Our History

In 1828, the Presbytery of Mississippi appointed the Rev. William Montgomery to preach at Meadville and other nearby areas. His son, Rev. S. H. Montgomery, later took up the work. These two men held occasional services in Meadville until about 1857.

While these services continued under men whose names have since been lost to history, about 1875, Dr. C. W. Grafton, pastor of Union Church in Jefferson County, began to hold quarterly meetings at the Nazareth schoolhouse on Middlefork Creek a few miles east of the Oldenburg community. He was assisted in these services by Louis Cato and Daniel G. Bouie, ruling elders of Union Church. Meetings began on Saturday and continued through the next day, always a fifth Sunday. Living in the community at that time, were the: Warren, Knapp, Torrey, Currie, Newman, McIntyre, and Hovis families. Many in these families moved away, and some died, so in 1883 these services were discontinued.

There appears to be no record of the Presbyterians in the Meadville area between the years of 1883 and 1906, but doubtless services continued to be held intermittently under ministers sent out by the Presbytery of Mississippi and Dr. Grafton of Union Church.

In 1906, Rev. J. F. Eddings, evangelist of the Presbytery, held a series of meetings in Meadville and in the Oldenburg community, some 12 miles away. One direct result of these meetings was the decision to form a Presbyterian Church in Meadville.