The Saint James Episcopal Church

This excerpt is from the May 2018 issue of Cypress magazine. To get a copy, click the subscribe button on the home page.

Saint James was built as a small structure, plastered and painted, at a total cost of $375.  When the current, larger building was constructed, they built it around the original church, taking it apart in pieces as the last wall was placed in the larger church, and moving it just south, rebuilding it to the same specifications as it had been originally.  It is now known as Ingram Hall.

In 1869, Saint James Episcopal Church in Bolivar, was the largest Gothic Revival style church in West Tennessee.  It was built by Willis and Sloan, designed by well known Gothic Revival style architect, Fletcher Sloan, father of the late Mrs. James Foster of Bolivar.  Sloan also designed many Southern churches and courthouses, including ones in Bolivar, Holly Springs and Oxford, Mississippi. There are memorial windows to the Rev. Dr. Daniel Stephens, Ann McNeal, Pitzer Miller and to General Otho French Strahl and Lieutenant John Henry Marsh.  The last window was given by Bishop Quintard, as he served as Chaplin under those officers in the Confederate Army. He had baptized both of them before they lost their lives in the Battle of Franklin.

The Pilcher Pipe Organ in Saint James was built in 1884 by Henry Pilcher’s & Sons.  This prominent organ company was in business in Louisville, KY from 1880 until 1940.  The organ is a one manual tracker action instrument with eight stops. It came to Bolivar in 1885 by way of the Hatchie River on one of the last flatboats to navigate the river.  The instrument has a large double-organ reservoir filled with leather nuts and felt washers. Many of the pipes are made of wood. It was in service until the 1950’s when an electronic Allen Organ was put into place.  Restoration of the Pilcher Pipe Organ is being investigated by the congregation .

A notable Rector of the Church was Reverend W. C. Gray, who arrived on Christmas Day, 1860, and served faithfully for 18 years.  Dr. Gray was required by the Union troops who occupied Bolivar to pray for US President Lincoln. Dr. Gray replied, “He’s not my president and continued to pray for President Jefferson Davis, CSA.  He was arrested and taken to a POW camp in Alton, IL, where he served the Confederate troops who were unhappily detained. After the year, he was returned to Bolivar. When he got back up into his pulpit, the Yankee’s asked, “Are you going to pray for President Lincoln now?”  Dr. Gray again refused and was forced to serve his Southern parishioners outside, in the yard of his church until after the war.