St. Mary's Church: The Early Years

The founding of St. Mary's Church traces to the decade following the American Civil War. According to records of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, a mission station had been established on West Fowl River by 1869. A stable congregation had been gathered and a church was under construction. The Rt. Rev. Richard Hooker Wilmer, 2nd Bishop of the Diocese of Alabama, visited St. Mary's in early October, 1869 and made the following entry in the Bishop's Journal:

October 3d, 1869 (19th Sunday after Trinity) visited in company with the Rev. Dr. Nevius a mission station on West Fowl River, confirming nine persons and celebrating the Holy Communion. This was an occasion of peculiar interest. The people came from long distances and mostly on foot; the mothers with infants in their arms. Seldom had they been visited by a clergyman of the Church. But the children had been gathered into a Sunday School and a layman of the Church held regular services; and here were the accustomed fruits of faithful lay services. We worshipped in an abandoned tenement at the time of my visitation; but since that time a Church has been erected upon the shores of the river, and is now awaiting consecration. The mission station is under the charge of Rev. Dr. Nevius who has in many ways aided the people in their pious endeavors to build a Church for the worship of God.