HISTORY:
The land for the church and cemetery was donated by our common ancestor Ammon Francisco Lindley. The church was organized in the late 1800's and was no longer active after the 1950's. It was formed from a group of people (Newton County Lindleys) left Mt. Pleasant Church (AKA Old Sixteenth), Hickory, Newton, Co., Mississippi. The land was supposed to be returned to the Lindley estate when the church was no longer active but somehow that didn't happen. The church was named New Providence because Laura Lindley's old church in Choctaw Co, Alabama was also named Providence. Source: Laura Crane, 2013

DiIRECTIONS:
The cemetery sign reads "New Providence" and is visible to the right as you exit off I-20 "Chunky" exit from Meridian. You turn right onto Chunky-Duffee Rd, going north Go about 1 mile. Turn right onto a dirt road. Go another mile. Cemetery is on left. Old church site on right. There is no building now. When my grandfather died in 1958, he was buried in the cemetery but his funeral was in Chunky Baptist Church. When my grandmother Irene died in 1983 the old church was standing. I remember there was a big old piano in the church when I looked in the window but the church was not being used. Source: Linda Crane 2013

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
A white congregation built and maintained the church and cemetery for a long time. Sometimes after the mid-1950s, the white congregation outgrew the church. The building was sold or given to an African-American congregation, which used the building for a number of years. When I visited my father, Frank Lindley's grave, about 1985, the building had caved in. There may have been a fire. Source: Audrey Elizabeth Lindley Hill 2013

THANKS TO
1. (2013) Martha Ann Lindley Pearson and her husband William J Pearson, granddaughter, of Will Lindley for the upkeep of the cemetery.
2. Laura Crane for sharing information, directions, and names of those buried at New Providence Baptist Church Cemetery.
3. Robert Jarman for photographing all the markers and creating memorials in findagrave.com.