"A History of Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church"

Written by Mary Franklin (Deason) Dunn 1968

Settlers began coming into the section of Texas that we now know as Rusk County, in the 1820's, while it was still under the jurisdiction of Mexico. After Texas Independence in 1836, this section was a part of Nacogdoches County. By 1842 enough settlers were here to form a separate county and Rusk County was organized January 16, 1843. Heads of families who obtained grants of land in the Zion Hill area of Rusk County wwere John Ferguson, John Welch, Benjamin Lane, Dewitt Lyons, E.C. Lane, Susan Jefferies, John Moore, Andrew Miller and others.

The land around Zion Hill Baptist Church was sparsely settled until late 1849 when a group of pioneers came from Georgia and began the settlement of Minden. Zion Hill was not too far from "Old Minden" where the children attended school and where a Methodist Church and a cemetery were located in the 1860's.

The nearest Baptist churches were at Shiloh and at Pine Hill. Shiloh Baptist Church had been organized in the 1840's by Isaac Reed and Lemuel Herrin, two Baptist preachers from Tennessee who had organized most of the earliest Baptist churches in this section.

Holly Springs Baptist Church at Pine Hill had been organized in 1851 by Elder Obediah Dodson.

Mt. Zion Baptist Church at Mount Enterprise (later known as Major Penn's Campground) had been the first Baptist Church organized in Rusk County, while it was still Nacogdoches County. It was at this church that the Mount Zion Baptist Association was organized on Friday before the first Sabbath in 1857.

Other Baptist churches in Rusk County during the 1840's and 1850's were Henderson, Harmony Church at Bellview, Mount Moriah at San Cosma, Mount Carmel, Cool Spring at New Salem, New Prospect at Millville and Pleasant Grove at Harmony Hill. Presbyterian churches were located at Henderson, Pleasant Hill, Pine Grove and Mount Enterprise. Methodist churches were at Henderson, Mount Enterprise, Millville, Minden and Bethel.

On August 8, 1868 a group of interested people met in an old log building which was located across the road from the present Zion Hill Church for the purpose of organizing a Baptist church. From the beginning it was called Zion Hill. According to tradition there were fifteen charter members, but the church minutes do not list them. The minutes do show that seventeen people joined at a protracted meeting which followed the organization. The Mount Zion Association minutes show a total of thirty-seven members on September 18, 1868. On this date, Zion Hill Baptist Church presented a petitionary letter for membership in the Mount Zion Association which met at the Beulah Church. Liberty Baptist Church of Rusk County presented their petitionary letter at the same time. Some of the earliest members mentioned in the minutes and thought possibly to have been charter members of the Zion Hill Baptist Church were John Deason and his wife, Mary Jane (Howell) Deason A.J. "Jack" Welch Robert Marion Barton J.J. and wife Margaret Humphries Joseph Clark M. Harrison Welch and wife Larisa Welch J.W. Reed and wife Asenath Lewis Celia Barksdale Elder John Sparkman was unanimously elected the first pastor on September 4, 1868 and Robert Marion Barton was the first church clerk.

The Articles of Faith and Church Covenant were adopted August 29, 1868. Rules of Decorum were read and adopted on September 3, 1868. (NOTE: This excerpt is from the 60-page booklet detailing the history of Zion Hill Baptist Church that was published in 1968 by Bill Decker Publishing of Henderson, TX. It was published and sold in celebration of the 100th birthday of the church. Members of that church should be contacted regarding the present availability of the booklet.)