MILLVILLE BAPTIST CHURCH

 The following was taken from page /// of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Cemeteries of Texas

 Millville Baptist Church is one of the oldest churches in Rusk County.  It is situated eight miles northeast of Henderson on Farm-to-Market Road 782 (Chicken Feather Road to old-timers, Wine Road to early settlers).  The site of the present church was deeded to the community for a burying place, church, school and Masonic Lodge in 1851 by Jesse Walling from his Mexican grant of 4,000 acres. 

Millville Baptist Church began meeting in 1860.  One of its earliest meeting places was the two-story Masonic Lodge pictured above.  The Lodge met on the second floor, the church and school met on the first floor.  In 1903 the church began cooperating with the Southern Baptist Convention.  The present facilities were built in 1946.

Millville Baptist Church has been ministering to the people of Millville and surrounding communities for a century and a quarter.  The church continues to maintain full time preaching and Sunday School programs today.

 Millville Cemetery is located behind the church on the beautiful slope of a gentle hill.  The well-manicured plots display tombstones with weather-worn inscriptions of family members of the original settlers as well as markers of their descendants and more recent residents who made the area their home.  Each first Saturday in May people whose memories and dreams were shaped by this East Texas community wind their way from all over Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana to Millville for Memorial Day.

 Rusk County history and culture continue to prosper through Millville Baptist Church and Cemetery.