Church History
| Concord Missionary Baptist Church |
Concord Church 1966
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| Corner stone of 1st church, click on photo to enlarge. |
| Texas Historical Medallion, presented to Concord in 1966. |
| Unfortunately most of the early records of the organization of the church at Concord have been lost. It is believed that the first meeting house was a log cabin just north of the present site. The original part of the present building was built about 1860 and remodeled in 1920. Original materials were used whenever possible. Since that time the building has been added to and remodeled several times. The most recent addition was to the auditorium where seating for approximately 100 was added, pews were replaced and new carpet was installed. John V. and Nancy P. Cherry first settled in this area of Morris County in the 1830's. Mr. Cherry served in the Texas War for Independence and in 1838 traveled from his home to Nacogdoches where he served the Republic of Texas as "interpreter for the Indians". In 1843 Mr. Cherry was elected pastor of the Baptist Church of Bethlehem, which met in the homes of members and in schools in the present Morris County. In 1846 Major John Pollard Gaines of the 1st Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Calvary marched through this area and recorded in his diary"... traveled 18 miles and camped at Cherry's, apparently a clever man and a Baptist preacher, the first divine I have seen in Texas and the second since I left Memphis..." The camp of Major Gaines was located in the vicinity of the present Concord Community. New Boston, Daingerfield, and Clarksville were the only towns; Mt Pleasant and Gilmer were in the process of being laid out as the county seats of Titus and Upshur Counties. An occasional Indian was to be seen in the forest along Boggy, Swanane, Sulphur, and Cypress. There were few cleared fields in cultivation and the homes of pioneers were very scattered. During the next ten years settlers from east of the Mississippi moved into the area and the forests began to disappear into orderly cultivated fields of cotton,corn,wheat and oats. A college, a boarding school, and a factory for the production of corn mills and cotton gins located in Daingerfield. A stagecoach line began regular runs from Jefferson to Clarksville through Daingerfield and Mt Pleasant. The distance traveled necessitated many intermediate stops and the town of Snow Hill, Titus County, was designated as one of these stops. Several miles north of Snow Hill construction started on a frame meeting house to be called Concord. Brinton Coffey, who is buried in Concord Cemetery, donated land for the meeting house and cemetery. (The Coffey family was among the first settlers of Morris County. They are identified with the churches at New Hope near the Hospital in the Pines and with Spring Hill, as well as Concord.) Residents of the area built the meeting house of local materials-perhaps the logs were cut on the site and hauled by oxen to the nearest saw mill at Snow Hill where the logs were sawed into rough lumber and planed by hand. Again the finished lumber was hauled to the site of the meeting house and the building was erected. Benches and tables were also built for the meeting house was to serve as a school as well as a church. It is thought that the 1st sermon preached in the Concord Meeting House was by the Rev. C.D. Myers in 1897. At that time Morris, Titus, and Franklin Counties were all Titus County, and the total population was less than 10,000 people. Meeting houses were used by all denominations and were called Union Churches for preachers were scarce and the people desired the Word of God from any one who preached. Then came the period of the War Between the States and Reconstruction. More ten percent of the total population of Titus County enlisted in the army of the Confederate States of America. The entire county was desolate of young men; farming operations began to change from cotton to corn, wheat and oats, which were shared with families fleeing from the war torn states east of the Mississippi River. The Confederacy enacted tax in kind laws where a tithe of all farm produce, cattle and livestock was collected for the war effort; prices soared and excess food, cloth and transportation were not to be found in the country. Each mail delivery brought news of war casualties to the community and finally in April 1865 came the news of the surrender at Appomattox. Many of the original families of the community moved west to begin a new life and from the Eastern States came another generation of pioneers into the area. With Reconstruction came military occupation-local elected officials were deposed from office. In 1868 first a Sargent and then a Corporal of the US Army was appointed sheriff of Titus County. With military occupation came lawlessness and corruption but still the Meeting House at Concord stood-a landmark for that which is good and right. In the Snow Hill community an ex-solider of the Confederacy, Solomon Hayes Price, was converted from a fighting, drinking man to a militant soldier of the cross. Four years later, in 1874 the Concord Church ordained Sol Price a minister. From all that has been said and written about Solomon Hayes Price, he must have been a wonderful man. At the time of his conversion he could neither read or write, but with the help of his wife and with the Bible as a tool, he became one of the best known and well liked preachers of his area. He served the Concord Church as pastor from 1874 until 1913. During his 47 years in the pulpit he served as pastors of 15 other churches. A few days before his 82nd birthday and six weeks prior to his death in November 1921, Price preached the Introductory Sermon for the Hopewell Association in session at Nevill's Chapel. Morris County was created from Titus County in the spring of 1875. The newly created county was divided into voting precincts and the several voting places of the county were designated. The voting places designated were:"...East of the Sedicum Line-Concord Meeting House". The Concord Meeting House served the area as a school, music school, voting place, community center, and place of worship. In 1919 the original frame was remodeled, using the original lumber whenever possible. Rev. J.W. Brewer of Paris assisted by rev. Pender of Greenville held the dedicatory services for the remodeled building in January 1920. July 10, 1983-The church voted to build an addition to the front of the church building. |
| Present Day Building |
