Miscellaneous little bits of history

• A Guide to African-American Baptist Association Resources
• About Campground Cemetery

There was a Sabine Valley University at Hemphill, Sabine County, chartered June 7, 1879. “During the time of its operation, the university was under the sponsorship of the Mt. Zion Baptist Association and the Bethlehem Baptist Association.” It is unknown when it closed, but before 1910, when the property was given to the Hemphill Common School District. Sabine County, the First One-Hundred and Fifty Years (1836-1986), Robert Cecil McDaniel, Hemphill, TX: 1987, pp. 197-198. See also History of Sabine Valley University at Texas State Historical Association online. 

Is this our Mt. Zion Association, mostly in Rusk and Panola Counties, or a different one? Seems a long distance out of place for our Mt. Zion Baptist Association.

Around 1915-1917, there was quite a controversy between the Gary Baptist Church and Elder H. M. Allen. And it spilled into other churches and associations as people took sides!

From Gary, Panola Watchman, July 25, 1917

• Panola County Baptist Founders, by Leila B. LaGrone
• Cedar Grove Baptist Church history
• M. L. Vaughn, Pioneer Minister at Liberty
• Fleet Calvin Roark, great-grandson of Isaac Reed (1776-1848)

Mt. Ararat Primitive Baptist Church

Henderson Primitive Baptist Church (formerly called Mt. Ararat)

• Other names: Mt. Ararat,[i] Mt. Homer, Chalk Hill
• Type: Primitive Baptist
• Language and/or ethnicity: Predominantly Anglo-American
• When organized: July 16, 1853
• Charter members: David Risinger, William Baker, James C. Durham, Isaac G. Parker, Martha Baker, Ann Durham, and Polly Parker
• First pastor: probably Thomas Brittain
• Other pastors: J. E. Hardie,[ii] John Anderson Hill, Jube Lee Davis; J. A. or J. H. Fields, 1917-1937 (or is this J. A. Hill); Ernest Sumner Morrisett, 1940-; John Clifton Richard Hawkins, 1956-1960; R. G. Rhodes, 1960-1961;[iii] John Wilton Dunn, 1963-1970; M. L. Harris, 1970-1971; J. H. Cayce, 1971-1983; Marvin Smith?, Jesse Alton Davis
• Current location: County Road 412D, Hickey Community
• Other locations: Hickory Flat, Henderson, Antioch (Pone), US Hwy 79 N
• Affiliation: Unaffiliated currently (past: Union, Little Hope, Fellowship)

The Mt. Ararat Primitive Baptist Church was constituted July 16, 1853 in the Hickory Flat community (probably at the Hickory Flat Schoolhouse),[iv] by Thomas Britton[v] and James Loden.[vi] The first members were David Risinger, William Baker, James C. Durham, Isaac G. Parker, Martha Baker, Ann Durham, and Poly/Polly Parker.

The church met at Hickory Flat community until their meeting was moved to Henderson. (The histories of Mt. Ararat and Siloam may intersect in Henderson.) From Henderson they moved to the Antioch/Pone Community, possibly using the Antioch School House as a meeting place. In 1917 they built and occupied a building on what is now County Road 401 South. In 1958, the church changed locations again, and this seems to have precipitated a split.

First Sunday in February 1958 (Feb 1), “By motion and second the church agreed ed (sic) to move the church to a more desirable and suitable location for the service of this church, this was carried by majority of votes...”

Mt. Ararat purchased land on US Hwy 79 North between Henderson and Carthage, and purchased the Cumberland Presbyterian Church building at Brachfield, moving the building to their new location.[vii] It appears the church moved to first meet in this building on the Carthage Highway May 4, 1958. On the conference of the meeting weekend of the first Sunday and Saturday night in September 1958 (Sept 6) the church dismissed the building committee as having fulfilled their duty. At this time, they also withdrew fellowship from five members. It seems that these five members and others continued for a time to act as the Mt. Ararat Church at the old location. Perhaps it is for this reason (and the possible confusion) that in 1960 the church meeting on US Highway 79 “...agreed to change the name of this church to Mt. Homer Primitive Baptist Church...”[viii]

Mt. Ararat Primitive Baptist Church and Chalk Hill Primitive Baptist Church consolidated in 1995, and the name was then changed to Henderson Primitive Baptist Church. The meeting location on US Highway 79 was kept. The church continued to meet on Carthage Highway until November 2017. The church once again moved, and the building was later sold.

