Sherman Chapel Missionary Baptist Church
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Following emancipation, many African American congregations were founded in East Texas in the 1870s. As freedmen, they wanted their own places to worship in their own communities. Established in the Judson community in 1870, Sherman Chapel Missionary Baptist Church was organized with support from Reverend Daniel Sherman. In the early years, the church building was shared with the Pleasant Hill Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (later named Christian Methodist Episcopal Church) until each congregation could construct a sanctuary. The first location was on Freedmen’s Ridge near Omega in northeastern Gregg County, a community formed after the Civil War for emancipated slaves. In the early 1940s, Sherman Chapel Congregation briefly relocated to a site one-quarter mile north of here to a place known as “in the pines.” After a fire destroyed the building in 1945-46, the church congregation began to search for a new home. In 1947, land was purchased on State Highway 26 which was later renamed Highway 259, and construction of a sanctuary began. The church commemorated the building’s completion on March 9, 1952, when they began their annual church anniversary celebration. In the 1980s, the sanctuary was rebuilt on the same lot due to the widening of the highway. For more than a century, Sherman Chapel Missionary Baptist Church Members have nurtured, educated and fostered spiritual growth in the community with leadership and support. Throughout the decades and sometimes jarring changes, the congregation has remained a spiritual beacon for the families of the area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1870 in the Judson community with help from Reverend Daniel Sherman, this congregation of freedpeople first shared a building with a Methodist congregation until each could build its own sanctuary. Its earliest home stood on Freedmen's Ridge near Omega, a settlement formed by emancipated slaves after the Civil War. Through fire, relocation, and a highway that forced it to rebuild, the church has remained a spiritual anchor for more than a century.
Why it matters
Its story maps the freedmen's communities of East Texas—places like Freedmen's Ridge—where formerly enslaved families built self-governing lives around their own churches.
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Related people
- · Daniel Sherman
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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