Utica Area News

MS officials are still being careful about the coronavirus but is encouraging us to start living our lives again. As of this writing, we have 796,966 infected with 12,206 dead. LTC facilities have a huge drop in infections, down to 56 across the state. Hinds County still has had most of the cases as you would expect from the most populated county, with 51,981 cases and 775 dead.

I know most of you are getting your health advice from Facebook and friends, but I will put the state’s current recommendations here to prevent the spread of COVID-19 around the state and elsewhere. They are “Get a COVID-19 vaccination, booster or third dose if you are eligible.

Wear a mask in all indoor public settings, even if you are vaccinated. If you are 65 years of age or older, you should avoid all indoor mass gatherings, even if you have been vaccinated. If you have a chronic medical condition, you should avoid all indoor mass gatherings, even if you have been vaccinated. Call 877-978-6453 for anything related to coronavirus from where to get tested to data on the virus.” To me, that means they expect that most of us old folks will be the most in danger, and that we should go on about our business, get back to school and to work, and try to pick up the pieces of your life before it hit. Then, we got hit with the Putin/Russia invasion of the rest of Ukraine he had not already invaded. Results are horrible effects on the oil business, as if Joe Biden was not problem enough, and the huge drops in the stock market that affects us all. Drops in what savings we still had to big increases in oil and gas prices, and increases in food and other prices. Poland believes they will be the next country invaded, so they are getting prepared and are helping Ukraine fight Russia right now.

On the surface, it sounds like nothing much is new in our overall world, but many of our lives were changed by the virus, including the loss of friends and family, county leadership because of those losses, and a weariness of soul and mind to the constant bombardment of negative news. We are as near World War III as we have been since the 1960s when we called Russia’s bluff in Cuba, and when we entered the Vietnam Conflict. We can only hope NATO countries will step forward and help get Russia back across its own borders.

Two friends of Utica people have passed away this week. George Gilmore (Gil) Martin, age 77, died on March 4, and memorial services will be held on March 11 at Glenwood Funeral Home in Vicksburg. Larry Papizan, age 78, passed away peacefully at home on March 5, 2022, surrounded by his family. Larry was born on January 25, 1944 to Grady and Thelma Papizan. He graduated from Crystal Springs High School and MSU, then entered the US Air Force as a Second Lt. After military duty, he worked in Louisiana for about 10 years then came home to Crystal Springs on Utica Road. He owned a grocery store there and was a devout Christian and fierce believer in public service. He is survived by his wife Faith and their children Stephen (Miranda) Papizan, Cherie Papizan (Bill) Powell, and Rebecca Papizan Little; their grandchildren Grayson, Hannah, Ben, Jared, Cooper and Max; and his sister Beverly (William) Papizan Teasley. He was a deacon at First Baptist Church where services were held on March 8, followed by burial with his family at the Old Crystal Springs Cemetery on Utica Road.

I don’t know about you, but I am being hit by spam and every other kind of phone message by crooks wanting me to send them money! I thought I had about stopped that crowd, when suddenly a couple of weeks ago, I started getting more and more of them. I am on every “do not call” list I can find, and they still call. I don’t answer, I block their numbers, etc. and they still persist, via voice, text, e-mail, etc. Has something changed to the national do not call directives that I do not know about? If you know of something, please let me know. The more of us battling them, the better.

It worries me that church membership and attendance has dropped significantly since the virus hit and the federal and state government rules were started. I am a Baptist, so I went back and re-read the beginnings of churches in Mississippi, and especially about the Baptist church. For those interested in Baptist history, here is a brief summary of what I know. The Baptist Church was formed in the early 1600’s from the English Congregational Church which had sprung from the Church of England at a time when England was in great turmoil and in the midst of a terrible Civil War. The primary difference between the Congregationalists and the Baptists was over the baptism of infants. Baptists believe that baptism should be reserved for persons who are old enough to make a true profession of faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Son. Baptists also believe that baptism should be by immersion rather than by other means.

