Fellowship Free Will Baptist

Henderson Daily News, Tuesday, May 12, 1942, p. 5

In 1942, Fellowship Free Will Baptist met 3 miles west of Henderson on the Tyler Highway. I have the following information on Christian Chapel Free Will Baptist Church. I wonder if they are the same church, under different names at different times? Seems very plausible.

Christian Chapel Free Will Baptist Church met on the west side of Henderson. The church was located on the Old Tyler Highway, now known as County Road 424 W. The church was at the top of the hill next to R. Q. Bynum’s home on the right side of the road from Bonnie Jean and George Leonard Hardy’s home (3692 CR 424 W).

The Rusk County Baptist History Project

For quite some time, I have had a two-part goal “on the back burner,” so to speak. I wanted to:

1. Visit every Baptist Church in Rusk County, Texas (my native county).
2. Compile a history of all the Baptist Churches of Rusk County.

Almost two years into retirement, I concluded it is time to move this to a front burner. In July I began to crank up the “Rusk County History Project.” I have sort of introduced it through the History of Henderson and Rusk County Facebook group, posting pictures that I have taken of church buildings. I kicked it off with picture taking, and by now have taken a picture of every existing Baptist Church building that I know of in this county, most still used and a few abandoned. However, there may be a few I do not know and have missed. I have developed questionnaires for churches and associations, and hope that every Baptist Church and Baptist organization in Rusk County will consider and decide to participate.

Perhaps you are a Rusk County Baptist reading this, or know one! Or are just historically curious. I am attaching links to letters and questionnaires that give some idea of what I am doing.

• Baptist History Project Letter
• Church History Questionnaire, Extant Church
• Church History Questionnaire, Extinct Church
• Baptist Association Letter
• Association History Questionnaire

If the links do not work, please let me know.

Elisha Perryman Spivey, at least briefly in Rusk County

In 1873, in north central Rusk County, E. P. and Mary Spivey joined 10 other Baptists in forming the Baptist Church of Christ at Providence. E. P. Spivey was a preacher and so also served as a member of the presbytery organizing the church. The 1874 Mt. Zion Association minutes show him as pastor of the Liberty Missionary Baptist Church in the Frog Pond Community, and at Pine Springs (Roquemore) in 1875.

Elisha Perryman Spivey was born October 11, 1810 in Georgia (one source says North Carolina). He was son of Beverly Allen Spivey and Rebecca Perryman, and was a grandson of Elisha Perryman, a Georgia Baptist minister and missionary. His brothers James Jackson Spivey and Harvey Reddick Milton Spivey lived in Shelby County and Nacogdoches County, respectively. and married Mary Ann Bazemore probably about 1836, and probably in Alabama.

The E. P. Spivey family lived at Hatchet Creek, Coosa County, Alabama in 1850 (occupation, teacher). The family was living in Nacogdoches County, Texas in 1860, with his occupation as a farmer. He was at Buena Vista in Shelby County in 1870 (listed as “minister of gospel”).

E. P. and Mary Spivey had a least the following children:

• Susan Ann Rebecca Spivey (m. Perry Myers)
• James Spivey
• William Spivey
• Beverly Spivey
• Ruthy Spivey
• Redic Tarpley B. Spivey (m. Margaret E. Woodfin)
• Lucy A. Spivey
• Mary P. Spivey
• Milton Perryman Spivey (m. Malinda Josephine Hendricks)

E. P. and Mary Spivey both probably died before 1880. At least they are not obviously or readily found in the 1880 census, and I have not found them after 1873. If anyone has any information on them, please let me know.

Milton Franklin Spivey, son of H. R. M. and nephew of E. P., was also a Baptist minister, and participated in the ordination of M. L. Vaughn at Smyrna Baptist Church. Two other Spiveys who were preachers are mentioned in Century One: Shelby County Missionary Baptist Association, 1881-1980: A Brief History (J. W. Griffith, Henderson, TX: Criterion Press, 1980, p. 115). J. M. Spivey pastored several churches in Shelby County in the early 1900s. His address was Paxton. Dr. W. J. Spivey pastored churches at Tenaha and Timpson, and was the treasurer of the association in 1900. His address was Tenaha. Dr. William Jackson Spivey (1847-1927) was a son of James Jackson Spivey. J. M. Spivey is probably James Monroe Spivey (1853-1932), also a son of James Jackson Spivey and a Baptist preacher.