Union Church, Mississippi | |
|---|---|
  Union Church  Union Church | |
| Coordinates: 31°40′59″N90°47′15″W / 31.68306°N 90.78750°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Mississippi |
| County | Jefferson |
| Elevation | 479 ft (146 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| Zip code | 39668 |
| Area code(s) | 601 & 769 |
| GNIS feature ID | 695045 [1] |
Union Church is an unincorporated community located in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States. [1]
The community of Union Church was formed primarily by a group of Scotch settlers who left North Carolina around 1805 for the promise of fertile land to be farmed on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River. The town was originally called Scotch Settlement. The founding families were headed by George Torrey, his son Dougald Torrey, Laughlin Currie and Robert Willis. [2]
A post office first began operating under the name Union Church in 1842. [3]
On April 28, 1863, Grierson's Raid was checked in a skirmish at Union Church. [4]
The heavy Scottish influence is evident in the early member roles of the Presbyterian Church established there: McArn, McArthur, McBride, McCall, McCallum, McCure, McClutchie, McCormick, McCorvey, McDonald, McDougald, McDuffie, McEachern, McFatter, McIntyre, McLaurin, McLean, McMillen, McMurchie, McNair, McPherson, McQueen, Galbreath, and McRae. [5] Many of these names can be found today on headstones in the Union Church Cemetery.
The community's name bears witness to its history as a "union" of two church congregations. While most of the earliest settlers were Presbyterians, there were a few Methodist families, who, lacking resources to start their own church, worshipped in union with the Presbyterians. There are a number of small country churches in and around Union Church proper, but below are a few of the key congregations in the community's history.
The Union Church Presbyterian Church, the third oldest Presbyterian church in the state of Mississippi, was formally organized on March 2, 1817 by Reverend Joseph Bullen, although he began preaching to the community around 1810 or 1811. The first church building was a small log house located about 3 miles from the current church building, on the property of the Buie family, who were founding members of both the church and the town. Some years later, an old Irishman, having no descendants, donated 100 acres to his church, on which the second building was erected. When the congregation outgrew this building, the present sanctuary was built and dedicated by Reverend Angus McCallum in 1852, and the Presbyterians worship there to this day. [6]
Hickory Block is the oldest African American church in the community, believed to have been founded shortly after the close of the Civil War. Prior to that time, many of its members were baptized into the faith to become members in full communion with the Presbyterian Church. There were two services held at the Presbyterian Church on Sundays; a morning service for the white members, and an afternoon service for the servants. Presbyterian Church membership records list by name a number of the "servants" of white church members, baptized into membership between the years 1827 and 1864. Many of the names recorded in those rolls can be found on headstones in the Hickory Block cemetery today. Hickory Block still has an actively worshiping congregation today. [7] [8] [9] It is likely that after receiving emancipation, the black members chose to form their own congregation at Hickory Block.
Galatia Methodist Church was established in 1859. The Methodists worshiped in the original wooden structure until 2003, when the congregation was officially dissolved due to declining membership. [10]
The Baptist Church was established in 1922, in its original white wooden structure. A new building was erected nearby in 1995, where an active congregation still worships.
In its heyday, Union Church had a grammar school along with an agricultural high school, complete with dormitories, which housed students from mostly nearby communities. The school was established in 1910 and had a working dairy, and an agriculture/shop building. One of the dormitories and the main school building burned. The main school building was reconstructed and burned again prior to its closing in 1955. Part of the school land was acquired by the Presbyterian Church, along with the cafeteria/auditorium, which was used by the community for meetings, etc. In the early 1970s the cafeteria/auditorium was burned by a vagrant who had stayed the night in the auditorium, and started a fire on the heart pine floor in an attempt to warm himself before moving on. The only school building currently remaining was purchased, along with 20 acres, by a native resident and a 1953 graduate of Union Church High School, W.H. "Billy" Covington. He purchased the agriculture building and the remaining dormitory in March 1959, soon after his marriage to Veta Smith Covington. They razed the remaining dormitory, using the material to build four houses in the local area, and remodeled the agriculture structure into a Greek Revival/Colonial style home in 1971, where they reared four sons, and currently reside there today.
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church. Presbyterian churches derive their name from the presbyterian form of church government by representative assemblies of elders. Many Reformed churches are organised this way, but the word Presbyterian, when capitalized, is often applied to churches that trace their roots to the Church of Scotland or to English Dissenter groups that formed during the English Civil War.
