NEW HOPE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH

The New Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church was the first Lutheran Church to be organized in Mississippi. Some of the early settlers, in what is now know as Attala County, were a group of German Immigrants from the Lexington and Newberry districts of South Carolina. They brought with them their traditions and religion and saw a need for establishing a Church. These early pioneers had built their homes and communities on the lands that were opened up by the 1830 Indian Treaty of Dancing Rabbit.

The Lutheran Synod of South Carolina received a request for missionaries to this new territory as early as 1939. In the summer of 1846 the New Hope Lutheran Church was organized and later built on land donated to the church by Joseph Henry Stingley and his wife Martha E. Kelly Stingley. Early church records show that the church was organized by the Rev. George Brown, in July 1846,with six members. The names are listed in the old church records that are in the care of Mrs. Katherine DuBard Yarbrough of Sallis, Mississippi. The first members names listed are George Stingley, Jacob Harmon Jr., Barbara Harmon. Rebecca Harmon, Kesiah Harmon, Mary Ann Harmon, Sophia Stingley and Nancy Stingley. Later names added by 1847 were Jessie Morgan, William DuBard, Sabina Stingley, Barbara Stingley, Joseph Henry Stingley and David Stingley.

Jesse Morgan was ordained and granted a full license in 1861, but did most of his preaching away from the New Hope Church. James David Stingley was ordained in 1849 and served the New Hope Church as well as in Churches in South Caroline.

The first church house was a small log building and the old hand cut timbers can still be seen under the church. The building has changed over the years but still holds it’s charm in the shadows of the grove of oak trees and the warmth of the people who lovingly care for it today. Located three miles from the community of Sallis, in Attala County, it is well worth a trip to visit this church and learn of its contribution to the community and the history these early pioneers. Many descendants of these men and women have spread out over the nation but once they have walked the grounds and stood within this church will leave forever a bit of themselves among the oaks.

I was first lead to this church in my search for my great-grandfather John Marshall Eakin. It is believed that his mother was the second wife of George Stingley by the name Nancy Ashley Eakin. She was the widow of William G. Eakin and married George Stingley around 1843. She is listed as among the first six founding members of the New Hope Lutheran Church. My great-grandfather would have been but a small child at the time the church was built, it was easy to see him and his two sisters playing as the men worked on the church and the women prepared the food in the small clearing of the church grounds.

The adult son of George Stingley, Joseph Henry Stingley, from his first marriage to Elizabeth Bernhardt, donated the land for the church. The mother of George Stingley, Sophia Stingley, was the first to be buried in the New Hope Church Cemetery. Although George Stingley later moved to Scott and then Smith County other members of the Stingley family continued to serve the New Hope Church and are also buried in the cemetery.

The cemetery located at the church is the final resting place of many of the family members connected to my great grandfather John Marshall Eakin. These were the aunts, uncles and cousin he grew up with and they accepted him as one of their own.

A full list of the cemetery can be found in the book, “A Place Called Sallis” by Anne Hughes Porter. The following is a list of the Stingley names that are buried in the cemetery.

Alice Fostina Stingley (w/o Robert Cayce Stingley)

Nov. 20,1857 - Feb 29,1940

Ann Barbara (Derrick) Stingley (w/o Jacob Stingley)

Died April 20, 1883, age 83 yrs, 5mos, 13 days

(note; d/o George Derrick and Sabina Harmon)

Bettie Rea Stingley

Nov. 12, 1858 - July 14, 1860

( d/o the Rev. James David Stingley and Jane Campbell Cayce)

Cayce Shuler Stingley

Aug. 11,1885 - Nov. 18,1949

D. W. Stingley

Co. C. 40th Miss, C.S.A.

Edwin H. Stingley

Dec. 21,1836 - Dec. 15,1861

James D. Stingley (Rev.)

Aug. 11,1815 - April 12,1866

Jane G. Stingley

June 4, 1823 - Aug. 20,1913

(w/o Re. J. D. Stingley)

Josiah Campbell Stingley

April 18,1888 - Nov. 24, 1946

Precilla Reeves Stingley

May 5,1835 - Aug. 16,1890

( w/o David William Stingley)

Robert C. Stingley

Oct. 13, 1855 - Nov. 4, 1945

Sallie D. Stingley

Sept. 16,1866 - Nov. 14,1899

( w/o J. E. Stingley)

Sarah Stingley

May 15,1795 - Oct. 21,1865

( w/o John Stingley )

Sophia Stingley

April 19,1769 - Aug. 11,1848

( mother of George Stingley and d/o Fredrick Weise and Anna Bickley )

Another somewhat related family to my great grandfather John Marshall Eakin was the Derrick family. The Rev. James Noah Derrick and his wife Sarah Roberts Derrick are also buried in the New Hope Church cemetery. The Rev. J. N. Derrick was the son of Daniel Derrick, and Daniel Derrick was the third husband of Nancy Ashley Eakin Stingley.

Submitted to Attala County American History Network

by: Wanda Eakin Lentz

October, 2000

[HOME PAGE]