Morning Chapel Missionary Baptist Church

Morning Chapel was one of several Black Baptist churches founded around Hopkins County in the years surrounding emancipation. A county genealogy site lists East Caney Baptist in 1864, Pleasant Hill and Galilee in 1867, and New Hope in 1868. The Handbook of Texas sets the scene: of 7,875 residents in 1860 just under 1,000 were Black, and by 1864 the Black population stood at 2,101 after slaveholders moved enslaved people in. For Morning Chapel itself the plaque says 1868, the same site's table says 1854, and a church guide it quotes says 1870.

What the plaque says

Morning Chapel Missionary Baptist Church IN 1868, AFRICAN-AMERICAN RESIDENTS BEGAN MEETING FOR WORSHIP IN THE OLD TARRANT SETTLEMENT. UNDER THE REV. MIKE WIGGINS, THEY ESTABLISHED OLD TARRANT BAPTIST CHURCH. IN 1876, THE CONGREGATION MOVED TO THE INTERSECTION OF FRONT AND FULLER STREETS IN THE NEWLY DESIGNATED HOPKINS COUNTY SEAT OF SULPHUR SPRINGS. MEMBERS HAVE REACHED OUT TO THE COMMUNITY SINCE THEN. A 1974 FIRE DESTROYED THE CHURCH; THE BUILDING WAS REPLACED LARGELY THROUGH FUNDS RAISED BY OTHER CHURCHES AND BY LOCAL BUSINESSES. TODAY, MORNING CHAPEL MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH CONTINUES TO BE A SPIRITUAL AND SOCIAL LEADER IN SULPHUR SPRINGS AND THE SURROUNDING AREA. (2010)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cooper Lake State Park — 15 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.

More markers nearby

• First Presbyterian Church of Sulphur Springs — 0.2 mi
• General W. H. King — 0.3 mi
• City National Bank — 0.3 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Sulphur Springs — 0.4 mi