Download
[Page]
[Document]mcc-ns1-057
Farming For A Better Future, page 31
21 ■
Mount New Home Missionary Baptist Church* and Cemetery and New Found School*
Located southeast of Leighton along Cottontown Lane in the vicinity of the former Preuit Oaks Plantation, was the Mount New Home Missionary Baptist Church. The church is accompanied by a cemetery, known as the Mount New Home Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, and in the early 20th century by a school known as New Found School. The origins of the church, cemetery, and school are not known. They must predate 1924 when the earliest topographic map depicts all three side-by-side with the cemetery to the west, the school in the middle. And the church to the east. The 1936, the USGS/TVA topographic map
(Below) 1924 USGS Topographic Map of Mt. New Home Church, School, and Cemetery, Leighton, Alabama Quadrangle
31 - COLBERT
(Top Left) 1936 USGS Topographic Map of Mt. New Home Church and School (Above) 1952 USGS Topographic Map of Mt. New Home Church, School, and Cemetery (Left) 1971 USGS Topographic Map of Mt. New Home Church and Cemetery, Leighton, Alabama Quadrangle
labels “Newfound” School to the east of the church, but with no cemetery. In 1952, all three are depicted. The cemetery is outlined as being fairly large and the school is labeled as “Mt New Home School.” Like many rural African American schools, the Mt New Home School was not mapped in 1971. By that time the school systems had integrated and small schoolhouses were no longer needed. The Mt New Home Church was demolished in 2015.
While the school and church are no longer extant, the cemetery is still active. Although the cemetery has been in use since at least 1924, few burials have been recorded. The earliest recorded grave is that of Private Major S. King (1894-1961), a World War I veteran from Leighton. Other common family names found in this cemetery include Anderson, Bates, Ford, Hampton, and Stanley. - (4559)