Church Hill, Mississippi | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 31°42′59″N91°14′17″W / 31.71639°N 91.23806°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Mississippi |
County | Jefferson |
Elevation | 213 ft (65 m) |
Population (1900) | |
• Total | 107 [1] |
Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
Area code(s) | 601 & 769 |
GNIS feature ID | [2] |
Church Hill is a small unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States. [2] It is located eight miles east of the Mississippi River and approximately 18 miles north of Natchez at the intersection of highway 553 and Church Hill Road. [3] Church Hill was a community of wealthy cotton planters and enslaved people before the American Civil War. [3] [1] Soil erosion, which had been going on since well before the Civil War, caused the area to decline into a poor farming community with none of the land under cultivation by 1999. [3] The area is remarkable because its antebellum buildings are mostly intact with few modern buildings having been built. [3]
The Church Hill community got its name from Christ Church - an Episcopal Church located on a terraced hill at the intersection of Church Hill Road and Highway 553. [4] It is the last of three successive buildings. [4] The first building of 1820 was made of logs on population ridge. [4] The second building of 1829 was half mile to the south east of the first on land formerly owned by James G. Wood. [4] The third building was completed in 1858 in the same general location as the second building. [4] This land was donated by Ms James Payne. [4] The fine craftsmanship and decorative details of the third church reflect the great wealth of the area planters in 1858. [4] All of the massive beams in the hammer-beam roof (one of the few in Mississippi) have been stained and false grained. [4] Three of the workmen signed the false graining before it dried. [4]
Across the intersection from the Christ Church is Wagner's Store, which closed in 1998. [3] The store building dates stylistically to ca. 1855-1880 and is one of the oldest country stores remaining in Mississippi. [3] The old community post office operated from the store. [3] Remarkably, the original interior store counters survive. [3]
Church Hill was a community of wealthy cotton planters and the people whom they enslaved before the American Civil War. [3] In antebellum times, most of the area plantations were essentially each self-contained communities isolated in clearings in the woods. [3] With a few exceptions travellers along the area roads just saw woods, with occasional gates that led into the plantations. [3] Soil erosion in the 1800s continually decreased the amount of land that was suitable for farming. [3] After the Civil War the main crop remained cotton until around 1933 when the boll weevil destroyed cotton farming in the area. [3] By this time soil erosion had caused the area to become a poor farming community, and it remained so throughout the twentieth century. [3] Almost none of the land is being farmed as of 1999; thus, the area is more wooded than it was in antebellum times. [3] A large number of the owner's residences and other buildings on these former plantations remain and are privately owned. [3] Among these are The Cedars, Oak Grove, Pecan Grove (also known as the Bluffs), Richland, Springfield, Woodland, and Wyolah. [5] [3] [1] [6]
Antebellum plantations (Gayoso, Pecan Grove, Logonia, Oak Grove, Cedars, Woodland and Springfield) line a twelve-mile stretch of highway 533 that includes Christ Church. [6] Details about many of the area plantations are as follows.
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi; its western border is formed by the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,260, making it the fourth-least populous county in Mississippi. Its first county seat was located at Old Greenville until 1825, which no longer exists, before moving to Fayette. The county is named for U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. One of the first of two counties organized in the Mississippi Territory in 1798 along with Adams County, it was first named Pickering County and included what would become Claiborne County. Originally developed as cotton plantations in the antebellum era, the rural county has struggled with a declining economy and reduced population since the mechanization of agriculture and urbanization of other areas. In 2020, its population of 7,260 was roughly one-third of the population peak in 1900. Within the United States, in 2009 rural Jefferson County had the highest percentage of African-Americans of any county. It was the fourth-poorest county in the nation.
Natchez is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was a prominent city in the antebellum years, a center of cotton planters and Mississippi River trade.
Cedar Grove may refer to:
The Natchez District was one of two areas established in the Kingdom of Great Britain's West Florida colony during the 1770s – the other being the Tombigbee District. The first Anglo settlers in the district came primarily from other parts of British America. The district was recognized to be the area east of the Mississippi River from Bayou Sara in the south and Bayou Pierre in the north.
