Sardis Baptist Church
New Salem, Rusk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the 1850s, several families settled in an area that became Pleasant Grove, also known as Shake Rag. In 1911, the community organized a Baptist Church. The church met in the Pleasant Grove school house that was shared with the Methodist church. In 1921, Rufus and Mary Allen donated 1.5 acres and lumber from his sawmill for a church building. The deed expressly stated that the frame building would be shared by all denominations. The first pastor was Brother Deckert Anderson. In 1951, a Sunday School room was added, but in 1958, the building was sold and a larger church was built to accommodate the growing membership. The church is all that remains of this community. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1850s settlers put down roots in an area that became Pleasant Grove—also known as Shake Rag—and in 1911 the community organized a Baptist church that met in the local schoolhouse shared with the Methodists. In 1921 Rufus and Mary Allen donated an acre and a half and sawmill lumber for a building deeded to be shared by all denominations, and the church expanded before being rebuilt larger in 1958. The church is now all that remains of the community.
Why it matters
A shared, all-denomination country church captures the cooperative spirit of small East Texas settlements—and today stands as the sole survivor of the community that raised it.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rufus and Mary Allen
- · Brother Deckert Anderson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lone Star
New Summerfield, TX
Founded before the Civil War with the earthy nickname "Skin Tight," this community took the name Lone Star when its post office opened in 1883 and blossomed into a center of trade, education, and culture. At its height it boasted businesses, a public school, four churches, two lodges, and the Lone Star Institute. A devastating 1893 fire, a railroad that passed it by, and disappointing oil prospects each drained away its future.
Anadarko Rosenwald School
Laneville vicinity, TX
In 1868 formerly enslaved people from the Devereaux plantation founded the community of Anadarko and the Anadarko Christian Church, which hosted the area's first Black public school. With $900 from Julius Rosenwald's fund, plus public and family donations, a three-teacher Rosenwald School was built here in 1926, later renamed for principal U. E. Allen. Only the gymnasium's pier-and-beam foundation now remains of the school that served the community until integration.
Henry's Chapel Community
Troup, TX
In 1848 the Presbyterian minister William Porter Henry moved from Alabama to northeastern Cherokee County, where he preached for the rest of his life. Nearby investors platted the town of Knoxville in 1854, but it withered after the International and Great Northern Railway bypassed it for Troup in 1872. To serve the farmers who stayed, Henry donated five acres in 1874 for a school, church, and cemetery, and the community that gathered around them took his name; today the historic cemetery is its last physical trace.
New Summerfield Public School
New Summerfield, TX
Schooling in this Cherokee County community began in the 1850s inside the Union Chapel Church, which doubled as a worship house and gathering place. A one-room schoolhouse followed in 1895, and the school's name shifted with the local post office until the town — and the school — became "New Summerfield" to avoid duplicating another Texas Summerfield. Through fires, windstorms, and consolidations, the school remained the community's hub.