"All roads lead to Eastabuchie," my grandfather would say. He should know. He was a preacher at a little church there for decades, and it amused him to take someone for a drive on winding roads and always end up in Eastabuchie.
A small community, Eastabuchie sits on Highway 11 between Petal and Moselle, Mississippi. In its heyday it was a significant lumber town with busy saw mills and a great deal of rail traffice. Now, it boasts a Dollar General, Mac's gas station, and a couple of other small businesses. It's one of those little towns that, as the saying goes, you'll miss if you blink.
Smack in the middle of it is Eastabuchie Baptist Church, a smallish, nonassuming brick building where my family has gone to church for many years. My grandfather served as preacher there for many years (more on that later), and the little church has been a central part of our family and community ever since.
Recently, my work on a church history and on family genealogy have intersected - I found earlier ancestors on the membership list in the very early 1900s. Since I find it so valuable to document for genealogy and to sift through stories and memories, I began this blog to help motivate me to capture and share the details that I find, not just for myself but for others out there sorting through millions of ancestry documents or for those whose family histories wind through Eastabuchie but who will certainly not venture down Highway 11 to visit.
Posts here will be about family history, about the history of Eastabuchie, and about broader topics that would appeal to the sense of history that most Southerners share. I hope that there will be details here that you'll find funny or useful or that you'll just plain enjoy.