Rodney Presbyterian Church is a historic church in

Rodney, Mississippi Rodney is a ghost town in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States. Most of the buildings are gone and the remaining structures are in various states of disrepair. The town regularly floods and buildings have extensive flood damage. The Rod ...

, United States.

History

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.Dunbar Hunt, "Sketch of David Hunt,"

Fayette, Mississippi Fayette is a city in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,614 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Jefferson County. History In 1879, the Jesse James gang, based in Missouri, raided southwest Mississippi, r ...

: '' The Fayette Chronicle'', 29 May 1908, Volume XLI, Number 3

/ref> Presbyterian Reverend Jeremiah Chamberlain began the building of the church in 1829.And Speaking of Which
/ref> The church building was built from 1829 to 1832 in the Federal architecture, Federal architectural style.Sherry Pace, ''Historic Churches of Mississippi'', Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2007, p. x

/ref>Jim Fraiser, ''Mississippi River Country Tales: A Celebration of 500 Years of Deep South History'', Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 2000, p. 9

/ref>June Davis Davidson, ''Country Stores of Mississippi'', The History Press, 2014, pp. 93-9

/ref> It was built with red bricks, "rounded archives, "a stepped gable" and "an octagonal bell tower." The church played a specific role during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

of 1861-1865. On Sunday, September 13, 1863, Reverend Baker invited crew members of the Union USS ''Rattler'' gunboat to attend his service. However, Confederates burst into the church to arrest them. 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. The damage is still visible to this day. Eliza Ogden, daughter of

Abner Nash Ogden Abner Nash Ogden (September 19, 1809 – August 11, 1875) was a justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from May 4, 1853, to July, 1855. Born in Hillsborough, North Carolina, Ogden's father was judge Robert Ogden and his maternal grandfather was N ...

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. It has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

since 1973. Rodney Presbyterian Church Pulpit

References

{{National Register of Historic Places 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