Pleasant Valley Methodist Church Erected 1840

Excerpts from Edwina Burnley Memoirs

Pleasant Valley Methodist Church is located in rural Copiah County, MS, near Hazlehurst. The church is in a peaceful setting surrounded by trees. The last few posts were about the Baker family who were owned by Edward Burnley. He married Maria Louisa Baxter of New Jersey, in 1852. Maria Burnley was a member of this church.

"Two years later, she wore for the first and only time in her life, a sunbonnet to the church at Pleasant Valley. When she was going down the steps, Mr. Gilmer said, “Miss Baxter, may I introduce Col. Burnley?” Col. Burnley was an ardent and persistent wooer and finally was successful."

"Ma was a Methodist, a member of the Pleasant Valley Church."

The church had a slave gallery that spanned the rear wall. It was removed long ago. Maybe, my people passed through those doors: Demyers, Furnace, Overton, and Usher.

"I remember seeing Cousin Melissa Taliaferro, (She was a daughter of Edwin R. Brown, married to Cousin Henry Taliaferro at Pleasant Valley Church wearing a pale blue silk ruffled to the waist, very low neck and short sleeves, showing her plump white shoulders, and such a big hoop skirt she could hardly get in the church door."

Can you see Melissa trying to get through one of those doors in her big hoop skirt? Can you hear the rustling of her skirt?

The Brown and Taliaferro families owned members of my family. The Sinclair family was owned by the Joseph Brown family, and the Winston family owned by Peachy R Taliaferro. My 2nd great grandaunts Margaret Demyers Sinclair and Mary Peachy Demyers Winston married into those families.

Edwina Burnley Memoirs