Mims Chapel Methodist Church and Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passing it along to you. Out in Marion County, there's a piece of ground that's been holding stories since before the Civil War. That's where Mims Chapel Methodist Church and its cemetery sit, and the marker out front earns every word carved into it.

Pioneer settlers, the kind who didn't wait for civilization to catch up with them, organized this congregation before the war ever came. And when they needed a place to meet, they didn't wait on a building either. There was a large rock nearby, and that rock became their sanctuary.

Early meetings gathered around it, under open sky, and for a while that's what people called the place. The Rock Church. Simple, honest, and exactly what it was.

Eventually a log structure went up on the site, but the name stuck for a time, the way names do when they've earned their keep. Now, the church that stands here today carries a different name, and that name belongs to two brothers. John W.

Mims, born in 1829 and gone in 1907, and Henry Mims, born in 1839 and gone in 1915. The marker says these two were instrumental in securing this very site for the congregation, and when a church decides to honor you by taking your family name, well, that's about as permanent a thank-you as a community can offer. The cemetery alongside the church holds graves dating from the 1870s, prominent early community leaders among them, the kind of people who shaped what this corner of Marion County would become.

And for a good while, a schoolhouse stood here too, in use until about 1906, meaning generations of children learned their letters on the same ground where their neighbors gathered to worship. One site doing more than one kind of work. That's pioneer country for you, making everything count.

What the marker says

This church was organized by pioneer area settlers before the Civil War. The first building here was a log structure known as the Rock Church because of a large nearby rock where early meetings were held. The church was later named Mims Chapel Methodist Church in honor of brothers John W. Mims (1829-1907) and Henry Mims (1839-1915), who were instrumental in securing this site for the congregation. Graves in the cemetery date from the 1870s and include prominent early community leaders. A schoolhouse here was in use until about 1906. (1983)