Greater Bell Zion Missionary Baptist Church

The Settlement's church has outlasted fires, a hurricane and its own names. A Houston Chronicle report counts it among the oldest African American Baptist churches in Texas, standing on one plot since 1885. It came through the 1915 hurricane, and after a fire in the 1940s the congregation built again and took the name Greater Bell Zion, which remembers Gratton Bell, the third minister. In September 2019 an attic fire destroyed most of the church's historic artifacts and melted its stained glass, and members met for Sunday services at Greater St. Matthews Baptist Church in Hitchcock.

What the plaque says

Greater Bell Zion Missionary Baptist Church In the late 1860s and early 1870s, land near the center of Galveston county was bought by a group of African Americans who wished to establish a settlement. Most of the founders were black cowboys who earned their living riding the Chisholm Trail and raising cattle. Some of the founding families were the Britons, Philips, Hobgoods, Caldwells and Bells. A Baptist church was founded in 1885 and soon became the backbone of the African American community. It was organized by Rev. Israel S. Campbell (1815-1898) who was an escaped slave. Before coming to Texas he lived in Canada, attended Oberlin College and became a minister. He is known as the "Father of Black Texas Baptists" because of his missionary work to spread the Baptist faith. The church frequently changed its name depending on the pastor presiding over it. It was first known as Campbellsville Baptist Church, then Jefferson Chapel after the second pastor, then Bell's chapel after the third. With the influence of the old landmark district association, the congregation renamed it but retained the Bell reference. They concluded with Greater Bell Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Throughout the decades since it was established, the church has been a provider for its community. It was not only a spiritual place, but a place where one could acquire an education. In 1874, the first school building was built in connection with the church. Katie Bell, the first school teacher, taught both children and adults to read and write. Backing Boy Scout troops and running a library are also impacts the church made. For more than a century, the church has been a focal point in the community.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Seaport Museum and the Elissa — 12 mi
  An iron barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877 that called at Galveston twice, ended up smuggling in the Adriatic, and was bought back from a Greek scrapyard to sail again from Pier 22.
• The Strand — 12 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.
• Moody Mansion — 12 mi
  A four-story, 28,000-square-foot house on Broadway, finished in 1895, that W. L. Moody Jr. bought just after the 1900 storm and his family kept until Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
• Galveston Seawall and the 1900 Storm — 12 mi
  The concrete wall along the Gulf that Galveston built after the hurricane of September 8, 1900, which killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people in a city of 38,000.

More markers nearby

• Settlement Community — steps away
• Frank Bell, Jr. — 1.1 mi
• Texas City Memorial Cemetery — 3.0 mi
• Texas City — 3.6 mi