Z 1908.000 Benoit Methodist Church Register

In 1832, a mission was organized at Bolivar, three miles west of Benoit, in Bolivar County, Mississippi, by the Reverend John G. Jones, a member of the Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. By 1855, the Methodist community in Bolivar County was part of the Greenville Mission District. In 1857, the Greenville Mission District became the Greenville District. In 1870, several communities of the Greenville District, including Bolivar, became part of the North Mississippi Conference. Preachers, known as circuit riders, were assigned to all the communities within the district.

The Benoit Union Church in Bolivar County was organized in 1901, as a joint effort to accommodate Methodist, as well as Baptist and Presbyterian congregations.

The Benoit Methodist Church Register actually charts the membership of churches in Bolivar County from 1858 to 1934. The records from 1858 to 1870 document the church membership of two communities in the Greenville District, Bolivar and Catfish Point. The Greenville District was part of a circuit in which preachers traveled to rural communities. The Greenville District was incorporated into the North Mississippi Conference in 1870. The register documents the progress of the Bolivar Church until 1899.

Information on the Methodist congregation of the Benoit Union Church is recorded in the register from 1901 to 1934. The register lists the names of presiding elders and church members, sometimes separating them by gender, and includes information on baptisms and church probations.

1. Church Register. 1858-1934. 1 bound volume.