The Henderson Primitive Baptist Church (old Mt. Ararat) is currently meeting on County Road 412D, which can probably be considered in the Hickey Community. The benches and pulpit used are from the building on US Hwy 79. The church meets the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month. The current pastor Jesse A. Davis was ordained by the Chalk Hill Primitive Baptist Church in 1995.

Mount Ararat Primitive Baptist Church (No. 2)

After the split in the Mount Ararat Church circa 1958, both sides initially continued under the name Mt. Ararat, then the majority for a time – 1960-1968 – changed their name to Mount Homer. I have arbitrarily designated “No. 2” the side in the numerical minority.

A few documents have survived that show a Mt. Ararat Church (No. 2) operating “Eight (8) miles southwest of Henderson, Texas…” after the majority voted to move their meeting east of Henderson on US Hwy 79.

In January 1959, the five disfellowshipped members agreed “to continue for the faith as once delivered to the saints.” They did not endorse the action to move the Mt. Ararat church and declared themselves “to be the true Mt. Ararat primitive church in order…”

There are at least two public documentations of the church continuing to meet under the leadership of E. S. Morrisett. Henderson Daily News (Thursday, July 23, 1959, p. 10) carried an announcement of “Services scheduled at Old Mt. Arrat.” The description is the old location “about six miles southwest of Henderson on the old New Salem Road.” Services started at 10:30, with preaching at 11 by E. S. Morrisett, and “dinner on the grounds.”

A program of the “General Assembly of All States Bible Forum,” to be held June 23—June 26, 1960 documents the church’s existence at that time. The 13th Annual Session of the Assembly was to meet with the Mt. Ararat Primitive Baptist Church “Eight (8) miles southwest of Henderson, Texas.” The program suggests that E. S. Morrisett was the pastor of the Mt. Ararat Church. He may have been the only pastor of this division of Mt. Ararat. He moved to Lubbock circa 1961, and the church probably discontinued meeting by the mid-to-late 1960s. (In addition to these documents, a few people living can remember homecomings and Sacred Harp singings at this old location in the 1960s.)[ix] The building at 6591 County Road 401 South, built in 1917, is now a residence. (See picture. The part circled in red was the church building used by Mt. Ararat Church from 1917 until the 1960s.)

A Primitive Baptist Church at Antioch ostensibly mentioned in an obituary of Johnathan J. Peters (who is buried at Bethel Cemetery on CR 314 South) is simply the Mt. Ararat Church meeting at Antioch. The obituary of Peters says of him: “He professed religion shortly after he moved to Texas [1852, rlv] and joined the church of the Primitive faith and order at old Hickory Flat, following the church to Henderson, thence to Antioch, and lived a faithful member until his death.” (“Obituary,” Henderson Weekly Times, Thursday, June 14, 1900, p. 2) The movements of the Mt. Ararat Church – from Hickory Flat to Henderson to Antioch – fit the description in Peters’s obituary, and J. J. Peters was a deacon in the Mt. Ararat Church.

