Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: Mount Zion Baptist Church (Pike County, Miss.) Minutes (Z/0290).
Creator/Collector: William W. Simmons and others.
Date(s): 1838-1901.
Size: .33 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH staff, 1954; Finding aid by MDAH intern Caroline Moehlenbrock, 2023.
Provenance: Gift of William W. Simmons, of Cleveland, MS, on October 26, 1954; Z/0290.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright Notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: Mount Zion Baptist Church (Pike County, Miss.) Minutes (Z/0290), Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Related MDAH Collections:

William Wyatt Simmons Genealogical Collection (Z/2149), MDAH.

 

History/Biography:

Mount Zion Baptist Church

Mount Zion Baptist Church was founded on July 28, 1838, in Pike County, Mississippi, five miles east of Osyka. The church has had three buildings in the exact location: the first in 1848, the second in 1867, and the current building circa 1910. The nearby Mount Zion Baptist Church Cemetery was created in 1876.

The new congregation formed after members withdrew from the congregation of Silver Creek Baptist Church near McComb, Pike County, Mississippi. Founding families included Fortenberry, Sandifer, Simmons, Strickland, and Varnado. The first pastor was Jesse Crawford from 1838 to 1859, and the first clerk was John Simmons. The church was a member of both the Pearl River Baptist Association (Mississippi) and the Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association. The church building hosted multiple temperance meetings starting in 1871.

The congregation included white and African-American members from its founding in 1848 to 1890 when Ginsey Temple, a member from 1882 to 1890, left. Multiple African-American members joined the church after emancipation. Although they were baptized as part of the congregation and present at church meetings, the African-American members of Mount Zion had a separate section of the church.

Jesse Howell Crawford

Jesse Howell Crawford was born on February 4, 1795, in Georgia, the son of Revolutionary War veteran William Crawford (b. 1749). Reverend Crawford was a founding member and first pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church. He served as pastor from the church’s establishment in 1838 until his retirement in 1859. He was also one of the first three pastors of Silver Creek Baptist Church.

In 1814, Crawford married Flora Graham (1795-1838), the daughter of Flora Scruggs and Archibald Graham of Georgia. Children from their marriage include: William Hamilton Crawford (1816 - 1880); Josiah Allen Crawford (circa 1818 - October 24, 1895); Thomas Bailey Crawford (October 17, 1819 - May 10, 1900); Benjamin Alexander Crawford (1825 - May 31, 1890); Charles Felder Crawford (September 20, 1831 - September 25, 1886); Hasseltine Crawford (1834 - September 20, 1858); and Jefferson Crawford (circa 1838 - unknown). His son Charles Felder Crawford served as pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church from January 5, 1861 - November 2, 1874, and his other son Benjamin “Ben” Alexander Crawford was also a Baptist preacher.

On June 3, 1839, Crawford married his second wife, Hettie Clark (circa 1810 - November 25, 1848), the daughter of James W. Clark, and widow of Henry Monroe Lee. Children from their marriage include: Sophronia Emeline Crawford (October 27, 1840 - September 22, 1915), Jesse D. Crawford (1839 - circa 1870), James Howell Crawford (November 16, 1845 - May 5, 1929), and Mary Ann "Martha" Crawford (December 29, 1847 - March 14, 1930).

Crawford's third marriage was to Terry Ginn (1801 - July 23, 1858), the daughter of Penelope Magee and Jeptha Ginn, and the widow of Benjamin Magee. The couple did not have any children. Jesse Howell Crawford died on March 11, 1869, in Pike County, and was buried in the Rev. Jesse Crawford Cemetery in Walthall County, Mississippi. Crawford is considered one of the pioneering preachers of Pike County.

Simmons Family

The Simmons family was one of the founding families of Mount Zion Baptist Church and has since had a heavy influence on the congregation. One of the founding church members was Nancy Ann Tyler Simmons (1776-1845), a pioneer woman and family matriarch, and nine of her ten children were founding church members. Notable Simmons family members included: John Simmons (d. 1881), the church's first clerk; William Simmons (April 7, 1802 - circa 1867), one of the first deacons of Mount Zion; William Yarbrough Sandifer (May 14, 1792 - June 1868), one of the first deacons, and his wife, Elizabeth Simmons (January 2, 1801 - July 11, 1881); Emanuel D. Varnado (January 16, 1807 - October 25, 1882), and his wife Sarah "Sally" Simmons (January 4, 1814 - June 23, 1885), and Henry Simmons, one of the officiating clergyman during the church's formation.

