees, which included Episcopalians (Irwin and Starnes), Presbyterians (Nesbitt), and Baptists (Ward).
Though the structure fell into disrepair, the trustees and local residents continued to meet and worship on the property, in an effort to hold to the original, legal document.
[6] Some local residents still gathered and worshipped on the site until the official formation of the Friends of Nesbitt Union Chapel (FUNC), a non-profit task force of the Cobb Land Trust, in 2002.
[7] A wood-framed, pointed-arch door with marble lintel provided entrance to the building in the center of the north façade, facing Powder Springs Road.
In A Woman's Place: 52 Women of Cobb County, Georgia, 1850-1981, Mary Anne Irwin refers to "the two to three rooms of the Old Union Chapel School," where she taught for over thirty years.
Situated at over 1000 feet above sea level and blessed with abundant natural springs, Marietta provided a cool respite from the oppressive summer weather.
[9] Some of these summer visitors chose to relocate permanently to Marietta, including Robert Taylor Nesbitt, a descendant of one of Georgia's most distinguished families.
Her stepfather, General Robert Taylor, was one of Georgia's wealthiest planters, owning estates in Savannah and Morgan County, totaling over 17,000 acres at the time of his death.
Like Martha Berrien's father, Hugh Nesbitt was a physician, though he gave up his practice to manage her considerable plantation holdings in Early County.
Following his death in 1879, she split her time between the home of her granddaughter in Griffin and her son's Marietta estate, Farm Hill, where she became an influential figure in local social and civic circles.
[11] Robert Taylor Nesbitt (1840-1913) assisted in the management of his family's plantations from an early age, taking on greater responsibility after his father died when he was fifteen.
He continued to manage the family holdings in South Georgia until the lingering effects of a bout with diphtheria and the rigors of his military service took their toll.
Despite his lack of formal legal education, Irwin made a significant, lasting impact on Georgia's judicial system, as one of three commissioners appointed to prepare a code of laws for the state.
A chapel with an active membership clearly existed on the site prior to 1886, since the deed itself includes transfer of "the building known as Union Chappel [sic].
While no birth or death date is recorded for Hughes, a grave in the Roswell Methodist Cemetery roughly corresponding to the correct period bears the same name.
An October 1886 article in The Southern Cultivator and Dixie Farmer provides additional details, stating: "strange to say, at the beginning of this year, the chapel was once more destroyed by fire."
Several additional facts lead to a conclusion that the 1886 deed merely formalized and gave legal standing to the existing functions of the Chapel and the roles of its leaders.
She sharecropped the Atkinson farm, moved to her father's homeplace on Powder Springs Road, and taught school at Union Chapel for more than thirty years.
Miss Irwin also wrote a social column, focused on events in the Union Chapel community, for the Marietta Journal, beginning in 1894.
An April 1954 article in the Cobb County Times recounted how Miss Irwin salvaged the Chapel bell and her pleas for help from the community to restore the building.
The history of the Phoenix Club, in which Hugh N. Starnes served as Secretary, is outlined in the October 1886 issue of The Southern Cultivator and Dixie Farmer.
Written by "A. Phoenix," the article states that the club was founded by a group of Marietta farmers in August 1883, in a meeting at Union Chapel.
"[19] Organizations like the Phoenix Club played an important role in rural communities during the mid-late Nineteenth Century, as part of a national agricultural reform movement.
The agricultural reform movement in the South and more broadly, across the nation, depended on a network of farmers, scientists, and publishers, disseminating information through journals, local meetings, and fairs.
Robert Nesbitt would eventually be elected State Commissioner of Agriculture and author a monthly column on farming issues in the Marietta Journal.
Another original trustee, Hugh O'Keefe Nesbitt Starnes, boasted even more impressive credentials in the field of agriculture, graduating with a degree in the subject from the University of Georgia.
The formal study of agriculture was relatively new in Georgia at the time, having been introduced to the University curriculum in 1872, when the school was designated a federal land-grant institution.
In 1887, the University established the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and, the following year, the Georgia Experiment Station in Griffin, a research facility studying soil erosion and fertilizers.
In The Southern Cultivator, "A. Phoenix" notes that in 1886, there were twelve agricultural clubs in Cobb County, prompting the creation of a journal, The Phenix Agriculturalist.