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[i] Additionally, there are a number of misspellings of Ararat – Arat, Arrat, Arrarrat, etc. In my lifetime I have generally heard locals pronounce the name as ˈeɪ ræt or ˈær ræt (two syllables) – rather than ˈær əˌræt (three syllables), as the spelling and a dictionary might suggest.
[ii] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13490855/j-e-hardie
[iii] Possibly Raymond Guy Rhodes: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/200295850/raymond-guy-rhodes
[iv] The presbytery was called “By the Brethren and sisters in the Nieghborhood of David Risinger’s to meet them at the School house in the Nieghborhood for the purpose of constituting them into a Church.” (p. 150, 1886-1917 minutes)
[v] The surname spelling on his tombstone is “Brittain”. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/41329707/thomas-brittain
[vi] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32766664/james-m-loden
[vii] “Between 1945-50 the [Cumberland Presbytrian] church building [at Brachfield] was sold and moved to a location on the Henderson-Carthage Highway to become Mt. Ararat Primitive Baptist Church.” “Brachfield Community,” Mary Frank Deason Dunn, Remembering Rusk County, 1992, p. 50. The church minutes corrects the date to a little later than when Mrs. Dunn remembered. This article also mentions Mt. Ararat: “Pone-Compton,” Donald C. Whitehead, Remembering Rusk County, 1992
[viii] On November 10, 1968, “The motion was made and carried that we change the name of this church back to the original name of Mt. Ararat Church.” Minutes Book Aug. 18, 1917-June 28, 1981, p. 181
[ix] That the other (No. 1) church changed its name back to Mt. Ararat in 1968 at the least implies that the No. 2 was no longer in existence by that time.

Siloam Primitive Baptist Church, Henderson

Siloam Primitive Baptist Church

• Other names: Henderson Primitive
• When organized: July 4, 1883 (or 1882)
• Charter members: S. M. Carlton, Nancy Satterwhite Carlton, and six others
• First pastor: Possibly Charles Holcomb
• Location: Corner of East Main and North High, Henderson

A church that probably fits somewhere in the mix of the history of the Mt. Ararat Church is Siloam in Henderson. This church may have merged with Mt. Ararat. This is a guess based on the fact that Mt. Ararat moved to Henderson, and the S. M. Carlton is mentioned in the Mt. Ararat minutes.

“agrees to let Brother S. M. Carlton Sell one Meeting House in henderson together with the lot it stands on by his agreeing to pay to us the value of the frame of the older house and that J. E. Hardie and J. J. Peters is set apart by this conference to Make a deed to said property when Solde and Money paid to them” Saturday before the third Sunday in November 1887 (p. 6).

The February 1888 Mt. Ararat conference records sending a committee “to brother Carlton to make a contrack about some benches and lumber” (the rest is hard to read; p. 6). The next month meeting says the committee reported, but does not record what they reported. The church also “moved and second that we send a committee to locate a plase to build a church house.” In April 1888 the committee reported “finding a plase 9 miles South west off Henderson” (p. 7)

An article in the Henderson Daily News (May 7, 1940, p. 8) reprinted an article from the Rusk County News, 1882, which mentions that the church house was recently built on “East Street.” Dr. S. M. Carlton was instrumental in having it constructed. Another “looking back” article in the Henderson Daily News (January 30, 1940, p. 3) adds the editorial comment that this building was at a corner of North High and East Main. Without further information, it is simply unclear to me how these two Primitive Baptist churches in Henderson fit together. Perhaps further research into deed records will clarify the issue.

According to his biography, Dr. Snider Miles Carlton moved from Panola County to Henderson in February 1879. He wrote that he, his wife, and six others constituted a church called Siloam in Henderson, Texas on the 4th day of July 1883. Perhaps he got the year wrong, or the Henderson Times got the year wrong, or simply they built the building on East Main before they actually organized as a church. Dr. Carlton left Henderson sometime after the death of his wife in 1890. She is buried in the Old City Cemetery downtown. Carlton says he was baptized by Charles Holcomb July 1, 1883, and went into the constitution of Siloam Church July 4, 1883 (p. 378). He also describes Holcomb as the moderator of the Little Hope Association (“was and is now,” p. 4). 

Elder M. S. Bourland

Melton Stuard “M. S” Bourland Sr. arrived in Texas sometime before 1870, where he and his family are found in the Shelby County census at Buena Vista.[i] His occupation is listed as cabinet maker. He was born about 1828 in Kentucky, believed to be the son of Slaton C. Bourland and Mary Polly Reese.[ii] He was a Baptist preacher, ordained by 1860, who pastored at least one church in Rusk County, but does not appear to have ever lived in the county.