In volume two of the minutes book, multiple Simmons family members' obituaries are included: Emanuel D. Varnado, Rebecca Simmons Sandifer (1779-1883), Sarah "Sally" Simmons, Julia Elizabeth Pound Simmons (1856-1886), Nancy Hope Simmons (October 2, 1807 - July 17, 1888), a deaconess, Mary Ann Sibley Simmons (1809-1889), and Isabel Simmons Varnado (1831-1889).

William Wyatt Simmons

William Wyatt Simmons, or W.W. Simmons, was born April 19, 1883, in Magnolia, Pike County, Mississippi, to Annie Idelia McClendon (November 18, 1864 - July 10, 1942) and Edward Alexander Simmons (November 4, 1856 - November 13, 1940). W.W. Simmons was the great-grandson of Nancy M. Hope and William Simmons, both of whom were charter members of Mount Zion.

On June 24, 1922, W.W. Simmons married a school teacher, Mary Allen Clarke (December 31, 1893 - October 5, 1971). The couple adopted their twin nieces, Nan Simmons (b. November 25, 1924) and Sarah Elizabeth Simmons (November 25, 1924 - November 23, 2017), when their mother Nellie Louise Simmons (June 18, 1894 - December 31, 1924) died just five weeks after they were born. When W.W. Simmons’s brother Bernard Eustis Simmons died in 1935, his teenage son Dr. Bernell Eustis Simmons (June 28, 1920 - January 19, 2006) was raised by his grandparents Edward and Annie Simmons.

Simmons enlisted in the United States Army at Cleveland, Bolivar County, Mississippi, on November 27, 1917, and was later honorably discharged from the army on January 22, 1919. He began serving a four-year term as district attorney of Bolivar County in 1920. Simmons was also an alderman and city attorney. Twice, W.W. Simmons was elected mayor of Cleveland, where he spent most of his life. In December 1934, he became mayor pro tem, then elected in April 1935. He was reelected in 1936 and served until his term ended in 1939.

Simmons was an avid genealogist, compiling and publishing Data Pertaining to Richard Simmons Family (1770-1814) and Other Families of Pike County, Mississippi, in 1955. He wrote the typescript for the first two volumes of the Mount Zion Baptist Church minutes, which also includes his notes about the church and its members, including the Varnado, Simmons, and Fortenberry families. He researched his family's genealogy until his death on March 29, 1956. He is buried alongside his spouse in the New Cleveland Cemetery in Cleveland, Bolivar County, Mississippi.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection contains a typescript of the first volume (July 28, 1838 - January 5, 1878) and experts from the second volume (March 1878 - August 7, 1901) of the minutes of Mount Zion Baptist Church, Pike County, Mississippi. Comments and index to volume one are by William Wyatt Simmons. The typescript includes church minutes, beliefs and by-laws, member lists, membership statistics, and obituaries. The document is legible with some slight smudging, and some mistakes are fixed with handwritten notes in pen ink. The typescript has 139 pages.

Notes to the researcher:
On page 53, January 1, 1853: The question was raised if Br. Simons, an enslaved person, could preach, and the church’s leadership responded on March 5, 1853.

On page 88, June 6, 1868: Notes record the dismissal of Will Deman, and enslaved person, for leaving his second wife for his first wife after emancipation.

On pages 110-111: The names of enslaved persons are included, along with the names of their enslavers, and how they left the church.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Typescript of minutes (circa 1838-1901). 
One bound book contains a typescript, by William Wyatt Simmons, of the first volume and excerpts from the second volume of the minutes of Mount Zion Baptist Church, near Osyka, Pike County, Mississippi. This book of 139 pages includes an index of members mentioned in volume one of the church index and notes by Simmons on the church and its members’ history. The church minutes is a synopsis of what happened during church meetings. Membership lists show church members divided by race and gender. Membership statistics show how many white and African-American members were a part of the congregation during a year and how many joined or left. The book contains a section on church members’ obituaries from (ca. 1882 - ca. 1891).

Box 1, Folder 1

 

Box List: 

Box 1
Folder 1: Bound typescript of minutes, circa 1838-1901. (139 pages)