Connesena has weathered many storms but still remains a "Lighthouse" for our community. It is a comfort to know that even though people may get lost in life's sea of trouble, it is still here to guide the way to the truth and light.

The Connesena Baptist Church is one of the oldest churches in the Bartow Baptist Association. It was established at its present site near the Connesena Springs in 1841. There is a deed of record dated in 1838 conveyed to Connesena Church from T.M. Henson for the purpose of establishing this church, but from all accounts the church was not formally organized until 1841. It is also interesting in reading this old deed to note that the church was given water rights and access to the Big Spring (Connesena Spring).

The above referred to deed was recorded in Deed Book One, Page 51, Cassville Courthouse, Cass County, Georgia, December 28, 1851.

The first meetings were held in a brush arbor under the giant oak trees (some of which are still standing) on a spot near the present structure. A log meeting house was next erected, then a frame building, later to be enlarged and finally the present structure of concrete masonry.

Over the years, Sunday School rooms have been added, a fellowship hall constructed and more recently a Baptistry installed.

In conversation with Dr. Robert Gardner, Baptist historian at Shorter College in Rome, it was learned that Connesena was active in the formative years in the Middle Cherokee Baptist Association. The church requested and was admitted into the Middle Cherokee Association in 1848. The pastor at the time was Rev. S.P. Rowland and the delegates to the associational meeting were T.M. Henson, H. Hunter, and A. Godfrey. The church at that time had sixteen members, gave one dollar for publishing the minutes and one dollar and a half for missions.

The church remained in the Middle Cherokee Association until 1853. They then became a member of the Oostanaula Association and stayed until 1893. Then from 1893 until 1922 the church was a member of the Floyd County Association. In 1922 the delegates to the Floyd County Association from Connesena were instructed to petition the Floyd County Association for a letter of dismissal from the Floyd County Association to the Middle Cherokee Association. This petition was favorably received and the letter of recommendation was granted.

The present membership is composed of approximately 229 resident and non-resident members. The church presently has very strong Baptist Women, Brotherhood, Youth and Sunday School Programs. Present deacons are Todd McClure, James Heatherly, Larry Strickland and Frank Samples (as inactive deacon). Connesena's pastor is Kenneth Stepp.

To the south of Adairsville Georgia, not far from Kingston, Connesena Creek empties into the Etowah River. Upstream, the creek passes near Connesena Mountain, and a small branch flows from Connesena Spring into the creek. A Cherokee family once living in the area were descendants of Dragging Canoe [Tsiyugvsini], the second part of whose name became Connesena. Dragging Canoe was a chief of the Chickamauga band, very inimical toward the whites, in the period shortly after the Revolutionary War. Conseen remains to this day the name of a prominent family of the Eastern Cherokee. Dragging Canoe's Cherokee name can be analyzed into (Tsiyu) "canoe"; and (gvsini) "he is dragging it".