Bethel Missionary Baptist Church
Crockett, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This congregation began worshiping together in 1865 under a brush arbor on property owned by its founding pastor, the Rev. Phillip Burrell. In 1877, Phillip and Jane Burrell deeded one acre of their land at this site to the trustees of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. After additional land was purchased, the congregation constructed a permanent house of worship here in 1894, under the leadership of the Rev. Martin Reece (1859-1942), who served the church as pastor for 59 years. During the pastorate of the Rev. W. D. Dowe (1893-1957), a new brick church was built in 1952 to house the growing congregation. Growth continued under the leadership of the Rev. J. H. Holland (1901-1969) from 1958 to 1961 and the Rev. T. H. Foster (1914-1975) from 1962 to 1968. The congregation expanded its ministries in the latter half of the 20th century to include community service, education, Sunday morning television broadcasts and outreach over the Internet. Bethel Missionary Baptist Church has sponsored a number of its members for the ordained ministry. The congregation added a fellowship hall and education building in 1992. Members of this church have included Crockett civic leaders, educators and public officials. A significant part of the community's social and religious history, Bethel Missionary Baptist Church retains the ideals and traditions of its founders while looking to the future for growth and expansion. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Bethel Missionary Baptist Church began in 1865 under a brush arbor on land owned by its founding pastor, the Rev. Phillip Burrell—an origin rooted in the first months of freedom after emancipation. Burrell and his wife Jane deeded an acre for the church in 1877, and by 1894 the congregation built a permanent sanctuary under the Rev. Martin Reece, who served for 59 years. A brick church followed in 1952 as the congregation and its community ministries grew.
Why it matters
Founded in the year slavery ended, Bethel embodies how freedpeople built enduring institutions of faith, education, and leadership at the very dawn of their liberty.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rev. Phillip Burrell
- · Jane Burrell
- · Rev. Martin Reece
- · Rev. W. D. Dowe
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mary Allen Seminary
Crockett, TX
In 1886 the Presbyterian Church's Board of Missions for Freedmen chose Crockett—for its large Black population and an existing parochial school—as the home of a new school for Black girls, named for Mary Allen, wife of the effort's leader. Growing into Mary Allen College under its first Black president, Dr. Byrd R. Smith, it became a coeducational, four-year liberal arts institution before legal and financial troubles forced its closing in 1972. For generations its twelve-building campus stood as a center of quality education in East Texas.
Samuel Fisher Tenney
Crockett, TX
A Georgia native and Civil War veteran, Samuel Fisher Tenney (1840-1926) graduated from the University of Georgia and a South Carolina seminary before settling in Crockett in 1870. For 54 years he served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, while also helping build educational facilities for Black residents and starting a mission in 1880 for the Alabama-Coushatta Indians in Polk County. His long ministry left a deep mark on the region.
All Saints Episcopal Church
Crockett, TX
Episcopal worship reached Crockett in 1850, and All Saints was formally founded in 1864 by Bishop Alexander Gregg during the depths of the Civil War, its special ministry bringing many enslaved people into the parish. By 1867 the church building had been lost—possibly to fire—and the local economy lay in ruins from the war, leaving the faithful to gather in homes with occasional priests for decades. Reactivated in 1947, the congregation built a new church in 1958.
Givens Homesite
Houston County, TX
Solomon George Givens and his wife Lula, both born in Houston County in 1871 to formerly enslaved parents, married in Crockett in 1891 and bought 34 acres here the following year. Their farm prospered, and in 1893 they built a large eight-room house on this site. Known for their charity and their leadership in founding a local school and Baptist church — with baptisms held in a tank on their land — the Givenses made their home the heart of an African-American farming community remembered as "Givens Hill."