The High Hills of Santee, sometimes known as the High Hills of the Santee, is a long, narrow hilly region in the western part of Sumter County, South Carolina. It has been called "one of the state's most famous areas". The High Hills of Santee region lies north of the Santee River and east of the Wateree River, one of the two rivers that join to form the Santee. It extends north almost to the Kershaw county line and northeasterly to include the former summer resort town of Bradford Springs. Since 1902 the town has been included in Lee County.
A Mississippi Landmark is a building officially nominated by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and approved by each county's chancery clerk. The Mississippi Landmark designation is the highest form of recognition bestowed on properties by the state of Mississippi, and designated properties are protected from changes that may alter the property's historic character. Currently there are 890 designated landmarks in the state. Mississippi Landmarks are spread out between eighty-one of Mississippi's eighty-two counties; only Issaquena County has no such landmarks.
"Green Leaves", also known as the Koontz House or the Beltzhoover House, is a Greek Revival mansion in Natchez, Mississippi, completed in 1838 by Edward P. Fourniquet, a French lawyer who built other structures in the area. It was purchased by George Washington Koontz, a local banker in 1849 and has been owned by his descendants ever since. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1979.
Antebellum architecture is the neoclassical architectural style characteristic of the 19th-century Southern United States, especially the Deep South, from after the birth of the United States with the American Revolution, to the start of the American Civil War. Antebellum architecture is especially characterized by Georgian, Neo-classical, and Greek Revival style homes and mansions. These plantation houses were built in the southern American states during roughly the 30 years before the American Civil War; approximately between the 1830s to 1860s.
Susina Plantation is an antebellum Greek Revival house and several dependencies on 140 acres near Beachton, Georgia, approximately 15 miles (24 km) southwest of the city of Thomasville, Georgia. It was originally called Cedar Grove. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is currently a private residence.
Plantation complexes were common on agricultural plantations in the Southern United States from the 17th into the 20th century. The complex included everything from the main residence down to the pens for livestock. Until the abolition of slavery, such plantations were generally self-sufficient settlements that relied on the forced labor of enslaved people.
Red Lick is an unincorporated community located in Jefferson County, Mississippi. Red Lick is approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of Lorman on Mississippi Highway 552.
The Woodland Plantation is a historic Southern plantation near Church Hill, Jefferson County, Mississippi. It retains its original antebellum 230 acre size, and has the tradition of primarily supplying hay to the area cattle. It also has a pecan orchard.
The Wyolah Plantation is a historic Southern plantation in Church Hill, Jefferson County, Mississippi. It is located off the Mississippi Highway 553.
Cherry Grove Plantation is a historic plantation in Natchez, Mississippi.
Lansdowne is a historic estate that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi. The property began as a 727-acre, antebellum, hunting estate - like the estates of the landed gentry in England. After the Civil War Lansdowne became a cotton plantation. Cotton, corn, sheep and cattle were raised there until about 1960. The original owner's residence and 120 acres of the original estate are still owned and occupied by the descendants of the builder, who open it periodically for tours.
David Hunt was an American planter based in the Natchez District of Mississippi. From New Jersey in approximately 1800, he took a job in his uncle Abijah Hunt's Mississippi business. After his uncle's untimely 1811 death, as a beneficiary and as the executor of the estate, he began to convert the estate into his plantation empire. By the time of the 1860 slave census, Hunt owned close to 800 slaves. This was after ensuring that each of his five adult children had at least one plantation and had an approximate minimum of 100 slaves apiece. In fact, Hunt and his five adult children and their spouses owned some 1,700 slaves by 1860. He became a major philanthropist in the South, contributing to educational institutions in Mississippi, as well as the American Colonization Society and Mississippi Colonization Society, the latter of which he was a founding member.
Cedar Grove is a former plantation in Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi.
Levin R. Marshall was an American banker and planter in the Antebellum South. He was a founder and President of the Commercial Bank of Natchez, Mississippi. He owned 14,000 acres in Mississippi and Louisiana, and 10,000 acres in Arkansas.
The city of Natchez, Mississippi, was founded in 1716 as Fort Rosalie, and renamed for the Natchez people in 1763.
Mississippi Highway 553 (MS 553) is a state highway in Adams and Jefferson counties in southwestern Mississippi. The highway runs from U.S. Route 61 (US 61) in Stanton, loops to the west around US 61 and the Natchez Trace Parkway to Fayette, and extends further north to Harriston. Within Jefferson County, MS 553 passes numerous locations on the National Register of Historic Places.