Born in 1835 in Alabama, Edmund Scarborough became a successful farmer in Pickens, served in the Mississippi Legislature in 1870-1871, and organized what would become Union Memorial UMC. John B. Scott, born near Pickens in 1853, attended Tougaloo College and married Scarborough's daughter in 1878. An entrepreneur and prominent landowner, he owned one of the largest farms in Holmes County. Born into slavery, both men became Methodist Episcopal Church ministers.