Church Hill, Mississippi
Unincorporated community in Mississippi, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Unincorporated community in Mississippi, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
Church Hill, Mississippi | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 31°42′59″N 91°14′17″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] |
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.
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