M. S. Bourland married Sarah Ann Vaughan in 1852 in Trigg County, Kentucky/Montgomery County, Tennessee. She was the daughter of Thomas R. and Sarah F. Vaughn/Vaughan.

Census information.

• 1850 Not found
• 1860 Eddyville, Lyon county, Kentucky. Preacher, United Baptist
• 1870 Shelby County, Texas, Buena Vista, Cabinet Maker
• 1880 San Augustine County, Texas, Farmer
• 1900 M. S. died before this census; Sarah is a widow in Coryell County

M. S. and Sarah had at least the following children:

• Baylis Earl Bourland
• Mary Angelia J. Bourland
• Thomas B. Bourland (1860 – 1861; died age 11 months)
• Harriet Olive Bourland
• Marcia Carrie Bourland
• Melton S. Bourland Jr. (aka Charles A. Darnell)[iii]

In 1870, M. S. Bourland is listed in the census as a cabinet maker. The next year, 1871, he obtained a patent on a new and improved tenoning machine.

I have a photocopy of the “Statistical Table” from minutes for the 6th annual session of the Mt. Bethel Baptist Association, held in September 1870. The Mt. Bethel Association was organized circa 1865, probably at the Mt. Bethel Church in Panola County. M. S. Bourland was pastor of three of the six churches in the association – Mount Sinai in Rusk County, Mount Bethel in Panola County, and Walnut Grove in Nacogdoches County.  The “Statistical Table” lists Mount Sinai as in Rusk County. This was probably at or around Caledonia, where a later church is called “New Mt. Sinai.” 

Baptist preachers E. P. Spivey, J. H. Scates, and J. C. Mott also had the Post Office address of Buena Vista in Shelby County.[iv] Other preachers in the association were G. W. Butler and J. S. Milstead. [Note: in the “Statistical Table” Mott’s post office is given as Buena Vista, but the cover, which lists him as the association’s clerk, gives his post office as “Hilliard’s.”] In the 1867 Mt. Zion Baptist Association minutes, he is listed as an ordained minister whose membership was at Union Church near Nacogdoches. He also served as a delegate from that church to the assocaitional meeting.

Sometime after 1880, the Bourlands moved to Coryell County. The 1883 minutes of the Pleasant Grove Association show an “Elder Bouland” at the Mt. Olive Church near Timpson. This is likely to be him, and, if so, suggests he and Sarah did not leave the area until in or after 1883. M. S. Bourland died March 10, 1899 at Levita in Coryell County (The Houston Daily Post, Friday, March 17, 1899, p. 7). Sarah possibly died in 1903, though this may be in error. At the least she was still living in Coryell County in 1900, and does not seem to be found in the 1910 census.[v]

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[i] Son Melton (aka Charles Darnell) was born in Texas in September 1869. Daughter Carrie was born in Kentucky in April 1864. This suggests the family probably headed toward Texas after the Civil War. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth416300/m1/41/zoom/
[ii] Perhaps this Slaton Bourland.
[iii] Annie Vaughan Clary in her book The Pioneer Life writes, “My father, Melton Stuard Bourland, Jr., was the youngest of five children consisting of a brother Earl; and three sisters, Carrie, Gela, and Ollie. Daddy was born in the State of Texas.” She relates a story of her father killing two men in self-defense, a conviction, an escape from jail, and his living thereafter under the alias Charles A. Darnell. Notice that she only knew of the five children who lived to adulthood, and does not mention the child Thomas.
[iv] Could it be possible that the Buena Vista Post Office provided mail for the Caledonia area. A note on the Davis Family Bible information on the Portal to Texas History states “The Davis and Bourland families lived across the river from each other.” Since the Davises were in Rusk County and the Bourlands in Shelby County, it seems likely the river meant is the Attoyac.

