Mount Arie (Mount Ararat) Missionary Baptist Church
Bartlett, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Bartlett was a small farming community in 1898. Black American laborers arrived each fall for the cotton harvest. Thomas Sanders and Nelson Secret and their families called the Reverend F. E. Garrett of Temple to help them establish Mount Arie Missionary Baptist Church in June 1898. Among the first families of the church were those of the Reverend W. M. Muckleroy, Wallace Dotray and C. A. Harris. The small congregation originally met on the Bell County side of Bartlett, but in 1910 had grown enough to prompt a move to Brook Street in Williamson County. The years 1921 and 1933 were lean ones. The church building was moved to Bowie Street in 1953 because of unstable land on its Brook Street site. The structure was modernized in the 1960s and 1970s. Membership increased dramatically, and the congregation began to integrate after 1977. The eighth decade of the church's history brought new developments. The congregation moved into a new brick facility in 1980, the same year the church name was changed to Mount Ararat Missionary Baptist Church after it was discovered that Mount Arie was an abbreviation for the name of the mountain on which Noah's Ark landed as depicted in the Old Testament. The Mount Ararat Missionary Baptist Church celebrated its centennial in June 1998. The congregation supports widespread missionary and outreach programs. The membership and its diversity continue to increase as the congregation carries on in the traditions of its founders. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1898 Black laborers who came to Bartlett for the cotton harvest gathered with local families to found what began as Mount Arie Missionary Baptist Church, calling in a minister from Temple to help organize it. Over the decades the congregation moved repeatedly — across a county line, then to steadier ground — weathering lean years and modernizing its building. In 1980 it took the name Mount Ararat and, having begun to integrate after 1977, carried its founders' traditions into a new brick sanctuary.
Why it matters
The church's century-long story mirrors the African American experience in rural Texas, from cotton-harvest labor and segregation to the slow integration and community outreach of the late 20th century.
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Related people
- · Thomas Sanders
- · Nelson Secret
- · Rev. F. E. Garrett
- · Rev. W. M. Muckleroy
Themes & tags
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