Rodney Presbyterian Church

Rodney Presbyterian Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Rodney Presbyterian Church - 2014
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Nearest city	Alcorn, Mississippi
Coordinates	31°51′46″N91°11′59″W / 31.8628°N 91.1998°W / 31.8628; -91.1998
Area	22 acres (8.9 ha)
Built	1832
NRHP reference No.	73001018 [1]
Added to NRHP	February 6, 1973

Rodney Presbyterian Church is a historic church in Rodney, Mississippi, United States.

History

Plantation owner and millionaire David Hunt (1779-1861), also known as "King David," donated the land upon which the church was built. ^[2] Presbyterian Reverend Jeremiah Chamberlain began the building of the church in 1829. ^[3]

Rodney Presbyterian Church Historic Marker

Rodney Presbyterian Church Sanctuary

The church building was built from 1829 to 1832 in the Federal architectural style. ^{[4] [5] [6]} It was built with red bricks, "rounded archives, "a stepped gable" and "an octagonal bell tower." ^[5]

The church played a specific role during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. On Sunday, September 13, 1863, Reverend Baker invited crew members of the Union USS Rattler gunboat to attend his service. ^{[5] [6]} However, Confederates burst into the church to arrest them. ^{[5] [6]} When other Union crew members found out about the Confederate violation of Sunday truce, they fired a cannonball at the church, which damaged its front wall. ^{[5] [6]} The damage is still visible to this day. ^{[5] [6]}

Eliza Ogden, daughter of Abner Nash Ogden was attending the service at Rodney Presbyterian when the skirmish happened on September 13, 1863. She was a school friend of David Hunt's daughter Elizabeth. During the altercation, a man seated next to her hoisted her up and pushed her out a window. Just as she exited the window, a bullet struck and lodged in the same window frame. She hurt her ankle from the fall. In later years, she would pull a bullet out of a box in her room and tell the story to Elizabeth Hunt Ogden's children about the incident. ^[7]

It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973.

Rodney Presbyterian Church Pulpit

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
2. Dunbar Hunt, "Sketch of David Hunt," Fayette, Mississippi: The Fayette Chronicle , 29 May 1908, Volume XLI, Number 35
3. And Speaking of Which
4. Sherry Pace, Historic Churches of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2007, p. xi
5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jim Fraiser, Mississippi River Country Tales: A Celebration of 500 Years of Deep South History, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 2000, p. 96
6. 1 2 3 4 5 June Davis Davidson, Country Stores of Mississippi, The History Press, 2014, pp. 93-94
7. Ogden, Warren C. (1971). The Seven Siblings. New Orleans.