A few years ago, we highlighted Cave Spring, Georgia, and learned about a community within the Cave Spring area called Chubbtown. I was utterly fascinated with the history of this community. So when Clemmie B. Whatley, Ph.D., SPHR, contacted me and wanted to share the story of Chubb Chapel United Methodist Church, I was happy to share it with you.
Chubb Chapel United Methodist Church is about five miles from Cave Spring in a community called Chubbtown. The town was a self-sufficient African American community founded pre-Civil War during the mid-1800s. The Isaac Chubb family, who migrated from North Carolina, plus other sons and daughters born in Morgan County, Georgia, developed the community. The Chubbs were farmers and craftsmen whose industry and thrift enabled them to accumulate considerable property, gins, mills, houses, and other buildings.
Chubb Chapel became a part of Floyd County, Georgia’s official record on August 8, 1870, when the church trustees purchased a plot of land from Henry Chubb and brothers for $200. The church plot contained an acre, more or less. Later Alfred Chubb, son of Henry Chubb, sold another few feet to the church for a frontage parking lot. Clemmie (Sams) Chubb also donated property for a fire hall, which is now a building owned by Chubb Chapel, increasing the acreage to over 2 acres.
The Gothic Revival structure of Chubb Chapel has changed very little over time with the addition of bathrooms and a choir area. Lighting, air conditioning, heating, and ongoing maintenance, including several painting and rewiring projects, have provided additional life to the church and sustained it.
During the late 1800s, the church was an integral part of the Chubbtown community, covering over 1280 acres of land in Floyd and Polk Counties. Today, Chubb Chapel United Methodist Church, located on Chubbtown Road, still stands as a part of that history and is operational for service to the community. Chubb Chapel United Methodist Church is on the National Register of Historic Places thanks to Kenneth Jones and recognized on the Georgia Rural Historical church website, http://www.hrcga.org/. From 2015 to 2020, the church received notoriety by supporting features by CBS Sports, ESPN, the NFL, and Denver Broncos on Nicholas Chubb, running back Cleveland Browns, and Bradley Chubb, now a defensive lineman for the Miami Dolphins, in addition to a feature by the National Methodist Foundation.
The church has weathered the storms of change in the world as well as the various mergers that have created the United Methodist Church. It has watched over the birth, marriage, lives, and death of the people in the Chubbtown community for over a century (and one half). The fact that it is still in existence today is a tribute to the present members’ commitment to Christianity.
As written by then-pastor Rev. Homer Bryson in 1991,
Chubb Chapel is one of two churches in the state of Georgia receiving the Preserving Black Churches Grant. Chubb Chapel United Methodist Church is located in Cave Spring.
With support from Lilly Endowment Inc., this project was funded by a grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.”
How can you help?
Support for Chubb Chapel can be made through the church’s website: chubbtown.org, and by clicking on the donate page. Contributions can also be made to chubbchapelumc@aol.com via ZELLE, PayPay, or Givelify.
Please visit Chubb Chapel’s website at chubbtown.org for more information on the
church.
Here is the link from 11 Alive News:
