A Valuable Man Passes To The Great Beyond

“A Valuable Man Passes To The Great Beyond,” who once pastored Baptist churches in Rusk County.

James Anderson Long was born near Clayton in Panola County in the Pineywoods of East Texas, a land of trees and hills and hollers – and home to some of the older Baptist work in Texas. He died in Levelland of Hockley County in the Great Plains region of West Texas, a flat country of grasses rather than trees.[i] Hockley County itself and the Missionary Baptist Church of Levelland were both organized in 1921.[ii] Bethel Church at Clayton was organized in 1843. Quite a change! J. A. Long died in Lubbock after an unsuccessful surgery for appendicitis. His labor in the gospel ministry led him from one side of Texas to the other. (Panola County borders Louisiana and Hockley County is only about 30 from New Mexico.)

In 1883 J. A. Long professed faith in Christ, united with the Mount Hebron Missionary Baptist Church in Long Branch, and was baptized by C. H. Gipson. The Mt. Olive Church licensed Long in December 1896, and ordained him to the work of the ministry in April 1897.

In 1894, J. A. Long married Minnie Ola Lawrence in Panola County, and they were blessed with 12 children – which included one pair of twins. All lived to adulthood, except their first-born son, who died at three months of age. Both J. A. and his wife taught school early in their lives.

Before leaving East Texas, J. A. Long pastored at least the following churches, in Panola County: Bethel (1903-1907), Mount Hebron (circa 1906); in Rusk County: Smyrna (1901-1904), Zion Hill (1906-1907); in Shelby County: Buena Vista (1898-1900), Good Hope (1898-1900), Pleasant Grove (1898).

Based on available newspaper reports, J. A. Long was pastor of the Missionary Baptist Church in Paducah, Texas circa 1914-1919. According to his obituary, J. A. Long also pastored or preached in the following West Texas towns: Farwell, Lubbock, Morton, and Sudan. He was a very active minister in the work of the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas.

“Reverend James Anderson Long came to Levelland to pastor the Missionary Baptist Church in February 1925. In March he helped build the First Baptist Church in Levelland, a 28 x 40 building at Fifth Street and Avenue L. Prior to this the congregation met at the school with the other denominations. He also pastored churches in Sudan, Morton and in Terry County...In 1909 the family moved from Carthage to Hall County and lived near Memphis, where Reverend Long pastored a church. In 1910 they went to Donley County, where Reverend Long farmed and pastored a church at Lelia Lake…In 1914 they moved to Paducah where Reverend Long bought a farm…He sold this farm in 1919 and the family moved to Hollis, Oklahoma. Here they bought a farm and Reverend Long was pastor of a church at Dodsonville, Texas and several other churches nearby. They remained there for several years until Reverend Long accepted the pastorate at West Camp, near Farwell, on the state line between Texas and New Mexico…Reverend Long and family arrived in Farwell in the fall of 1922…In early 1924 Reverend Long was called as a missionary preacher, which meant he could hold revivals anywhere he was asked to preach. So, he moved his family to Lubbock, to be more centrally located. He was away from his family so much he decided to accept a church at Levelland…”[iii]

When J. A. Long died in 1927, the Smyrna Church in Rusk County (my home church) elected a committee to write a memorial resolution for him, as was their custom for their deceased church members – even though Brother Long was not and had not been a member of the church (demonstrating the love and respect they still held for him long after he had removed from the area).

James A. Long, Minnie Ola Long, and their two oldest daughters, Dora Margaret and Lola Belle.

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[i] Several years ago, a man who lived in Levelland told me, “There is not a bridge in our county.”
[ii] Though Hockley County was created in 1876, it had no organization as a county until 1921. All judicial business was transacted in Lubbock. In 1921 county officers were elected, a county seat selected, and a courthouse built. Hockley City (now Levelland) was chosen as the county seat, probably mostly due to its central location in the county. (Hockley County 1921 – 1971: The First Fifty Years; Epilogue 1971-1976, Lillian Brasher. Canyon, TX: Staked Plains Press, [n.d., circa 1976], pp. 74-76)
[iii] Hockley County 1921...1976, Lillian Brasher, p. 93. Note that some sources say that Long came to Levelland in January 1926. The resolution to the discrepancy may be that he came to the church as pastor in Feb. 1925, and moved to the city of Levelland in Jan. 1926. He pastored there until his death in January 1927. Note also that First Missionary Baptist of Levelland, organized in 1921, still exists under the name Fifth Street Baptist Church, which it adopted in 1946. Fifth Street Baptist Church affiliates with the Plains Baptist Association, Baptist Missionary Association of Texas, and the Baptist Missionary Association of America. Oddly, the Southern Baptist Church calls itself “First Baptist Church,” but was not organized until three years after the first Baptist Church in Levelland! See Brasher, page 285.

Elder M. Lepard

Mathias Lepard pastored the Baptist Church at Henderson.

In 1850, Mathias Lepard was possibly living in or around Franklin County, Alabama. He reported a meeting with J. H. Rowland at Harmony Church in Franklin County in December 1850, and that he and Brother Rowland were spending their time riding and preaching within the bounds of the Big Bear Creek Association (Tennessee Baptist, Saturday, January 18, 1851, p. 3).

“Elder M. Lepard…had then [1853] but recently entered the State. As a preacher he was earnest, and a bold defender of the principles of that sect everywhere spoken against. The churches in Rusk County felt the power of his ministry only a short time, until a cancer claimed him as its victim. While absent from his family, in Tennessee, seeking medical aid, he passed to the upper sanctuary, in January 1859, and rests from toil and suffering.” Flowers and Fruits, Morrell, pp. 328-329.

Mathias Lepard may have lived in Cherokee County, Texas in 1853. At least he wrote a letter to the Tennessee Baptist from Cherokee County  in November of 1853. He reported a meeting at Ebenezer Church in Smith County in which 31 members were added to the church. (Saturday, January 14, 1854, p. 4).

M. Lepard preached the introductory sermon at the newly organized Texas Baptist General Association in 1853. This general Baptist organization was formed at Larissa, Cherokee County, Texas, in 1853. It met only two years; in 1853 at Larissa and in 1854 at Tyler G. G. Baggerly and M. Lepard – both of whom pastored the Baptist Church at Henderson – were active in this short-lived organization.

Elder M. Lepard was one of the presbytery ordaining John Whitmore to the ministry, at Ebenezer Church in Smith County. (Tennessee Baptist, Saturday, August 5, 1854, p. 3).

In 1854, Matthias Lepard wrote to the Tennessee Baptist: “The Baptist Church at Bellview, Rusk co., commenced a meeting Saturday before the 3rd Sabbath in August. I arrived there Monday. We continued seven days, during which time the good Lord revived the work in the church, many anxious persons crying for mercy. That, with the meeting in September, resulted in the addition of twenty odd. Fifteen followed Christ in baptism. Among that number was the wife of Bro. J. R. Wood, of Tenn., and one son and daughter. May the Lord still revive his work in Bellview.” (Saturday, November 18, 1854, p. 4).

M. Lepard married Almeda Wood in 1855. She was a daughter of John Rucker Wood and Agnes Payne Harris, and a sister of Agnes Wood who married a Baptist preacher, John H. Rowland. John R. and Agnes P. Wood donated the land for the Harmony Baptist Church at Bellview. In 1870 widow Almeda and son Mitton (or Milton) Lepard, were living with John & Agnes Rowland – who would have been her sister and his aunt and uncle. In 1860 they were living with her parents. In 1878, she married Charlie C. Owen or Owens. In 1880 they were living in Overton.

Mathias Lepard died in January of 1859 (according to Z. N. Morrell, while in Tennessee). At the time of his death, he was a member of the Harmony Baptist Church at Bellview (now called Pirtle). The following resolution of respect was adopted in their church conference in February of 1859 (though the paper has a typographical error of 1858). Since he died in Tennessee, a burial in Tennessee is assumed.

The Tennessee Baptist, June 11, 1859, page 4