Memorials › John Ervin Langston

John Ervin Langston

Jul 1834 – 6 Nov 1914

BirthJul 1834
Death6 Nov 1914
CemeteryNew Hope Cemetery
Clarkson , Webster County , Mississippi , USA
Added byGMT on 05 Mar 2014
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37128025

Bio

John Ervin Langston was born July 1834 in Sardis, which was then Darlington, SC, but is now Union or Florence County, South Carolina. He was the s/o Howard Langston and Esther Kivia Purvis, who married in 1825. John E. married Hester Martha Rodgers, daughter of John Friarson and Susannah Langston on November 19, 1852. John E. Langston was buried in the New Hope Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Webster County, Mississippi but did not have a tombstone so my husband and I had one engraved, took it to Mississippi in November 1994, and set the marker by Hester's grave. Her tombstone was broken and the top half was lying on her grave so we repaired it with some glue we purchased from the monument company where I purchased John's tombstone. John and Hester Rodgers Langston were shown on the 1870 Davidson County, Tennessee Census with John E. as 35 years old; Hester 31; John F. (Friarson) 12; Francis J., 11; Lewis I., 8; Mary L., 7 and Margaret Rodgers, age 46, all born in South Carolina. (The 18th district was just north of Edgefield, northeast of the Davidson County Courthouse. Edgefield was east across the river from downtown and is now called East Nashville. The 18th district covered the area that is along and on both sides of Gallatin Pk from about Dickerson Pk on the west to the Cumberland River on the east. The area was sort of central to the county but the closest county border was near where Sumner and Wilson connect. Wilson was in between Davidson and Smith counties.) The following was in the Nashville, TN Christian Advocate and John and Hester were in Nashville in 1870, however, I don't know if this was a relative: CHARLES ALBERT LANGSTON infant s/o J. N. and A. Langston, born Feb. 7, 1877 and died Feb. 11, 1877. The 1880 Census showed them as being in Marion County, Alabama and the 1900 Census reported them to be in Webster County, Mississippi. All that remains today of the New Hope Presbyterian Church is a one-room white frame church building, a cemetery with grave's dating back to 1846, and the cherished memories of family members for a once thriving community that had brought, like its name, New Hope to their ancestor's. Located about five miles northwest of Mathiston and three miles south of Clarkson, on the Walthall – West Point Road, the New Hope Church is nestled, almost lost, among one of Mississippi's pine forests. In the early 1900's, the Mississippi Legislature changed the name of the road to Highway 50. Later the legislature decided to move Highway 50 to northern part of the county allowing the road in front of the church to retain its historic Walthall – West Point Road name. The original New Hope Presbyterian Church was built about 1819 by Presbyterian missionaries from the Natchez area and Nashville, Tennessee. The structure was built on land that later was patented out in 1853 to Joe W. Starnes and eventually became a part of 16 Section. About 20 year's later; Joe Starnes passed 40 acres of this lease to the New Hope Cemetery and Church. The rent on the land continues to be adjusted each time the local governing body in charge of 16 Section adjusts the lease. Both the Presbyterian groups who built the log house New Hope structure had sent missionaries to this area which remained Indian Territory until 1833. In the same movement, two other Presbyterian churches were built in what is now Webster County. They were in Ebenezer (approximately 2 ½ miles west of Eupora near Grady) and in Old Cumberland (northwest of the current Cumberland). North Central Mississippi at this time had an abundance of natural resources. There was wild game for food and furs, timber for homes, fertile soil for farming with plenty of wild fruits, nuts, and berries. This hunting area was known as Spring Creek.) More important, however , the Choctaw Indians were friendly to the new settlers. With new families arriving, farmhouses soon were scattered over the wooded hills along with a flour mill, a post office designated as the Starnes Office, a gin and grist mill, two stores, and a steam lumber mill. As the missionaries' activities increased and more white men came to the area, a new church structure was needed and built by Jack Carlisle in 1848. The church was moved across the road to its present site and was expanded to two stories with four rooms. The first floor was used as the church and later also used as a meeting place for the Masonic Lodge Number 224. The second floor housed the community school. The dispensation for the Masonic Lodge Number 224 was granted in 1857 with the charter given on Jan. 29, 1858 in the New Hope Church. The location was later changed to Maben in 1891 with the name changed to discontinue on Sept. 23, 1915. The original officers were Samuel DeLoach, W. M.; Thomas G. DeLoach, S.W.; James W. McBryde, J.W.; Joseph McBride, Tres.; Henry C. Avent, Sec.; P. R. Bingham, S.D.; W. A. Monts, J.D.; and William J. Safford, Tyler. Even today, a visitor to the New Hope Church notices two sections of wall painted black to serve as blackboards for the school children. Some of the teachers who taught in the New Hope School were Miss. Iris Hawkins, Miss. Mallie Kimbrell, Miss. Iva Lee Tabb, Miss. Mamie Tabb, Hicks Middleton, Mrs. Bell Collum, Miss. Roane Thornton, Miss. Lorene & Ruby Scarborough, A black school also was maintained between H. H. Starnes and Campbell McBride farms. The pews were straight – backed and uncomfortable. A small pew for the children stood by the right wall near the pulpit. The two entrance doors on the east end of the room opened back to back on the inside of the building. Other Presbyterian church in the area customarily placed their front doors in a similar position to accommodate the men entering one door, and the women the door. It appears that the residents of New Hope also practiced this custom at times. Some ministers serving New Hope were the Rev. Calvin Philley about 1868 – 1871, Rev. J. P. Moore 1881, during 1902 some of them was ; J. P. McKinny, M. P. McBride, A. C. Harris, J. Y. McCaleb, Jonathan P. Lewis, and V. J. Bell. During this time Uncle Joe Starnes was known as a prominent church figure. In 1914 the second story of the building was torn down, However, the building continued to be used as a school until the 1922 consolidation with the Clarkson School. The building also served as a community center for special occasions and special church services of several different faiths. The community once hosted a singing convention, the church was used as a voting precinct to about 1960, and the descendant's of the New Hope settlers still annually have Memorial Day services in the adjoining Cemetery on the second Sunday in May. The first person buried in the New Hope Cemetery was the American Revolutionary War hero Charles M. Holland in about 1846. At the time, the church was still in its original location across the road. Being a wooded rural area, it has been said that Holland's grave was located on a cow path through the forest. As the community expanded, so did the cemetery with additional land being rebuilt closer to the graveyard. Some of the graves remain unmarked except for some flat stones placed on them by the New Hope residents. Among these unmarked graves are two mysterious graves covered with sandstone rocks. According to legend, one of the graves appeared overnight and contained the body of a member of Merrill's Gang which operated up and down the Natchez Trace! Even today, people with various types of metal detectors can be found combing the graveyard looking for Merrill's buried treasure.

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