The Church of the Purification: Locust Grove Academy

In 1790 several Catholic families of English descent from Maryland settled near Locust Grove. They established the first Roman Catholic Church in Georgia and erected a log church in 1792. A priest, Father John LeMoin, was sent to it from Baltimore. French families, fleeing the French Revolution and, later, several Irish families joined the colony. After 1860 a church was erected in Sharon, as the Locust Grove location had become too remote. Locust Grove Academy, the first chartered Roman Catholic Academy in Georgia, was formed about 1818. Many prominent Georgians have come from these early Catholic families.