Old North Church -- Nacogdoches TX
N 31° 40.086 W 094° 39.496
15R E 342796 N 3504842
The Old North Church, the first Baptist church in Texas, with services here dating from 1835 along Nacogdoches County Road 205 earned a mention in the WPA Guide to Texas
Waymark Code: WMXJM3
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/20/2018
Views: 0
This deeply historic church is located down a country road north of Nacogdoches. The historic markers at this location are a testament to its place in history. Two of those markers are located underneath what used to be a large spreading Live Oak tree. Struck by lightning in the 1930s, this historic tree survived that severe injury only to be destroyed by Hurricane Rita in 2005
From Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State:
"TOUR 22
Section a: TIMPSON to HOUSTON; 167 mi., US 59
. . .
Left here to the OLD NORTH CHURCH (open], 0.3 m., one of the very early meeting-houses of east Texas. The first church, in which several denominations held services, was erected in 1838. The present structure is a reproduction, erected in 1852 and repaired in 1936. It is a weatherbeaten wooden building, unpainted and unadorned. The furnishings are home-made benches, an altar and an old organ. The adjoining cemetery contains the graves of
some of the earliest settlers.
NACOGDOCHES, 27 m. (283 alt., 5,687 pop.)"
The 1936 gray granite historical marker reads as follows:
"First known as Union Church as several denominations joined here to worship as early as 1836.
Organized in 1838.
A small log church was completed that year on ten acres donated by Dr. John M. Sparks.
The present structure dates from 1852.
In its graveyard rest many of the leading Anglo-American settlers of Nacogdoches County.
Erected by the State of Texas
1936"
And a private marker, most likely erected by the congregation at some point later, reads:
“UNDER THIS TREE”
The first Baptist prayer meeting was organized in 1835, by Aunt Massey Sparks Millard.
Isaac Reed in 1835 preached the first Baptist sermon.
Isaac Reed and Elder R. G. Green organized the first Baptist Church in the state of Texas, the first Sunday in May 1838, the church known today as Old North Church.
The first Protestant school in Texas was taught in a one room log house in the shadows of the old oak tree.
Remember, God alone can make a tree.”
Book: Texas
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 582
Year Originally Published: 1940
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