Damascus Missionary Baptist Church
Corrigan, Polk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized 1863. First pastor, Brother J. R. Dowell. Original building was of logs; had split log benches on peg legs. Replaced by frame building, 1892; the present church, 1950. A charter member of the Angelina Missionary Baptist Association.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1863 amid the upheaval of the Civil War, Damascus Missionary Baptist Church began in a humble log building with split-log benches resting on peg legs. A frame structure replaced it in 1892, and the present church rose in 1950. A charter member of the Angelina Missionary Baptist Association, the congregation has served its rural East Texas community for well over a century.
Why it matters
The plainspoken endurance of a backwoods congregation — from log benches to a lasting sanctuary — reflects the deep roots of Baptist faith in rural Southern life.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · J.R. Dowell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Wheeler Cemetery
Corrigan, TX
This rural graveyard began in 1875 with a family's grief: Alabama-born Jefferson Wheeler and his wife Hannah buried their daughter Vina here after a hunting accident. The Wheelers later gave an acre around her grave to the community as a "neighborhood burying ground," and it remains active today. Among those interred are pioneer families and veterans of conflicts stretching from the Civil War to Korea.
Emporia Cemetery
Diboll, TX
This burial ground in the Angelina County pinewoods predates the timber boomtowns that grew up around it, beginning with the 1882 grave of an infant son of W.E. and Emily Waltman. When the Emporia sawmill ran nearby from 1893 to 1906, some of its workers and their families were laid to rest here, many in unmarked graves. Cared for at times by the Anthony family, the site is notable for its folk gravemarkers of petrified wood and homemade concrete, and now sits within the city limits of Diboll.
Union Springs Baptist Church
Corrigan, TX
Union Springs Baptist Church was organized in the 1860s by the first seven families to settle this corner of Polk County, with Brother Jimmy Knox as its first pastor. The original church was a pegged log cabin warmed by a fireplace, with a hand-riven board roof, split-log floors, and split-log seats. More modern buildings followed in 1885 and 1955 as the congregation grew.
Prairie Grove
Diboll vicinity, TX
Prairie Grove took shape in 1845 as a gathering place for East Texas settlers, its cemetery beginning in 1849 with the burial of a young Stovall daughter. A combined school and church built in the 1880s became the community's heart, evolving into the Prairie Grove Missionary Baptist Church by 1921. Though the school closed in 1948, the church and cemetery have served the area for well over a century.