Site of Old North Church

The Baptist Standard traces the church to April 21, 1836, when Isaac Reed preached the first Baptist sermon to a small group beneath a post oak, at the invitation of Massie Millard. A one-room log cabin served as church and school, the cemetery began that year, and the church was constituted in 1838. The article says Millard's husband died of an arrow wound around 1838, leaving her with two small sons, and that her brother-in-law Richard Sparks gave the land. The congregation is called the oldest active missionary Baptist church constituted in Texas.

What the plaque says

Site of Old North Church 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.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Nacogdoches County — 1.3 mi
• Wisely Hall — 3.2 mi
• Stephen Fuller Austin — 3.2 mi
• Karle Wilson Baker — 3.3 mi