Simmons Hill Baptist Church
Harleton, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This church traces its origins to the 1850s at a site near the Upshur County line, which gave the church its first name of County Line Baptist Church. Minutes from an 1869 meeting of the Soda Lake Association show that Pastor W. W. Lee was leading 58 members. The church joined the Liberty Baptist Association in 1902. About 1915, the church began meeting in the Simmons School House. After the school consolidated with Harleton in 1939, William Hartwell Simmons, in 1941, deeded the property to the B. M. A. Baptist church of Simmons community. The congregation remodeled the schoolhouse and changed names to Simmons Hill Baptist Church in 1944. The church, which built a new sanctuary in 1996, continues to serve as a beacon of light in the area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Baptist congregation began in the 1850s near the Upshur County line, first taking the name County Line Baptist Church, and by 1869 counted 58 members under Pastor W. W. Lee. Early in the twentieth century it gathered in the Simmons School House, and when that school consolidated with Harleton, the community remodeled the building into a sanctuary and adopted the name Simmons Hill in 1944. A new sanctuary followed in 1996.
Why it matters
The church's path from schoolhouse to sanctuary shows how rural Texas congregations and one-room schools shared buildings, names, and neighbors as the twin institutions of community life.
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Related people
- · W. W. Lee
- · William Hartwell Simmons
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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