Concordia Cemetery, adjacent to the levee, approximately one
mile south of
the site of old Concordia and one and one
half miles north of Gunnison, MS, is
probably the oldest cemetery in Bolivar County. However,
there is no
accurate record of when it was established. Therefore,
it seems that the best
evidence we have of its age is the dates on the tombstones.
The oldest
inscription found shows the death of one James Irvin as
January 3, 1848.
Recorded in the Chancery Clerk’s office in Rosedale, MS is a
lease from Isaac
Hudson to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, dated
September 28, 1859.
The land was leased to the church for ten years. The trustees
of the church at
that time were Nelson Blanchard, Samuel H. Peake, John
Blanchard,
Nicholas T. Blanchard, and Felix G. Gamble, most of who are
buried at the
Concordia Cemetery.
On December 20, 1870, Isaac Hudson gave this land to the
church in a deed
to John Blanchard, S. C. Blanchard, C. R. Mayson, F. G.
Gamble, and Robert
C. Mayson, trustees of Concordia Methodist Church and their
successors.
The deed is recorded in Deed Book O, page 264, in the Chancery
Clerk’s
office in Rosedale, MS. There was a Masonic Hall also
located on the same
property.
The church remained at that site for almost twenty years until
the Mississippi
River channeled its way further west leaving Concordia a mile
inland. At
almost the same time, the railroad completed construction of
the L.N.O.&T.R.
R., later known as the Y. &M.V.R.R. Subsequently,
the town of Gunnison was
created along its tracks in the cotton fields of Arvin
Gunnison and G. L.
Wrenn. An exodus of residents began from the doomed
river town of
Concordia to the new railroad village of Gunnison. In
1891, G. L. Wrenn
deeded as a gift the west half of block 21 in Gunnison to the
church to be used
as a new site for the church and parsonage. The original
church building and
the Masonic Lodge was moved from the cemetery soon after.
(Source: A compilation of family records of Eugene P.
Leftwich)