The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library’s Local History Department (LHD) has processed the records of the Woodlawn Cumberland Presbyterian Church covering the 1860s up to 1990.
The collection primarily consists of the church’s minutes, membership registries, marriage and death records and pamphlets. It also contains the personal sermons of Rev. Thomas Benton “T.B.” Wood (1838-1895) starting around the 1860s and going up to his death in 1895.
The collection was processed by Mississippi University for Women history student and LHD intern Josh Herrick over the summer of 2017.
Indexes for the church’s records were recently completed by LHD staff and cover the various minutes and registries from 1864-1973. This makes it easier for a researcher to locate a specific person within the records.
The Woodlawn Cumberland Presbyterian Church congregation was located in Steens. It celebrated its centennial in 1968 and the Woodlawn building was renovated in 1990. In 2005, the structure was demolished due to irreparable infrastructure damage, marking an end to the church.
Rev. Wood, born Jan. 24, 1836, was a founding member of the Woodlawn Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and because of his leadership as pastor, the church was named after him. After a decade of religious leadership training at Richland Presbytery, Wood relocated to Mississippi and began preaching at Woodlawn in 1869. He remained in the position until his death. Wood is buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery located in Caledonia.
The collection and indexes are now open and available to researchers.
For more information, contact Mona Vance-Ali at 662-329-5304.
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