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian denomination spawned by the Second Great Awakening. In 2019, it had 65,087 members and 673 congregations, of which 51 were located outside of the United States. The word Cumberland comes from the Cumberland River valley where the church was founded.
Washington is an unincorporated community in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Located along the lower Mississippi, 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Natchez, it was the second and longest-serving capital of the Mississippi Territory.
The black church is the faith and body of Christian denominations and congregations in the United States that minister predominantly to African Americans, as well as their collective traditions and members. The term "black church" can also refer to individual congregations.
Lancaster is an unincorporated community in Lancaster Township, Jefferson County, Indiana.
Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church is a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, located at 2420 Donelson Drive, Hickory Withe, Tennessee. Two churches, Prosperity Presbyterian Church and Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church, merged in 1907 to form Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church.
Randolph is an unincorporated rural community in Tipton County, Tennessee, United States, located on the banks of the Mississippi River. The lands of the Mississippi River Basin were inhabited by Paleo-Indians and later Native American tribes of the Mississippian culture for thousands of years. The Tipton phase people and the Chickasaw Indian tribe populated the Mississippi River valley near Randolph during the Mississippian period. In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto crossed the Mississippi River at or near Randolph. French explorer Cavelier de La Salle built the first French fortification at or near Randolph on his 1682 canoe expedition of the Mississippi River.
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.
The United Church of Christ in the Philippines is a Christian denomination in the Philippines. Established in its present form in Malate, Manila, it resulted from the merger of the Evangelical Church of the Philippines, the Philippine Methodist Church, the Disciples of Christ, the United Evangelical Church and several independent congregations.
The Historic Walden United Methodist Church is located on West Main Street in Walden, New York, United States. It was desanctified in 2013 and sold by the congregation on November 24, 2014. The current location is at 1206 New York State Route 52, Walden, New York, United States. Ground was broken on a new House of Worship in September 2019 and was completed in 2022.
Union Church Presbyterian Church is a historic church on MS 550 in Union Church, Mississippi.
Church of the Covenant is a Presbyterian Church located in Washington, Pennsylvania. It operates under the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. denomination under the Synod of the Trinity and the Presbytery of Washington. The church has historically maintained a strong relationship with the neighboring Washington & Jefferson College. The church was founded through the 1960 merger of the Second Presbyterian Church, which was itself a daughter work of the First Presbyterian Church 1793, and the Third Presbyterian Church.
Knox-Metropolitan United Church stands on Lorne Street at Victoria Avenue across from Victoria Park in downtown Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. It is the current manifestation of Presbyterian and Methodist congregations that date back to "worship services in both traditions…in 1882."
The Union Bethel A.M.E. Church in New Orleans, Louisiana, at 2321 Thalia St. at the corner of Liberty St., is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church.
A federated congregation or federated church is two or more congregations that are affiliated with different denominations that acts as one local church congregation. Federated congregations are distinguished from dual affiliated congregations, where the congregation as a whole is affiliated with more than one denomination. Federated congregations are also distinguished from union congregations, which are formed by separate congregations that cooperate, but exist as separate entities affiliated with separate denominational bodies.
First Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian congregation in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, founded in 1882 by Rev. A. B. Coit. It was the first church in the town and predated Hattiesburg's own incorporation by two years. In 1973 it left the Presbyterian Church in the United States to become a charter member of the more theologically conservative Presbyterian Church in America.
First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans is the oldest Presbyterian congregation in Louisiana (1818) and the second oldest Protestant congregation in entire Mississippi Basin after Christ Church of New Orleans (1816). First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans (FPCNO) has played a pivotal role in the history of the Protestant church in the South as well as the history of New Orleans in the late 19th century, especially under the political and religious leadership of Rev. Dr. Benjamin Morgan Palmer who encouraged the Southern Presbyterian Church to secede at the beginning of the American Civil War, an action which was quickly imitated by most of the other Protestant denominations in the Confederate States of America. However, in the 21st century, FPCNO is now more widely known for its progressive stands on race, social justice and gender issues.
Mount Carmel is a ghost town in Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi, United States.
Malvern Presbyterian Church is located in Victoria, Australia. Opened in 1886, it was the first Presbyterian Church to be founded in the City of Malvern and is now within Stonnington, a metropolitan area of Melbourne.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)Municipalities and communities of Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| City |  | |
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Ghost towns | ||