Mount Pleasant C.M.E. Church
Crockett, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Though Methodist worship had long been organized among area African Americans, the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church of America was founded locally as Mount Pleasant C. M. E. Church in 1885. T. H. Nelms deeded two acres of his former plantation land to church trustees S. Quantrell, J. Oneil, Sr., and A. Berry. The Rev. Peter Steward was first pastor. The Fodice school met in the church building until about 1900. A second building, erected in 1901, served until it was destroyed by a spring tornado in 1941. The Mount Pleasant congregation continues a proud heritage of worship. (1998) Incise on base: In Memory: Louise Jefferson Davis Davis (1927-1995)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1885, this congregation belonged to the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, a denomination formed by African Americans in the years after emancipation. Its two acres were deeded by T.H. Nelms from his former plantation land to Black church trustees, and the building doubled as the Fodice school until about 1900. A second sanctuary built in 1901 stood until a tornado destroyed it in 1941, yet the congregation carried on.
Why it matters
Independent Black churches like this were the cornerstones of African American community, faith, and education in the post-emancipation South.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Mount Pleasant C.M.E. Church was founded in 1885, twenty years after emancipation reached Texas. The years after the Civil War brought freedom to formerly enslaved people across East Texas, along with enormous challenges. Freedpeople set about building the institutions slavery had denied them: independent churches, schools, mutual-aid groups and landholding communities.
The church's denomination came out of that same movement. The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1870 by Black Methodists who chose to form their own church rather than stay under white leadership. It spread across the South as freedpeople built congregations they controlled themselves. The denomination later became the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, keeping the same initials.
As the marker notes, Methodist worship had long been organized among African Americans in this area before the congregation formally became Mount Pleasant C.M.E. in 1885. That detail matters. Faith here did not begin with a building or a charter. Those came later, as people who had worshipped together for years gave their community a lasting shape.
People & events
The land itself tells a remarkable story. T.H. Nelms deeded two acres of what had been his plantation to the church's trustees: S. Quantrell, J. Oneil Sr. and A. Berry. Ground that had once been part of the plantation economy became a Black congregation's own sacred space, held by trustees chosen from the community.
The Rev. Peter Steward was the first pastor, leading the new congregation through its early years. As in so many Black communities of the time, the church building served more than one purpose. The Fodice school met there until about 1900, so on weekdays the sanctuary was a classroom. Children learned to read and write in the same room where their families worshipped.
In 1901 the congregation put up a second building, which served for forty years until a spring tornado destroyed it in 1941. The marker ends by saying the congregation continues a proud heritage of worship, which tells you the people rebuilt and carried on. An inscription at the base remembers Louise Jefferson Davis Davis (1927–1995), a reminder that a church's history is written by its members across generations.
Its place in the American story
Across the post-emancipation South, independent Black churches were the heart of community life. They were places of worship and much more: schools, meeting halls, centers of mutual support, and training grounds for leaders. Mount Pleasant's double role as church and schoolhouse is a small example of a pattern repeated in thousands of communities.
The founding of denominations like the C.M.E. Church was an act of self-determination. Freedpeople chose to govern their own religious lives, call their own ministers and own their own property. Those were rights that had been completely out of reach under slavery.
The church's survival through the loss of its building in 1941 shows something else that matters: endurance. Many rural Black congregations lived through storms, economic hardship and the pressures of segregation, and kept going. Mount Pleasant is one thread in that larger American story of faith, education and community built from the ground up.
If you visit
Crockett is one of the oldest towns in Texas, set in the Piney Woods of East Texas. Driving the rural roads around it, you get a sense of the farm country where congregations like Mount Pleasant took root. Remember that this is an active place of worship, so visit respectfully, especially during services.
When you reach the marker, take a moment with the memorial inscription on its base. It is a quiet, personal tribute that turns the church's history from dates into people. Think about the two acres of former plantation land under your feet, and about the schoolchildren who once studied inside these church walls.
If you are exploring African American history in Texas, Mount Pleasant fits well into a wider drive through the region's rural churches, cemeteries and freedom communities. Many have their own markers, and together they tell the story of how freedpeople built lasting institutions in the decades after emancipation.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · T.H. Nelms
- · Peter Steward
Themes & tags
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