[v] A letter from Mrs. S. A. Bourland appears in the Southern Mercury, January 9, 1902.

187 years. Union Church: an influence to Rusk County.

Old North Baptist Church was organized this day 187 years ago, May 6, 1838. “At a meeting at Liberty School House on Sunday, May 6, 1838, the church was officially organized when ministers Isaac Reed and Robert G. Green preached and invited people with church letters who wanted to constitute a church to come forward. John and Betsy Eaton, Charles Whitaker, Sarah Tipps, Mary Crain, Emily Knight, Ruth Anderson, and Anthony and Chancy, the last two slaves, came forward.” It was organized as Union Baptist Church, but eventually became known as Old North. The claim on Handbook of Texas (and Texas Day by Day) that “It was originally called Union Baptist Church because settlers from various religious denominations made up the first congregation” is incorrect at worst and misleading at best. While other denominations may have used the building to worship or attended the services of the Union Baptist Church, the congregation membership itself was made up of Baptists only.

Old North is considered the oldest active missionary Baptist Church in Texas (it may still be part of the Southern Baptist Convention) – but it was not organized as missionary Baptist – both Isaac Reed and R. G. Green, while not as far right as Daniel Parker, were opposed to mission boards and missionary societies.

A Brief History of Union Baptist Church (Old North Church)

Corinth. The Corinth Primitive Baptist Church at Appleby (now reorganized under the name Heritage Primitive Baptist Church) also claims the 1838 organization date of Union Baptist Church. They are an iteration of a minority split of the Union Baptist Church back in the 1850s. Since the people who stayed at Old North were the majority, they kept the name, church book, etc., but in some ways the Corinth church is more like the original church of Reed and Green than the present Missionary Baptist Church. Both churches share the same early history.

Johnson Chapel. According to tradition, the Johnson Chapel Missionary Baptist Church was formed by former slaves who were members of Union/Old North. “In 1873, Erasmus Johnson founded the Johnson Chapel Baptist Church in the North Redland community of Mahl. The congregation worshipped in a house in the community until 1924 when a church building was constructed. Erasmus Johnson, called “Ras”, was born a slave in Georgia in 1820. When he was 13 years old, he was sold to the Johnson family and was brought to Texas. Ras Johnson married Mary Hill in 1867 and they were the parents of twelve children.”

According to Z. N. Morrell in Flowers and Fruits from the Wilderness: “Elder Reed, the pastor of this little flock, although full of the mission spirit, was opposed to boards and missionary societies, and the church, called Union, was at first opposed to missions...Reed, and those who acted with him, violently opposed all mission organizations.”

Jesse Witt, southern missionary

With John B. Renfro and J. O. Walker, Jesse Witt organized a Baptist Church in Henderson, Texas, now known as First Baptist Church. Earlier, Lemuel Herrin had organized a church in Henderson in or around 1845, which apparently had ceased meeting and disbanded. Witt was elected a missionary of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1846, and organized and served several churches in East Texas before his early death in 1858.

Writing a biography of his brother Daniel Witt, J. B. Jeter had this to say about Jesse:

“Daniel had a brother, older than himself, named Jesse. They were baptized at the same time, but the younger entered the ministry several years before the older. Jesse Witt, after laboring for some time successfully in his native county, was, for seven years, the acceptable pastor of the Baptist churches in Powhatan county [Virginia]; afterwards, he was employed, for a considerable while, very usefully, as agent of the Baptist General Association of the State; and subsequently removed to Texas, where he suddenly died, in the year 1858. Public opinion was divided as to the comparative pulpit abilities of the two Witts. Their gifts differed, and it is not easy, and altogether unnecessary, to decide which excelled in preaching. Jesse was undoubtedly an able, laborious, and successful minister of Christ. He left his native State in the maturity of his mind, the fulness of his influence, and the height of his popularity, and soon earned an honorable name in his adopted State. It has been affirmed, on unquestionable authority, that a governor of Texas pronounced him the most eloquent man in the State: a judgment, the correctness of which will be readily admitted by all who heard him preach, in his seasons of highest inspiration.”

