Old North Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Texas, the oldest Baptist church in the state. – Photo submitted to BP
Note: Sunday, Feb. 22, is Racial Reconciliation Sunday in the Southern Baptist Convention.
NACOGDOCHES, Texas (BP) – When Old North Church organized as the first Baptist church in Texas in May of 1838, among the nine founding members were Anthony and Chaney, enslaved Blacks.
Recorded minutes preserved from the day, when the congregation was known as Union Baptist Church, note Anthony as the property of B.F. Whitaker and Chaney, a female, the property of Elizabeth Whitaker. More enslaved people, the property of other members uniting with Old North, joined the church as the membership grew to 40 or so within months.
Some died. Others left. But it would be 31 years before a group of Black members asked for letters of dismissal to form their own church, four years after they learned on June 19, 1865, that slaves had been freed in January 1863. Some Black members remained at Old North, but the records of when they left are not preserved. The historical facts of membership are known because the church entrusted to Jesse Summers Sr. the minutes recorded from 1838-1872 for preservation. Summers, a white man, was the longest serving church clerk, having served 1877-1885 and 1889-1890, and noted for legibly transcribing minutes.
Old North Baptist Church is now Southern Baptist, affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and is noted as the oldest Baptist church in the oldest town in Texas. In 1845, Texas became the 28th state in the U.S., some seven years after Old North was founded.
“A number of the colored members having applied to the church for letters of dismission in order that they may constitute a church. Their request was granted and the following Brethen and Sisters were granted letters,” the minutes note of a meeting in November 1869, when B.F. Whitaker served as moderator pro tem. “Henry Walton, Charlotte Walton, Jack Whitaker, Mary Whitaker, Julia Whitaker, Eunice Rusk, Tempy Starr, Ellen and Rose Walker, Tony and Anoca Anderson, Tol Fitts, Nicholas and Sarah Johnson and Erasmus Johnson.”
Historically, freedmen would sometimes take the last name of their previous captors. Hence, freed Blacks with the surname of Whitaker were among those who requested letters of dismissal.
“Every Black family in this part of the country would bear the name of people that came from slave owners,” said Clarence Yarbrough, longtime pastor of the church the Black members founded, Johnson Chapel Baptist Church in Nacogdoches. “The Yarbrough name – all of the Yarbroughs, they literally call me cousin, openly.
“There’s no one in this area, that’s from this area,” Yarbrough surmised to Baptist Press, “whatever name they bear, their ancestors were the slave owners.”
Johnson Chapel sits on land donated by Erasmus Johnson, who also donated acreage for two cemeteries, North Redmond and Erasmus.
Tom Middlebrook, the last keeper of the minutes of Old North Church, in front of the church in 2013. – BP photo
Summers, who died in 1933, had received the book of minutes in 1890. Some 135 years later, Summers’ fourth generation descendant, Hollis “Holly” Middlebrook – a wife, mother and Methodist – will honor the wishes of her father, the late historian, archeologist and psychiatrist Tom Anderson Middlebrook, and donate the book of church minutes to one of his alma maters, Stephen F. Austin State University, for permanent preservation.
But on Feb. 20, on behalf of her family, Holly will ceremoniously take the original book to the church for viewing before donating it to Austin State. The minutes have not been in the hands of Old North Church since the 1890s, Holly said. Summers is Holly’s great-great-grandfather.
“We have a great heritage of Baptist believers that goes back to when Texas was a Republic,” Holly said. “A lot of people can’t say that. So I just think of that as a great Christian heritage that we were blessed with.”
When she takes the minutes to Old North, Holly will meet with Dana Woods, an Old North deacon currently performing pastoral duties after Pastor Arlis Hibbard resigned. Hibbard now resides in a nursing home, and the congregation of 32 active members – according to the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Church Profile – has not called a new pastor.
Woods and Yarbrough, both in their 70s, are friends, having played in a band together decades ago. That was before Woods joined Old North and became a deacon, and before Yarbrough became a pastor. Prior to pastoring Johnson Chapel, Yarbrough pastored Macedonia Baptist Church, noted as the oldest Black Baptist church in the area.
“I’ve known him for 40 years since I was in college,” Woods said of Yarbrough. A good man, great singer. He was in law enforcement. He’s been a constable up until recently. He’s a dynamic, go-get-‘em individual.”
Up until COVID, Old North and Johnson Chapel would fellowship together on each other’s church anniversary. But the fellowships have not resumed since COVID.
“I do know we’d like to get that started again,” Woods said.
Both Primitive and Missionary Baptists who migrated from the United States in the early 1800s formed Old North Baptist. As for the church minutes, the only instruction the church gave Summers in 1890 was to keep the minutes safe from the hands of the Primitive Baptists, Holly said. From Summers Sr., the book was passed to Jesse Summers Jr., who lived 1883-1960; to Sallie T. Summers, 1888-1984, to Holly’s father.
“The Summers family was really involved in that church,” Holly said. “They helped build it in 1851.”
The Summers’ heart print on Old North Church dates to Mary Anne Meals Summers McCuistion, who lived from 1804-1892, and upon her death was known as “the oldest member of the oldest church in the oldest town in Texas.”
And why couldn’t the Primitive Baptists have the book?
As the story goes, in 1882 there was a heated disagreement over whether it would be prideful to paint the exterior of the church. The Primitive Baptists thought so, but the Missionary Baptists disagreed.
The church was painted. The Primitive left and formed Bethel Baptist Church. And Old North continued in ministry, still meeting today in that painted building.
Holly’s father thought it important to return the record book to the community, she said, choosing his alma mater which operates the East Texas Research Center.
“He always chose preservation over possession,” Holly said of her father. “I think that’s really honorable, especially with something like this that’s been in the family so long, that he chose to give it to the future as opposed to keeping it in the family.
“And I think that’s a really special thing that needs to be kind of honored and recognized.”
