Antioch Missionary Baptist Church
Carthage, Panola County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Five charter members founded this church in 1871. J. F. McLendon and W. H. H. Hayes served as first pastors. A sanctuary was built on 2.4 acres (present-day Antioch Cemetery) donated by T. J. Miller and Margaret Barnes in 1876. It was destroyed by fire and a new church building was erected here on land purchased by B. G. Holmes about 1883. It burned in 1939 but was rebuilt in 1940. Services were conducted once monthly until 1950, when a parsonage was built at the former site of Antioch School. The congregation continues to serve the community with various programs and activities. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Five charter members founded Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in 1871, with J. F. McLendon and W. H. H. Hayes as its first pastors. An 1876 sanctuary rose on land donated for what is now Antioch Cemetery, and after fires in the 1880s and 1939 the congregation rebuilt each time, adding a parsonage on the site of the old Antioch School in 1950. For more than 150 years the church has served rural Panola County.
Why it matters
Antioch's long survival through repeated fires and rebuildings shows the tenacity of the rural East Texas congregations that held their scattered farming communities together.
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Related people
- · J. F. McLendon
- · W. H. H. Hayes
Themes & tags
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