Jeremiah Bell Jeter, The Life of Rev. Daniel Witt, D.D., of Prince Edward County, Virginia. Richmond, VA: J. T. Ellyson, 1875, pp. 97-98

“Baptist Southern Convention,” Richmond Daily Whig, Tuesday, June 16, 1846, p. 2

George Albert Grammer – Not now a well-known Baptist Preacher.

Probably few will recognize this name when they see it, but George Albert Grammer was a well-known name in the old Southwest in his day. He pastored at least two churches in Rusk County. He is listed in The Ministerial Directory of the Baptist Churches in the United States of America, by George William Lasher (1831-1920), editor (Oxford, OH: Ministerial Directory Company, 1899). The Lord knoweth them that are his, regardless of who knew Grammer then, and who remembers him now.

When George Lasher gathered his data, George Albert Grammer was living at 143 W. Orleans Street in Jackson, Tennessee. He was born, in Canton, Mississippi in 1844 (possibly the son of Elijah and Margaret Grammer). He attended Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi and Judson University in Judsonia, Arkansas, obtaining an M. A. degree in 1884. He was licensed to preach in 1859 (perhaps at Vicksburg) and was ordained April 14, 1867 at the Baptist Church in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He pastored churches in Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. In Rusk County he pastored the First Baptist Church of Henderson, Texas, 1871-72, and taught English and Mathematics while there. He was a missionary of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention in 1880-82. He preached at Troup and Overton in this area of East Texas in the mid-to-late 1890s.

Grammer lost his right arm between the time of his liberation to preach and his ordination, while serving during the Civil War. He lost his first wife Ella Smith Grammer and some children while living in Vicksburg, Mississippi. His (probably oldest) son Gordan E. Grammer was born in 1872, while he was in Texas. In 1885 he married Mary E. Frazer, and they had two children. George, Mary, and daughter Mina Leone are buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis Tennessee. At least one child and his first wife are buried at the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg, and Gordan is possibly buried there as well. It is unknown what happened to any other children he had.

George Albert Grammer died June 27, 1902 in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 57 years old. At the time of his death he was pastor of the Baptist Church in Hernando, Mississippi.

Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Mississippi College, 1859-60.

The Vicksburg Herald, April 14, 1867, page 3.

The Commercial Appeal, June 28, 1902, page 3.

Baptist and Reflector, July 3, 1902, page 4.

J. J. Goodwyn - teacher and minister

I ran across this while doing Baptist history research, from a book called Who’s Who Among the Colored Baptists of the United States, Volume 1, by Samuel William Bacote (Kansas City, MO: 1913, pages 161-62).

Though he was born in Shelby County and later settled in Panola County, J. J. Goodwyn pastored churches in Rusk County, including the Bethlehem Baptist Church at Laneville in at least 1890-91. (I have not been able to confirm whether Bethlehem was an early name for the Bethel Church at Laneville, or a completely different church.) He also pastored the Corinth Baptist Church, just outside the Rusk County line in Panola County, near Pine Hill and Long Branch. The write-up “Jeff J. Goodwin” in Shelby County, In The East Texas Hills (edited by Charles Edward Tatum, 1984) says that Pastor Goodwyn organized churches in Rusk County, but does not mention the names of them.

In 1884, he united with the Shady Grove Baptist Church in Panola County on profession of faith and was baptized by Elder Ben Johnson. He was ordained October 16, 1886. Pastor Goodwyn served for 21 years as clerk of the East Texas Bethel Association, and later as the moderator.;

James Jefferson Goodwyn was born February 25, 1854. Around 1878 he married Narcissus White, and they had 13 children. After the death of Narcissus, Pastor Goodwyn married Cora Lee Nelams in 1930. J. J. Goodwyn died April 4, 1941. He and Narcissus are buried at the Roquemore Cemetery near Clayton in Panola County, Texas.