Midway Church and Cemetery
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
The Midway Church building in 2010 while it was being renovated.
The interior of the church facing the northside of the building.
The Interior of the church facing the southside of the building.
One of the doors from an interior southward view.
One of the boulders that the building rests one.
Some of the oldest markers in the Cemetery.
The plaque given to Midway by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History during the late 1970s.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The origins of the Midway Community are almost lost in the dim past; however, the Midway Community had a church and cemetery, a school, and a voting precinct. In 1859, the entire family of Dudley Stone, including his two sons, William and Isaac, and sons-in-law, McDonald “Mac” Morgan, Martin W. Boon, Adam Troxler, and William Oakes, came from Rockingham County, North Carolina, a few years before the Civil War and made homes in Carroll County, Mississippi … nine miles west of Vaiden at Midway. In 1860, on the nineteenth of December, Dudley Stone and his wife, Sarah, deeded for the sum of one dollar the land upon which the Church and School stood, to the trustees of Midway Church. This church was organized in 1860 by Dudley Stone and McDonald “Mac” Morgan. The first building was a small frame house and was used as a Union Church. The first trustees of Midway Church were Dudley Stone, David Adaire, Robert McEachern and John McGaw. Any new trustees were appointed by the following denominations using this church. The order of each Sunday's worship was as follows: the first Sabbath in each month to be occupied by the Cumberland Presbyterian, the second Sabbath by the Methodist Episcopal Church South, the third Sabbath by the Baptist, and the fourth Sabbath by the New School Presbyterian of the United Synod South. During the 1990s, The Midway Church closed its doors. The families of the Midway Community only meet on the fourth Sunday in July for a Homecoming Service. The Midway Church and Cemetery are part of the Historical Society.
The Midway Communities most famous son was future Mississippi governor, Earl Leroy Brewer who governed the state from 1912 till 1916. The Midway School was in existence as early as 1860. There was a Blackboard (a section of wall painted Black), desks that seated two, a stove in the center, and a spring of water down a long hill. The pupils had to walk two or three miles (one way) from their homes to the school. In 1945, Midway School was consolidated with Vaiden High School. The Midway Voting Precinct, Beat 5, Carroll County, started in the years 1887-1889. Some of the first voters were Martin Boone, H.P. Browning, A.D. Cook, Jr., O.G. Cook, Jr., W.C. McDougal (Sheriff of Carroll County around 1905), J.D. Morgan, T,A, Morgan, J.F. Oakes, I.B. Stone, W.T. Stone, Adam Troxler, G.R. Troxler, and E.L. Brewer (Governor of Mississippi from 1912 till 1916) who registered to vote at the Midway Voting Precinct in 1889. In 1966, the Midway Voting Precinct consolidated with the Vaiden Voting Precinct.
Sources
The Historic Resources Inventory Database (MDAH). December 14, 2010. Accessed October 01, 2017. https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/Public/prop.aspx?id=2145882822&view=facts&y=1176.