Bayou Pierre Presbyterian Church-Port Gibson, MS

This tiny rustic log cabin-type structure, built in 1807, and located on Rodney Road in Port Gibson, MS, was the predecessor of the First Presbyterian Church of Port Gibson, MS.
This building is in a remote area off of an old dirt road.

According to a post on waymarking.com, the "Church was reconstructed by the Grand Gulf Military Monument as it played a role in the fighting here on May 1, 1863. No sign or other makings on church other than historical marker."

From the First Presbyterian Church of Port Gibson website:

"In 1807, Rev. Joseph Bullen and Rev. James Smylie organized the Bayou Pierre Church. A meeting house of logs was built on land belonging to Joseph Bullen which was later deeded to the church as a gift. This location on the Bayou Pierre road about four miles to the southwest of Port Gibson served the congregation for some twenty years. During this time, Rev. Jacob Rickhow and Samuel Hunter served the church. In 1824, Mr. Hunter and part of the congregation moved to the southwest to form the Bethel Presbyterian Church.

When Rev. Zebulon Butler began to supply the pulpit at Bayou Pierre, he persuaded the congregation to move to Port Gibson. On December 20, 1828, at a meeting of the Mississippi Presbytery, the name of the “Bayou Pierre Church” was officially changed to “The First Presbyterian Church of Port Gibson.”


The following text is inscribed on a Mississippi Historical marker that stands just outside of this old one-room church:

"Following the arrival of Presbyterian
missionaries in 1801, Joseph Bullen and James Smylie organized the Bayou Pierre Church at this site in 1807. After part of the congregation formed the Bethel Church southwest of here in 1824, the remaining members moved to Port Gibson. The church was renamed First Presbyterian Church of Port Gibson in 1828. During the Battle of
Port Gibson, fought on May 1, 1863, the
20th Alabama Infantry was posted here,
anchoring the right flank of Confederate Brig. General Edward D. Tracy's Brigade."
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