Mt Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church
The History
of
Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church
Mt Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church was founded in 1874 in the Scott City Community 13 years before the city of Leeds was incorporated.
Mr. Stafford Scott, a former slave, was deeded 40 acres of land from the United States government. The deed was signed by the then=President Rutherford B. Hayes on February 20, 1880. Mr. Scott donated an acre of his land for the site of Mt. Pleasant.
The Scott, Rowen, McDaniel and Mariah Little families gave land to former slaves for their home in the community. The children of these former slaves began the Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church. There are still to this day descendants of the original members worshipping with us.
In the early 1900's , the men of the Mt. Pleasant put the church on logs and rolled it up to the hill closer to the graveyard at the edge of the road (present day - Coosa Avenue), which would be later designated as Highway 78; later was constructed further up the hill after the State of Alabama decided to build a new hwy that traveled to Atlanta, Georgia. In 1920, the Stove family sold a right-of-
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way to the State of Alabama, resulting in the present day Hwy 78 Scott City. Mt Pleasant Church & Cemetery has played a pivotal part in the Black History of Leeds since the American Civil War. Early members of the church congregation were Stafford Scott, Peter Little, Sandy & Mariah Little, Dinah Jones, Mary Herring, Rueben Vann, Cicero Davis, Eli & Aleine Stove, Melissa Davis, Tome & Josie Griffin, John Threatt, Charlie Jones, Charles Hewitt and John Hall.
Mt. Pleasant; called "The Mother Church" due to other members of her congregation went forward and found other churches such as Mt. Calvary, Macedonia, Little Rock, and First Baptist Patrick City.
Former serving Pastors of Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church were Rev. S Latham, Ike Moore, J.D. Ware, J.T. Latham, R.H. Earle, G. Sanders, J.A. Alexander, E.D. James, G.B. Barrard, W.M. Marigna, T.D. Wesley, Cleo Clark Sr., Edward Strong, Roger Shack, and current Pastor Willie J. Frazier Jr.