Monroe County Heritage Museums

Burnt Corn Baptist Church

Burnt Corn, Alabama
A Monroe County Heritage Museums Property

Available for group tours or special events.
Call (251) 575-7433

      The history of the Burnt Corn area begins hundreds of years ago.  Since this was part of the Creek Indian Nation, Burnt Corn was probably an Indian village.  The Three-Notch Trail went through the area, leading to Pensacola, a major trading post.  The U.S.  Government, with Indian permission, widened the path for mail wagons traveling from Washington to New Orleans and the route became known as The Old Federal Road.

      In 1813, the Battle of Burnt Corn opened the Creek Indian War.  After the 1814 treaty at Fort Jackson (Toulouse), travelers on the Old Federal Road began settling in Alabama, then under the jurisdiction of the Mississippi Territory.

      Burnt Corn grew into a town with a post office, several stores, doctors, and houses.  Many of the structures are still standing and some are in use today.

      Some of the early settlers are buried in or near Burnt Corn and were named Betts, Brantley, Crook, Denson, Duke, Green, Lee, McNeil, Mosley, Rankin, Salter, Stephens, Watkins, Watson, among others.

       Originally called Bethany Baptist Churchy, the Burnt Corn Baptist Church was established in 1821 in nearby Conecuh County; it moved in 1846 to Puryearville (Monroe County), just west of Burnt Corn; then, in 1874 the congregation built the present structure.  

The second location was where today the African-American Bethany Baptist Church stands.  After the War Between the States the congregation divided, with the black congregation buying the church.  The white congregation moved up the road and built another Bethany--the present building in Burnt Corn.  They also exhumed many of the dead buried behind the church and reburied them at the new location.  Today the African-American church has an integrated cemetery with all being perpetually cared for.  

        The Burnt Corn Baptist Church was added to our museums in 1997.  

The 1999 annual Museums Children's Workshop visited the church to learn about Monroe County History.