Greater New Zion MB Church Down the Hill from Antioch

Greater New Zion Missionary Baptist Church

On the 18th of August 1873, David and Susan Bufkin sold two acres of land to the trustees of the New Zion Church, located in Copiah County, Mississippi. David and Susan were members of Antioch Baptist, just several feet from the location of New Zion. Antioch had a slave gallery and its slave membership was more than half, reaching 156 Negroes in 1865. By 1866, the Negro membership was zero. It is plausible several of those former members started New Zion after they left Antioch.

Looking at the 1860 Copiah County Slave Schedule, I didn't find David as a slave owner. There were two Bufkin slave owners, owning a total of five slaves between them.

Edwin Burnley, a slave owner associated with my family was a member of Antioch.

Going from Hazlehurst, before you reach Somerset you pass the old Antioch Baptist Church. Pa gave most of the money for the building and had his church membership there. A part of the auditorium was separated from the rest by pillars and reserved for the Negroes, and their amens and halleluiahs mingled with those of their masters. From Edwina Burnley Memoirs

Antioch Baptist Church
To the right, background, is Greater New Zion Church

This indenture made and entered into this 18th day of August AD 1873 by and between David Bufkin and Susan P Bufkin his wife, of the first part and Richard Rembert, Andrew Watson and Jefford Campbell, Trustees of New Zion Baptist Church of the 2nd part, all of the county of Copiah and the State of Mississippi...I have and to hold the promises herein conveyed for the sole and separate use and benefit of the said New Zion Church, and the members thereof to be used, owned and enjoyed by them for the purpose of erecting thereon a church of worship, cemetery and any and all other necessary improvements that may be beneficial or useful for said church...

How does this church connect to my family tree?
My maternal and paternal family are connected to this church. It was my mother's church during her youth. My mother's dad, Daniel Marshall, was a member and he is buried in the church cemetery in an unmarked grave. Several of my paternal grandmother's Overton family were members, many buried in the cemetery.

Come Let Us Worship
Legend of Antioch

Rehobeth Methodist Church circa 1839

This church is located in an area where once wealthy slave owners were not timid in displaying their wealth. Church attire was a concern among members. Wealthier women wore their New York fashions and silks in contrast to their poor sisters who dressed in their long black calico dresses and bonnets. Should they had hid their wealth?

The church is located in rural Copiah County on Barlow Road in the Barlow Community.

"Rehoboth was Methodist church about four miles northeast of Somerset. The Taliaferros, Browns and Hawkins, and we went there on Sundays to church, and a good many other people...I think she (Cousin Melissa Taliaferro) always wore those "party dresses" to church for Bertha remembers her at Rehoboth in a light green silk with bare neck and arms."
Edwina Burnley Memoirs

Melissa Ann Brown Taliaferro

How does this church connect to my family?
The Taliaferro and Brown families, who were members of this church, were slave owners of members of my family.

Melissa Brown Taliaferro's husband, Richard H Taliaferro, owned 44 slaves; father Edwin Rice Brown owned 190 slaves, per the 1860 Copiah Slave Schedule.

Melissa's picture is courtsey of Suzanne Brown.
Religion in Mississippi

Request Reparations for Dead Animals ~ 1867

The writer of the letter, Maria Louisa Baxter Burnley, wrote to the Freedmen's Bureau Field Officer concerning reparations for her dead mare and mules, and blinded ox. She implied the freedmen working for her intentionally harmed the animals.

Maria Burnley was the wife of Edwin Burnley. The couple married in 1852, together they had five daughters: Jean, Hardenia, Fannie, Bertha, and Edwina. Jeanie died before the writing of this letter. They owned Somerset Plantation in Copiah County, Mississippi, with 60 slaves.

Somerset Plantation's acreage is shaded in pink on the map below.

Somerset Plantation
September 20th 1867

To his excellency General

Sir
Knowing it to be your desire to redress grievances in the district under your command, I have taken the liberty to address you, begging your advice or directions.

I will first state that before the War my husband owned about one hundred svts mostly his family servants & one valuable cotton plantation in Madison Parish La - on which during the war, the Southern soldiers burned near four hundred bales of cotton with corn, new gin house, steam engine & ? not giving even two hours to save the buildings - that with the mules they took has reduced us to poverty - my husband by an attack of apoplexy has been incapacitated to attend business since the war - & seldom leaves the house.
From Edwina Burnley Memoirs: There were 1300 acres across the river from Vicksburg in Madison Parish, La., on Jo’s Bayou not far from the little town of Delhi. Bro William managed the place but Pa went over several times a year. Jo’s Bayou was a valuable plantation, finely equipped, Pa refused $100,000 for it just before the war. Just before the fall of Vicksburg our own soldiers burned one year’s crop to keep the Yankee’s from getting it – 300 bales of cotton and unnumbered bushels of corn.

This year & last we have employed freedmen, but they have not made enough to feed themselves & teams & they only work when they choose.

However after these preliminaries which I deemed necessary as an apology for troubling you, I will state that my chief object is to inquire of yourself if there can be any redress for the cruelty of the freedmen to the animals under their care.

