Brief History of Mount Pisgah Baptist Church

Originally organized in 1853 as the Holly Springs Baptist Church of Christ, Mount Pisgah Baptist Church has influenced citizens of Wood County for more than 150 years.
 

On November 18, 1853 Samuel H. Davis, Peter M. Gunstream, and Mary A. Gunstream met at the home of Brother J. D. J. Davis. Following their decision to organize a church they wrote an article of faith by which members would believe. The church received its first new members on November 26, 1853.
 

The first pastor, Brother Davis, had served as secretary for another church that was organized in 1848. Charter member Peter Gunstream came by ship to America from Sweden in 1836. He brought his belongings in an iron-bound chest which included a Bible written in Swedish. He met Mary Alitia Davis in Louisiana and they married in 1842. They moved to Texas in 1847 in an ox-drawn wagon. Gunstream petitioned the US Post Office for a Post Office in Pine Mills, served part-time as Justice of the Peace, and was the first County Commissioner of Precinct Four following the organization of Wood County in 1850.
 

The first church building was about three fourths of a mile from the Gunstream home. The building was constructed of logs and participants in the services sat on benches made of split pine logs supported by sticks driven into augur holes.
 

The church called its second pastor, Brother Ambrose Fitzgerald, in November, 1857. Brother Fitzgerald is reported to have baptized the first native governor of Texas, James Stephen Hogg. Brother Fitzgerald served as County Clerk for Wood County, a post he relinquished when he volunteered for service in the Confederate Army as the Civil War began.
 

In June 1859 a committee began researching a place to build a new church building. They selected a place at the head of Macela Creek and constructed a new building in 1860. The church today resides at that same location. In September 1866 the church voted to change its name to Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church. (Mount Pisgah is the location from which Moses viewed the Promised Land just before his death (Deuteronomy 34:1-5).)
 

For a few years in the early part of the twentieth century, Mt. Pisgah did not meet for services. In 1934 B. B. Orr of Dallas, owner of a Pine Mills sawmill, desired to see an active Baptist church in the community. He found others who were interested in attending a church and these reopened Mt. Pisgah. The Dyess, Cartwright, and Slayton families were instrumental in helping the church to reestablish services. The church soon called Brother Ira Kimbrough as pastor and attendance averaged about forty during this time. In the years of the Great Depression, church members worked a cotton patch west of the church to raise money to buy a piano and other necessities.
 

In 1938 the church called Brother J. C. Pollard as pastor. Brother Pollard pastored four to five churches in the area, meeting with a different one each weekend. He walked or caught a ride with someone to get to the church. Most of what he received from the churches was in the form of food and supplies his family needed. His oldest son, Johnnie Pollard, often pretended that he was a pastor as he learned about ministry from observing his father.
 

In 1961 the church called Brother Johnnie Pollard as pastor. In 1968 the church stopped the practice of annually calling the pastor, and Brother Pollard continued to serve the church until February 2006. From 1971 to 1973 the church remodeled their building to include a new sanctuary, classrooms, indoor restrooms, and a baptistry. Brother J. C. Pollard preached the dedication service for the new building on June 17, 1973.
 

Mt. Pisgah Baptist church has a great history. In addition to the teaching and preaching impacting the lives of local members, the church has actively supported missions in all parts of the world. Mt. Pisgah has experienced times of greater membership and success, as well as times when resources were more limited. Throughout the years, however, the grace of God has always been more than sufficient to allow this church to minister to the citizens of Pine Mills and surrounding areas.

 

(This article was taken almost entirely from a paper by Jonathan Pollard (Johnnie Pollard’s grandson) composed in 1996.)

 

Text of the Historical Marker for Mt. Pisgah:
Started as the Holly Springs Baptist Church of Christ, this fellowship is one of the oldest in Wood County. The first meeting was held on November 18, 1853, at the residence of J. D. J. Davis, who served as pastor. Charter members were Samuel Davis, Peter Magnus Gunstream, and Mary Alitia Gunstream. Early worship services were held in a log building and later in a chapel at Liberty Hill, now Pine Mills. A new sanctuary was built here by 1860 and the church name was changed in 1865. The membership has included many early county leaders.