Rodney Presbyterian Church
Rodney Presbyterian Church | |
 Rodney Presbyterian Church - 2014 | |
   | |
| Nearest city | Alcorn, Mississippi |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 31°51′46″N 91°11′59″W / 31.8628°N 91.1998°W |
| 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
[edit]Plantation owner and millionaire David Hunt (1779-1861) of nearby Woodlawn Plantation, 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]
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.
References
[edit]- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ Dunbar Hunt, "Sketch of David Hunt," Fayette, Mississippi: The Fayette Chronicle, 29 May 1908, Volume XLI, Number 35 [1]
- ^ And Speaking of Which
- ^ Sherry Pace, Historic Churches of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2007, p. xi [2]
- ^ a b c d e f Jim Fraiser, Mississippi River Country Tales: A Celebration of 500 Years of Deep South History, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 2000, p. 96 [3]
- ^ a b c d e June Davis Davidson, Country Stores of Mississippi, The History Press, 2014, pp. 93-94 [4]
- ^ Ogden, Warren C. (1971). The Seven Siblings. New Orleans.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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| Related | |
- Presbyterian churches in Mississippi
- Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi
- Churches completed in 1832
- 19th-century Presbyterian church buildings in the United States
- Churches in Jefferson County, Mississippi
- National Register of Historic Places in Jefferson County, Mississippi
- 1832 establishments in Mississippi