Nan Prince, assistant director of collections, brings us this post in her ongoing series about neat artifacts in the Museum Division collection.
This communion set reputedly belonged to William Winans, an early circuit rider and one of the pioneers of Methodism in Mississippi. Born on November 3, 1788, in Chestnut Ridge, Pennsylvania, Winans came to Mississippi in 1810 and served as both a pastor on local circuits and the presiding elder in the Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was instrumental in the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church–South. Winans died on August 31, 1857, and was buried in his family plot near Centerville in Wilkinson County.
The pewter communion set was made by Reed and Barton in Taunton, Massachusetts, ca. 1840–1850.
Source: http://www.millsaps.edu/library/library_cain_winans.php