Those employed here have during this year killed two mules & one fine, young mare. Last night the ox driver beat an ox unmercifully & left him perfectly blind.

Now Sir, by stating in what way these cruelties can be prevented you will not only greatly oblige - your humble petitioner (who can ill afford to lose even one animal) but show an act of real kindness to those domestic animals who God has given us to care for & protect.

Very respectfully
Your most obedient
Mrs. M. L. Burnley
Gallatin, Copiah Co., Miss

P.S. May I beg this petition may receive your attention as I am obliged to employ freedmen inasmuch as I have four little daughters to support & no one to attend to any business but myself.

? M. L.B.

How is Somerset connected to my family?
Virgina Williams/Taylor was a slave of Somerset. She married John T Demyers, my 2nd great grandmother Alice Demyers Overton Usher's brother. The Burnley family also owned an Overton family whose connection to my 2nd great grandfather, Dave Brown Overton, is unclear.

Sources:
"Mississippi, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-45832-30777-31?cc=2333768&wc=9L3S-92Q:1078469102,1078469101 : accessed 1 February 2015), Brookhaven (subassistant commissioner) > Roll 11, Unregistered letters received, Jun 1865-Nov 1868 > image 110 of 214; citing NARA microfilm publication M1907 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

Map Courtesy of Beverley Ballatine

Edwina Burnley Memoirs

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

The Baker Family of Somerset Plantation

Edwina Burnley Memoirs, written by Edwina Burnley and her sister Bertha, described life on the Somerset Plantation near Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Mississippi.

The owner of Somerset, Edwin Burnley, arrived in Mississippi with his brother Hardin in 1832. Somerset consisted of about 2300 acres of land, 1100 acres were in cultivation, and plenty of slaves to work the plantation. Burnley married his third wife Maria Louisa Baxter of New Jersey in 1852.

Edmund Staten Baker was a slave on the Somerset Plantation. Baker likely knew my people who were on neighboring Lucky Hit and Spring Hill Plantations. The owners of the three plantations were connected through kinship or marriage.

Researching Edmund has also revealed that Overton families, Overton is one of my direct surnames, were slaves on the Somerset Plantation.

Baker was born about 1810 in Virginia. He was the driver of a team of oxen, about six yokes, that he had well trained. His wife was Mary, a woman described as a tall, very black and a very religious. The couple had several children: Elijah, Wilson, Julia, Octavia, and Sylvester.

Elijah was the only child of the couple mentioned in the memoirs. He was born about 1848. Apparently, Elijah was a little sluggish when it came to being a waiter. His regular job was to stand against the wall and pull the rope that kept the fan moving to drive away the flies. One day when there was extra company for dinner, Elijah waited the table. When Burnley asked Elijah to pass a hot potato, he picked it up with his hands, tossing the potato from hand to hand before he asked his master to take the potato because it was burning him. Elijah never appeared in the dinning room again.

Soon after the dinning room incident, the overseer of Somerset was conscripted and Elijah went to the War with the overseer. Per the 1860 Copiah County census, Urban Buffkin was the overseer of Somerset. They both survived the War.

Next: After the War, Baker hires his children out.

Sources:
Edwina Burnley Memoirs
1860 Copiah County Slave Schedule

Amanuensis Monday Virginia of Somerset Plantation

Aunt HARDENIA had charge of the milk house. Her grown daughter, Ann Liza, helped her- you know her – but there were other women to milk the cows. VIRGINIA, another of Aunt Hardenia’s daughters, a woman of about twenty was in training as a house servant. From Edwina Burnley Memoirs

Virginia was born between 1842-1855 per census records.

1870 - 25 yrs - born about 1845
1880 - 25 yrs - born about 1855
1900 - 50 yrs - born April 1850
1910 - 61 yrs - born about 1849
1920 - 78 yrs - born about 1842
1930 - 86 yrs - born about 1844

I think the Virginia mentioned in the memoir was the wife of John T Demyers, the brother of my 2nd great grandmother Alice Demyers Overton Usher. In the 1880 census for Copiah County, Mississippi, Hardenia Williams is in the household of her daughter's family. Virginia's death certificate confirms her mother's name was Ardenia Williams. Virginia died 17 Aug 1930, buried in the Lucky Hit Cemetery.

The Lucky Hit Plantation was a neighboring plantation to Somerset Plantation. Lucky Hit was owned by Hezekiah George David Brown who I believe was the slave owner of members of the Demyers family, including Virginia's husband John T Demyers. John died before Virginia, between 1909-1910.

Edwin Burnley owned (pink on map) Somerset Plantation. Per the 1860 Copiah County slave schedule, Burnley owned 60 slaves. Edwin's daughters, "Edwina Burnley and Bertha Burnley Ricketts, wrote the memoir describing their family and their childhood at Somerset plantation, near Hazlehurst, Copiah County, MS. Their father, Edwin Burnley (b. 1798), moved to Mississippi from Virginia in 1832 and married Maria Louisa Baxter (1820-1907) of Persippany, N.J., in 1852. The memoir describes plantation life, including many details about activities, relatives, neighbors, and slaves."

Edwina Burnley Memoirs
Map courtesy of Beverley Ballantine