The first known Baptist leader was John Smyth, a clergyman in the Church of England. About 1607, Smyth went to The Netherlands with the English religious exiles who later became the Pilgrims of New England. Smyth and 36 English exiles formed a Baptist Church in The Netherlands. Eleven of these members returned to England and formed a Baptist Church there. Major Baptist growth did not occur in England for a number of years. Early Baptists accepted as their doctrine the Westminister Confession of Faith formed by the Puritans in the 1640s during the English Civil War, a time of tremendous upheaval in the British Isles.

Roger Williams formed the first Baptist Church in the American colonies in 1639 at Providence, Rhode Island. Philadelphia later became the major center for Baptists in the colonies. Immediately before and after the American Revolution, Baptists increased in large numbers in America. By 1800, Baptists were the largest Protestant group in America. This is still so, mainly because of the rapid growth of Baptists in the South after the turn of the 20th Century. Baptists are made up of groups of members called Conventions or Associations.

In the United States, there are five major Conventions: the Southern Baptist Convention (the largest), the American Baptist Churches in the USA, the National Baptist Convention of America, the National Baptist Convention USA Inc., and the National Primitive Baptist Convention. Canada has a large convention called the Baptist Federation of Canada. All of these Conventions are part of the Baptist World Alliance. Not all Baptist churches affiliate with these organizations, and at least one small but active Baptist church in the Utica community, Faith Baptist Church on Berry Road, is not affiliated with any of these.

The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Baptist organization in the world. It was organized in Augusta, Georgia, in 1845 after a split among Baptists over slave holding. It has more than 34,000 churches in 50 states, but most of its members live in the South and Southwest. The Southern Baptist Convention has 29 state Conventions that operate 38 senior colleges, 15 junior colleges, 7 academies, 6 seminaries, and 4 Bible schools. These state Conventions also operate hospitals, children’s homes, and homes for the aging. The Southern Baptist Convention supports more than 2,300 missionaries in other countries and as many more in home mission work in the United States.

Bringing their beliefs and their denominations with them, the first settlers in the Utica community began arriving in the 1780s via the Natchez Trace, and from Vicksburg (Walnut Hills) and Port Gibson on the Mississippi River. This was some 40 years before the area was cleared by the Treaty of Doak’s Stand (1820) for legal settlement. The Natchez Trace, which ran from Nashville to Natchez could be traversed by covered wagon in good weather, and by horseback in any weather. Some came up the Trace from Natchez, having arrived by boat from elsewhere, but a number of families came down the Trace or overland through Indian territory from Georgia and South Carolina via military passport.

Although there were a few exceptions, for the most part these were pioneers seeking their fortunes and looking for a new life. They were also almost always of Anglo-Saxon/English Protestant origin (Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and later, the Disciples of Christ), their families having been in the colonies from one to six generations already, prior to departing for the Mississippi Territory. The slaves they brought with them were either born in America or were imported from countries in east Africa The size of their farms and land grants ranged from a few acres to several hundred acres. There were perhaps 20 of the very earliest settlers whose holdings were upwards of 1000-10,000 acres, but all of these were outlying the immediate vicinity of the village of Cane Ridge.

Pioneers settled in the hills around good springs and running water, and they cleared and farmed the bottomlands. Good water could be found in Scutchalo Hills, the long ridges between the Big Black and Crystal Springs, the Lebanon area, and along running gravel-bottomed creeks. Extensive clearing was not done until the period from 1820-1860, when large plantation owners began to move into the area from Southwest Mississippi or from down the Trace with numerous slaves to clear the arable land and make it suitable for growing cotton. McLemore (1973) in his History of Mississippi noted that settling unclaimed land in the South was systematic and predictable because as lands wore out, the big planters were always looking for new areas to settle, and would sent overseers ahead with large groups of slaves to clear areas while they continued to farm at the old location.

The first Baptist church was organized in Mississippi in 1780 at Coles Creek by Richard Curtis and his friends. The next mention found of an early Baptist congregation was in 1800 when two churches were organized at Woodville and Second Creek. All three of these churches were located in the southwest corner of the state near the Mississippi River.

