Beulah House History
Savannah businessman, James Blackshear spared no expense constructing this beautiful home in 1884. The Victorian structure was designed in the gingerbread style typical of the late 1800s. The plans included heart-pine floors, high ceilings, seven fireplaces and twelve windows.
She was certainly a beauty to behold!
Reverend Ransom Govan (RG) Cartin and his wife Annis Penelope Horne lived on the original “Beulah” which was a 400-acre estate located between Tusculum and Egypt, GA. The daughter of RG and Annis, Annis Bertha married Thomas Cicero (Tom) Grier in 1903. Tom died early in 1912 at the age of 39, so Bertha and their two children moved back to the Beulah estate with her children: Bertha Willie Grier and Thomas Cartin Crier. Realizing the need for his grandchildren to have a good education, Rev. Cartin purchased the Blackshear home in 1912 so that Willie and Tommy would live close to the Guyton schools. The family of five moved in just before Christmas that year. Since the house became his new family home, he referred to her as “New Beulah,” and the name Beulah has stayed with the home ever since.
Annis remained in the home until her death. After Annis’s death, her daughter Dr. Willie Todd took ownership of Beulah and lived there until her death in 2006 at the age of 97. Guyton United Methodist Church purchased Beulah that year and used it for the benefit of the church and the community.
The Matriarch
Dr. B. Willie Grier-Todd
Bertha Willie Grier was born to Annis Bertha Cartin and Thomas Cicero Grier on January 10, 1909. B. Willie Grier was raised in Guyton, GA by her mother and grandparents at 407 Church Street, a home also known as Beulah. Her grandfather Rev. R. G. Cartin served as pastor to the twenty-six charter families at Pine Street Baptist Church beginning in 1919, so Willie is included as a Charter Member of this church that still ministers in Guyton. She carried on the rich Christian faith of her grandfather later in life by being very active in the Southern Baptist Association. True to her heritage, Willie was passionate about her faith and her church. She held positions within several churches as Director of Christian Education, and she kept an extensive library in Beulah much of which centered on history and theology. Since Beulah was the neighbor of Guyton United Methodist Church and its parsonage, Willie Todd and her family kept close ties with the pastors who were appointed to the church and their families. She held strongly to her Christian and Baptist roots and continually supported the ministries of the pastors of the churches in Guyton, particularly of her neighbor church, Guyton UMC.
Education was vitally important to Willie throughout her life. She taught school in Pineora, Tusculum Guyton Academy, and high school in Springfield, GA. Willie wrote the Alma Mater for Effingham County High School. She earned her PhD in history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and was thereafter referred to as Dr. Willie Todd. Dr. Todd was a professor of history at Tift College and then Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA from which she retired in 1976.
As a strong advocate for historical preservation, Dr. Todd was instrumental in founding the Effingham County and Guyton Historical Societies as well as establishing Guyton’s designated National Historic District. Dr. Todd started the Tour of Homes at Christmastime which ran for 27 years. People remember touring Beulah every year and were amazed at the beauty and the candles on the Christmas trees. In 2003, Dr. Todd was commended by the Georgia House of Representatives in House Resolution 663 sponsored by Representative Ann Purcell. It reads as follows: “Dr. Todd founded the Annual Guyton Tour of Homes in 1978, and she still presides at her historic home, a focal point of the tour, with the graciousness of a southern lady.”
Guyton residents honor Dr. Willie Todd and have precious memories of their times in her lovely home. Guyton Methodist Church took ownership of Beulah House after the death of Dr. Todd in 2006.