REV. JOHN HILL AUGHEY
1860-1862
John Hill was born May 8, 1828, in New Hartford, New York. He moved with his family to Ohio as a child. He graduated from Franklin College in New Athens, OH, in 1851 and then moved south to teach in Mississippi. There he met and married Mary J. Paden, daughter of an affluent Iuka-area planter, on January 22, 1857.
As a licentiate for the ministry, Aughey served at Bethany Church, near Tishomingo, MS in 1856. After this he taught in the Spring Creek Community in southeast Marshall County. There he supplied the pulpit of the church while studying theology under the Revs. Charles S. Dod, Henry H. Paine, and Samuel Irwin Reed, all of Holly Springs.
Rev. Aughey was received by transfer from North Mississippi Presbytery, examined by the Presbytery of Tombigbee, and ordained to the ministry at Olney Presbyterian church in November, 1860. He was assigned John 3:7, “You must be born again,” as the text for his trial sermon.
Rev. Aughey was ordained as an evangelist serving various communities including French Camp and Poplar Creek. Soon, however, he found himself out of step with many in his congregations and community. Aughey was an outspoken opponent of both slavery and the secessionist fervor that dominated Mississippi at that time. In the face of pressure, threats, intimidations, and even several assassination attempts, he was forced to leave French Camp in 1862.
After spending time in a Confederate prison, Rev. Aughey escaped and served as a chaplain in the Union Army before returning north. Many of his experiences are detailed in his books: Tupelo, and The Iron Furnace. When the war ended, he resumed the Presbyterian pastorate with churches in Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and other states before accepting the call to Chariton, IA during the 1880’s. He left Chariton to accept a pastorate in West Virginia.
In 1891, Rev. Aughey went to Oklahoma territory as a missionary. He accepted the call to become pastor of the Presbyterian church at Mulhall, OK during 1892 but continued to serve a broad area of the state. “He has probably organized more churches and done more to extend the cause of Presbyterianism in this territory than any other minister here,” the Mulhall Enterprise reported in 1907.
By 1907, the Augheys had moved to Newton, New Jersey, to retire at the newly established Merriam Home for Aged (Presbyterian) Ministers. The couple lived there comfortably until his death on July 30, 1911. Mary Aughey died at the Merriam Home during 1921. Both are buried in the Newton Cemetery.
