Organization of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 1854

The following newspaper report discloses the year of the organization of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in the Lawsonville/Concord area of Rusk County. The reporter is M. M. Wallace (spelled Wallis in the paper), who was the pastor, present, and participating in a protracted meeting at Mt. Zion in 1855. Source: “Letter from Brother Wallis,” The Texas Baptist, Wednesday, October 31, 1855, p. 2. “Brother Wallis” is Milas Milford Wallace (1810-1867), who is buried at the Jacksonville City Cemetery, but apparently living in Nacogdoches County at the time (the correspondence is dated Nacogdoches Co., September 24, 1855).

The protracted meeting was held in early September 1855. Wallace wrote that the Mt. Zion Church was organized by Isham H. Lane “about one year past” – making the organization of the Mt. Zion Church sometime in 1854. It was organized with about seven members.

Mt. Zion is significant in its place in the early history of Baptists in Rusk County (and East Texas). The church building was the location of the organization of the Mt. Zion Baptist Association in 1857. Mt. Zion was the mother of several churches, including (I believe) Holly Spring (now named East Holley Spring) and Union Spring near Concord, and the Baptist Church in Mt. Enterprise (now named First Baptist Church). The church building was located in what is now the Campground Cemetery, east of Mt. Enterprise.

The other preachers mentioned at the meeting are John H. Rowland, at the time from Palestine, and who married Agnes Wood from the Bellview/Pirtle Community of Rusk County; Isham H. Lane of Cherokee County; and J. E. Paxton of Louisiana.