A Baptist minister, William Berry, entered the MS Territory in 1804 by permission of Lt. Schuyler at Fort Stoddert to pass through Choctaw Territory. Two more churches were established in 1805 and 1806. One of these was New Providence Baptist Church in Amite County. These first five churches were formed into an association in September 1806 called the MS Association, which was still in existence in 1900. The Baptist Church in MS grew rapidly. Some of the earliest preachers were Reverends Richard Curtis, William Chaney, Bailey Chaney, Barton Hannon, John Hannah, David Cooper, William Berry, Van Brock, and W. H. Taylor; there were undoubtedly others filling the duties of pastor to these early churches as well. By 1812, there were 17 Baptist churches in MS Territory, with a reported total membership of 765 people. By 1836, there were 107 Baptist churches in the State of MS (became a state on Dec. 10, 1817) with 4,865 members. By 1860 just before the Civil War there were 596 Baptist churches with 41,482 members, with white and black mixed congregations. The state had 21 Baptist Associations of churches by 1859. Until 1845, all Baptist churches in the state were part of the Missionary Baptist Convention. At that time, over the issue of slave holding, southern churches split out and formed the Southern Baptist Convention. Soon after the Civil War, whites and blacks who had been members of the same churches formed separate churches, and black churches became part of the Missionary Baptist Convention, now the National Baptist Convention of America.

The MS Baptist Convention was organized in 1837 at Palestine Baptist Church, the oldest Baptist church in Hinds County which was established in 1827. Prominent preachers who took part in that organizational meeting were Reverends L. B. Holloway, Ashley Vaughan, Benjamin Whitfield, W. J. Denson, S. S. Lattimore, Charles Felder, Lee Compere, R. G. Green, Norvel Robertson, T. S. N. King, John Moffett, and W. H. Taylor. Baptists in MS provided many of the educational institutions for young people in the state before the Civil War and before public education was the law.

By 1850, Baptists had established MS College for young men, and female colleges: Hillman College, Blue Mountain Female College, Starkville Female Institute, Shuqaulak Female College, Lea Female College, and Carrollton Female College, located at Clinton, Grenada, Chulahoma, Lexington, Hernando, and Castilian Springs. Of these, MS College and Blue Mountain College are the only ones still existing. Since 1936, Baptists have added another college, William Carey at Hattiesburg, which was formerly MS Women’s College. MS College operations were suspended by the Civil War, but were begun again under the leadership of Dr. Walter Hillman.

By 1855, Baptists in MS established Sunday Schools, sponsored by the MS Baptist Convention. Utica Baptist Church already had a Sunday School started in 1846 under the leadership of Rev. W. H. Taylor, who was also president of the Utica Female Institute, an early forerunner of Hillman College. The first Baptist newspaper in MS was the Southwestern Luminary, begun in 1837 by Rev. Ashley Vaughan. It later merged into a Mobile, AL, newspaper. The MS Baptist newspaper was begun by Rev. W. H. Taylor of Utica in 1847; This paper is now known as the Baptist Record, and is the newspaper that all Southern Baptist Convention church members in MS receive weekly.

The Civil War devastated the Baptist churches of the state; much church property and many members were lost in battle or during Reconstruction years. Baptists picked up the pieces, first by working to help local members and citizens, second, by sending missionaries to help the soldiers on the battlefront, and third, by establishing an orphan’s home for the children of dead soldiers (beginning of the MS Baptist Orphanage). The recovery of the Baptist churches after the Civil War was largely due to the missionary zeal of the Domestic Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. The State Mission Board was begun in 1873 during Reconstruction. The Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) was begun in 1888 in the state; Utica’s first WMU was begun in 1891. By 1905, the Mississippi Baptist Convention reported 54 associations, 1,305 churches, and 109,294 members.

I will continue to write about Mississippi’s faith and all of its means of getting to where we are around Utica and Southwest Hinds County today. I depend on you to give me tips on what you are interested in. Until next week, send me your news!