These historical accounts have been taken from the minutes of the church as recorded by church clerks.
The first meeting of the community prior to the organization of the church that would be known as the New Hope Baptist Church of Christ, was held on the first Saturday of August in 1864. It was held in an area known as Greer's Neighborhood in the forks of the Sabine River. The location is approximately where the Sabine River forks off into Lake Fork Creek, at the back to acreage owned at the present time by Michael Carlisle.
Elder A. Coker was asked to sit as moderator pro-tem and Elder Ambrose was the clerk pro-tem. Charter members of the church were William H. Dodson, Barbara Dodson, Mary Dodson and Mary Parmer.
A church covenant, abstract of principles, and Rules of decorum were presented, read and adopted.
More meetings were held following the organizational meeting and six people presented themselves for membership. Those received by letter were Jermima Favors, Sarah Walker, Eliza Odom, Martha M. Richey, Adaline Dodson and Martha B. Wooten.
Eight were received for baptism and were baptized at the forks of the Sabine River by Elder A. Fitzgerald. Also baptized that day was ‘George', a servant of J.J. Carter, along with "Olivwer' and ‘Ginny', servants of James Parmer. These people were former slaves who had just received their freedom through Lincoln's proclamation which had not been recognized by the South.
The first record of preaching was in September 1864 on the Sabbath by W.H. Dodson. Elder Dodson preached and Bro. A. Fitzgerald was elected as pastor in October of 1864.
These first minutes were signed by W.H. Dodson, Church Clerk, and A. Fitzgerald, Moderator. At the September meeting in 1864, delegates were appointed to represent the Church in the Sabine Association.
On March 14, 1869, the first indication of a Sunday school is recorded. The church was action in collecting food, clothing, and offerings for the R.C. Buckner Orphans Home in Dallas.
In 1890, new rules of decorum were established and the name New Hope was changed to Stephen's Chappell Missionary Baptist Church of Christ. It was organized out of the members of New Hope and with the same pastor. It continued as Stephen's Chappell for over 25 years.
There is no known record of the church from November of 1887 to June of 1890. Also, the records from 1890, 1891 and 1892 are not complete and contain less than a dozen minutes.
Around 1890, the church building was located approximately 200 to 300 yards northwest of the New Hope Cemetery. The first Sunday in August was always designated as ‘cemetery Working Day', when lunch would be served at the cemetery, then families would work on the cemetery.
On June 20th, 1897, comes the first mention of singing and Sunday school which began at 10 a.m. and preaching which started at 11 a.m.
The first treasurer, Charles Mabus, was elected in April of 1898.
From its organization until 1902, the Church minutes contain many dismissals from the Church for unchristian conduct. The church seemed to relax its harsh disciplining of its members after the turn of the century.
On July 5th, 1902, the church elected a committee to look into building a new church building. It was to by 28 feet by 44 feet. No record was found of any action taken. Also, an account of one of the first Bible schools was noted in June of 1912.
(Part II of this church's history will appear in the next edition of the newspaper.)
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