History:

Twenty people were present and signified their desire to become charter members of a Presbyterian church in the community of Petal. Three Ruling Elders (S. D. King, G. D. Wilson and D.N. Currie) were elected and installed, and two Deacons (J. P. Keeton and J. D. Carter) were elected and installed. On the same day, Rev. E. J. Currie, who was the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Hattiesburg, agreed to serve the congregation as its first pastor on a part-time basis. A basket lunch was served at noon by the ladies of the church on that first eventful day.

The newly organized congregation was called the Leaf River Presbyterian Church and met in the Mayhaw School until a building was erected on land donated by T. C. West next to the school. The church was sometimes called the Mayhaw Presbyterian Church because of the large Mayhaw pond on the other side of South Main Street from the church. The first public school building in Petal was called the Mayhaw School for the same reason.

The Mayhaw School was started in October 1894 on land donated by T. C. West. The school was at first called Westville in honor of the land donor. The first building was destroyed by a storm in 1900 and was rebuilt and was known after that as the Mayhaw School or Leaf River School. The school operated until 1920 when it moved to a frame school building constructed at the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue. The old Mayhaw school building and land went back to the ownership of the family of the original land donor. Two houses were built from the recycled lumber. The house on the south side of the Petal Presbyterian Church has become the church's Educational Annex. The other house is now behind the church and it has become the Youth Activity House.

The Petal Presbyterian Church was the first church building on South Main Street. Because the nearby Methodist and Baptist congregations had not yet built their own sanctuaries, the sanctuary of the Petal Presbyterian Church was used by all three denominations for several years.

One Sunday there was a Baptist worship service, the next Sunday there would be a Methodist service, and then the next Sunday there would be a Presbyterian service. The Hattiesburg ministers serving those three small Petal congregations would walk across the railroad bridge over the Leaf River when it was their turn to preach. The three congregations stayed on this rotation until the Petal-Harvey Baptists and the Petal United Methodists were able to build their own sanctuaries. These three neighboring congregations have had an historically close spiritual relationship.