In Marion County Florida, several miles from the nearest town of Micanopy, is an area known as Flemington which was not much more than a crossing of two old wagon roads.  It was here that the Mixson families had settled after moving from South Carolina.  It was a cold day in February 1884 when James Joyce Mixson and his wife  met with about a dozen families for a meeting for the purpose of organizing a Baptist Church.  They voted and it was unanimous, and The New Mount Arnow  Baptist Church was formed.  Reverend N. A. Bailey, who also attended, was called to be the Paster with the fourth Sunday in each month chosen as “the day for preaching”.  <Read more about Flemington Baptist Church Here>

Meanwhile in Shiloh, the Methodist Church had outgrown the house that had been using and decided to build a new church building.  The countryside in 1880 was lined with heavy pine forests and Mr. Jake (Jacob M.) Feaster, who lived a mile north of the church lot, owned a sawmill where he sawed lumber for the new church and placed it on the lot. Mr. George Leitner, Sr., who lived a mile south of the church lot, rived the pine shingles that would cover the building. With everyone working and pulling together, the church was finished, and the doors opened to welcome all who wished to come in and worship including the sons and daughter of James Darlington Mixson; Henry Walkup, Job Spurgeon and Estella. The church was officially dedicated in the summer of 1885.  Jacob M. Feaster son, Jacob Wesley Feaster would later marry James Darlington Mixson’s daughter Mary Telula Mixson.

In the following years the lives of the Mixsons would be intertwined in the history of these two churches and buried in their cemeteries.

Updated: 10-22-2021

1884