Church Hill, Mississippi

The Church Hill community got its name from Christ Church - an Episcopal Church located on a terraced hill at the intersection of Church Hill Road and Highway 553. This land was donated by Ms James Payne. Details about many of the area plantations are as follows. • In about 1776 the first group of settlers came to the area by flat boat from Virginia. • Auburn Hall Plantation belonged to James G. Wood. • Woodland Plantation belonged to Robert Y. Wood and his wife Virginia Smith. • Lagonia Plantation, located across the road from Oak Grove Plantation, belonged to Eliza Wood and her husband James Blanchard. Dr. Bisland Shields, a descendant of Colonel James G. Wood, later owned Lagonia. • The Miskell Place belonged to John Brooks. • Judge Thomas Rodney and Judge William Shields came to Rodney, Mississippi (formerly known as Petit Gulf) in 1802. • Rokeby Plantation in Church Hill was Judge Shields and his wife Victoria Benoit's home. After Judge Shield's death, young Seargent Smith Prentiss, who later was a famous lawyer, was a tutor on Rokeby plantation for the Shields children - Joseph Dunbar Shields, Thomas Rodney Shields, Gabriel Benoit Shields, Francina Shields and William Bayard Shields. ==Notable people==

• Gaines Ruger Donoho was an American painter who grew up on his father's plantation in Church Hill, Mississippi. • Joseph Dunbar (politician), who owned and lived on Arundo Plantation in the Church Hill area. He married Lizzie Magruder - the Magruders owned Mount Ararat Plantation. Dunbar's father, Robert Dunbar, owned Oakley Grove Plantation at the site of the current Adams County airport and was patriarch of the country Dunbar planter clan. Robert also owned the land that Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi) was later formed on by his descendant Charlotte (Hunt) Marshall. • Thomas M. Green Sr. (November 19, 17231805) was a Colonel in the American Revolutionary War who owned a plantation in Church Hill, Mississippi. • Thomas M. Green Jr. was a Mississippi Territorial politician, planter, and Delegate to the United States House of Representatives during the 7th United States Congress representing the Mississippi Territory, who owned Springfield Plantation in Church Hill, Mississippi. • George Hamilton is an American actor who lived on and owned Cedar Grove Place, also known as the Cedars Plantation, in Church Hill, Mississippi in 1978. • James Steptoe Johnston was born in 1843 near Church Hill to a local attorney and cotton planter. He became a prominent Bishop in the Episcopal Church. • Tate Taylor is an American actor, screenwriter, film producer and director who lives on Wyolah Plantation in Church Hill, Mississippi as of 2017. == Additional maps ==