Grove Hill Missionary Baptist Church

The church credits Rev. Jack Yates with organizing it in 1884, and Houston's Jack Yates is the likely man, because he spent the war years in Matagorda County. Born enslaved in Virginia in 1828, he was brought there around 1863 with the household of his wife Harriet's enslaver, and was freed in June 1865. He became first pastor of Antioch Baptist in Houston. Grove Hill's first building also served as a school for freedpeople and their descendants; in 1938 Pledger's Black school had four teachers for 134 pupils, its white school three for 59.

What the plaque says

Grove Hill Missionary Baptist Church Named for an area near the Brown Plantation home site, Grove Hill Baptist Church was organized in 1884 by the Rev. Jack Yates and London Branch. The original church building also served as a school for the African American community. A new church structure was built on this site in 1919. As the congregation expanded, a Sunday School, music department, choir and youth group were established. Improvements to the building included enlarging the pulpit area, and building a steeple and a detached bell tower. The church continues to serve the community as it has for over 100 years. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 16 mi
  A Brazos sugar plantation built by enslaved people for the Patton family, later leased convict labor and Hogg family oil, now told through Rachel Patton and Sarah Ford.
• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 20 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Brazos Bend State Park — 23 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.

More markers nearby

• Boling — 6.2 mi
• Sweeny Plantation — 12 mi
• Philip H. Parker Post No. 2438, V.F.W. — 12 mi
• Samuel Damon — 12 mi