Explore the questions you’re asking. 
Find the love you’re seeking.

ST. MARK’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH in Boligee, Alabama, began in 1834 when the first services were held at The Fork of Greene, a community located between the town of Forkland (home of St. John’s-in-the-Prairie Parish, est. 1834) and Demopolis (home of Trinity Parish, est. 1834). In the 1830s the Episcopal churches in Alabama were under the aegis of what was then called the Southwestern Diocese, comprised of the Dioceses of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.  

Parishes in Alabama were loosely under the supervision of the Right Reverend Thomas C. Brownell, then Bishop of Connecticut, who was able to come to Alabama occasionally.  He presided over a Convention in Tuscaloosa in 1835, and thereafter the parishes in Alabama were from time to time cared after by several bishops from other dioceses who would come occasionally for confirmation.  These included the Right Reverend James H. Otey of Tennessee, the Right Reverend (David) Jackson Kemper (the first missionary bishop in the Episcopal Church), and the Right Reverend Leonidas Polk (known as The Fighting Bishop, sometime Lieutenant General in the Confederate Army, second cousin of President James Knox Polk, and first Bishop of Louisiana).  In 1844, Alabama had its own first bishop, the Right Reverend Nicholas Hamner Cobbs, whose leadership extended through 1861.  Under Bishop Cobbs’ leadership, St. Mark’s was initially regarded as a mission of St. Stephen’s Parish, Eutaw (est. 1845), but achieved parish status in 1847.  Early members of the parish included John G. Friend, A. Little, P.L. Lightfoot, William Proctor, and James Innes Thornton.  Thornton was a Huntsville lawyer who served as Alabama’s third Secretary of State from 1824 until 1834, when he retired to Greene County and built Thornhill, his plantation home, now on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1854, the Reverend Stephen Uriah Smith reported that “they [the people of St. Mark’s] are building a church in this parish, which I hope may be ready for consecration this year.”  Indeed, the buliding was completed that year, but Smith was disappointed in his wish for a quick consecration. It was four years later, Wednesday, April 28, 1858, when Bishop Cobbs came to St. Mark’s, consecrated the church building, preached, and confirmed one person. 

The church building Bishop Cobbs consecrated was located at The Fork of Greene. Twenty-five years later it was moved twelve miles northwest to its present location in Boligee. The Right Reverend Richard Hooker Wilmer, second Bishop of Alabama, recorded in his diary that he had consecrated St. Mark’s in Boligee on Tuesday, December 14, 1880. The interior of the church is notable for it beautiful woodwork. It was crafted under the direction of the father-in-law of Thomas Seay, the 27th governor of Alabama.