Best’s was the site of a grist milling operation founded by the Rev. Hezekiah Best, 1801-1878, on Two Run Creek southeast of Kingston, Georgia. Best had moved from Maryland in November, 1857 to Cass County (now Bartow) establishing a large estate called “Forest Home”. In addition to his grist mill, he operated both a gin and saw mill. In 1880, grist milling statistics for the Best & Weems Mill showed combined production of 435,000 pounds of ground wheat and corn.

As a minister, the Rev. Best joined the Baltimore conference in which he served 30 years. He served the Rockingham and Greenbriar circuits in Virginia and founded the Seamen’s Bethel in Baltimore where he also served as pastor of M. E. Church on Broadway and Old Foundry Church in Washington. Locally he built churches and preached without pay. Best’s Chapel is named for him.


Source:History of Bartow County, Formerly Cass, by Lucy Josephine Cunyus.

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