2015 from Union Church, MS

Happy New Year from Instead of Doing Dishes!

I hope you enjoyed 2014 and are geared up 2015.

The past year saw some great things from Instead of Doing Dishes.  We went on our first Spring Break Extravaganza, visited old favorites, toured homes in both Louisiana and Mississippi, made new friends all over, and learned a LOT!

I feel as if we were so busy in the last few months of 2014 that we neglected Instead of Doing Dishes. My vow is for that to change in 2015!  In other words, our resolution for 2015 is to travel more and share it with you, our faithful readers :)

In order to fulfill our resolution, we took today to roam around! You knew we couldn't stay cooped up to much longer...right?!?

Our goal for today was Union Church, Mississippi, which is located in Jefferson County.  We first ran errands in Meadville, and found ourselves walking back and forth past the Franklin County Museum.  Yes, there is a museum in Franklin County.  The curator was not available but the lovely ladies of the MSU Extension Office next door allowed us to take a look.

               

Lots of great information organized by community.

                                                             




We did learn about these interesting "pipes."

So, these are not actually pipes.  Turns out they are tree limbs that were submerged in water.  Due to the minerals in the area's water supply, over a long period of time, tree limbs become hollow and take on the appearance of metal pipes.  Pretty cool!

It may not take a lot of time to peruse the Franklin County Museum but it is definitely worth the trip.

We then wandered down "Hospital Road" towards Union Church.  We have already covered several churches and stops along this road.

We almost made it out of Franklin County before we found this sign.

(In case you can not read that, the organization date is 1801!)

Cool Springs Methodist Church is a one room church set back at the end of a gravel road.  Situated on a grassy hill, the whole area just whispered peaceful. According the information collected for the "Franklin County Remembers" book, Cool Springs is one of the first organized Methodist churches in Mississippi.  It is thought to have been organized in 1801, but no one knows where the original building was located.  Originally it was part of the Natchez District.  It changed districts many times.  The only records remaining are of quarterly meetings while it was in the Meadville District, in 1869.

Cool Springs Methodist seems to have never had a large congregation and barely scraped by throughout the 1800's.  Records indicate that services may have been suspended for the entire year of 1886.

The building that remains today was built in the 1920's.  It was at that time "modernized." This word means they took out the wood heaters and installed gas, as well as installing asbestos siding. Just think, to "modernize" now would be to add Wi-fi and a sound system.

According the sign on Meadville/Hospital Rd., The church has their Homecoming services once a year.  I assumed regular services had recently been canceled (at least in the last 10 years).  But, a letter written to the Mississippi Methodist Conference by the members of Cool Springs stated that monthly meetings were only bringing in "a congregation of two or three" so they no longer required a preacher. This letter was dated March 14, 1965. That means this lovely spot in rural Franklin County has set empty 364 days out of the year for the past 50 years!

The church building is surrounded by a small, yet well kept, cemetery.  Some beautiful headstones can be found here.  One stood out to us.

Inside this fence is...well...nothing.  No headstone.  The sign on the roof of the structure reads, "Josephine, daughter of Asa & Margaret Watson, mother of Ada R. Sanders & Edward C. Sanders."
That is it. Leaves us wondering and searching for information on "Josephine."

A little further down the road we discovered Perth.  I am pretty sure we were in Jefferson County at this point.  We were riding along following a sign for a church, when Heather glanced out her window and discovered this beauty!

No idea what this house is, other than lovely.  I have been attempting to do some research but have come up empty handed thus far.

From there we got back on track and headed for Union Church. We only got side tracked one more time at the Buie Cemetery off of Meadville Road. This was one of the oldest cemeteries we have ever visited.  My research later showed the Buie's to have been a prominent family in early Union Church.

I drove through Union Church a few weeks ago and recalled an old church building that I wanted to show Heather.  Before we got that far, we swung through the Union Church Cemetery.  To be such a small town, the cemetery is huge!  We decided that we did not have the time today to roam the cemetery, but the Union Church Presbyterian across the street caused us to stop in our tracks.

 

The Union Church Presbyterians organized in 1817, making it the oldest Presbyterian church in the state (if you count that in 1817 Mississippi wasn't even a state yet...).  Once the church was established the "Scotch Settlement" quickly grew up around it, taking the name Union Church.

I then took Heather to the building that I saw on my previous trip.

 

Thanks to some friends on Facebook, we were able to determine that this was the Galatia Baptist Church.  This is one of those buildings which, although old, antiquated, with a little work could be turned into something functional once again.

We had seen what we came to see in Union Church.  We did stumble, well...Heather stumbled and skidded and slid to an old bridge she spotted off of Highway 28.

                                                        

Maybe an older section of Highway 28, but the setting was pretty awesome.

So this was our first trip of the new year!  We found some things we didn't expect, but really enjoyed the day out and about.

Don't forget to follow Insteadofdoingdishes on Instagram  and Insteadofdishes on Twitter for up to the minute pictures when we are on the road.  You never know where we will show up :)

Happy New Year!
Until next time ~ Rosemary