Historic Utoy Church

Utoy Primitive Baptist Church, the oldest Baptist Church in present Fulton County, was constituted August 15, 1824, in a log house just west of here.  The church was moved to its present location in the summer of 1828. In 1864 the church was used as a confederate hospital.  July 22, Col. James S. Boynton, 30th Georgia, was wounded and brought to Utoy Church for medical care.  Boynton later became President of the Georgia Senate and on March 5, 1883, the day after the death of Governor Alexander H. Stephens, he became Governor of Georgia, to serve until a special election could be held. In the Cemetery at Utoy Church lies buried Dr. Joshua Gilbert, Atlanta's first doctor.  Born in 1815 in South Carolina, Dr. Gilbert was graduated from old Augusta Medical College in 1845 and came to Atlanta.  At that time Atlanta was called Marthasville and was located in Dekalb County.  Here he practiced medicine until his death in 1889.