Biography

Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church (Pleasant Hill, La.) is located at 1826 West 1st Street, Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.

By the early 1850s, the Pleasant Hill community was thriving. The area had a post office, hotel, a school for girls, the Pierce-Payne Methodist College for Boys, and a Methodist church. During the Civil War, soldiers passed through the town to and from the Battle of Mansfield in April 1864. The boys’ college was used as a hospital for the Union soldiers, while the Pleasant Hill Methodist Church was used as a hospital for the Confederate soldiers. The Boys College, which was formed in 1858 to complement the Mansfield Female College, was never completed because of the war.

When the railroad was constructed four miles from Pleasant Hill in 1881, the town moved to the new location. The former location was known as Old Town, while the new location was called Sodus. The Methodist church was put on logs and pulled by oxen to the new town. In 1922, the name of the new location switched from Sodus to Pleasant Hill.

Classrooms were later added to the rear of the church. Most of the church, including the bell, consists of the original materials. The steeple was donated by the Dykes family.

Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church in 2022.

Source: Timothy Hebert, “The Historical Register of the Louisiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church,” (Louisiana: Louisiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, 2004), page SH-66.

Found in 1 Collection or Record: