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Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church Denison, Texas Denison Herald February 5, 1993 Mount Pleasant history as long as Denison's Mount Pleasant Baptist Church was organized in mid-summer 1 872, near Baer's Ferry (Denison Dam area) on the Red River, in the one-room log cabin home of James Moore Coffman (the son of David H. Coffman, Sr.) who was later to become a Baptist minister. There were 12 charter members - the pastor and his wife, their 3 sons and their wifes, and some neighbors. Rev. J.K.P. Williams was chosen as the first minister and served the slowly growing church for the next 10 years. Due to sparse population at that time, the church met from home to home until 1879, when David H. Coffman, Sr. and Joseph Layne donated land to the county to be used for a school, cemetery and church. A one-room log cabin was built on this land and served as both the first Layne School and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. There were no desks. blackboards or rest rooms in this early school/church. Chairs were set in a circle around an old wood-burning, pot-bellied stove. It was located in the same area where Layne Elementary School stands today. After a few years, the log cabin was replaced at the same location with a larger one-room, white frame building - serving again as both Layne School and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. This structure was the meeting place for the congregation until 1922. It later burned to the gound. In 1922 the church purchased lots and constructed a frame building of its own in the 2400 block of West Walker. It consisted of a small auditorium and 2 or 3 classrooms, with an additional 2 classrooms housed in a small "shotgun" building in the back. This humble structure served as a meeting place until 1946. In 1946 the property at the church's present location, 2401 West Morton, was purchased. Here a modern brick structure was erected. This was the fruit of 75 years of organized history of the church. It had a large auditorium, raised rostrum for a choir of 30, 11 class rooms, a nursery, kitchen and study; plus, a brick cabin for Scout Troop 201, sponsored by the brotherhood ofo the church. The first church structure on West Morton was destroyed by fire in 1951, but the church built back bigger and better later that same year. This rebuilding consisted of the old portion of the present edifice. After the burnout, the congregation met at Layne School until the rebuilding was complete. In December 1965 eight additional lots joining the peoperty on West Morton Street were purchased. The church continued to grow. In 1966, for need of more space, the old church sanctuary was converted into an educational building and a $150,000 new sanctuary, with a spacious choir loft and seating for about 550, plus other facilities, was erected on the west side, adjoining the old sanctuary. This climaxed the church's building program into the large, beautiful edifice they have today. Mount Pleasant is affiliated with the American Baptist Association, Missionary Baptist Association of Texas, and Grayson Landmark Baptist Association. The church supports mission work through these affiliations and supports Christian education through the Texas Baptist Institute in Henderson, Texas. The church is pastored by Dr. Lee R. Tillman. Sunday School at Mount Pleasant begins at 9:45 a.m., morning worship at 10:50; Baptist training course at 6 p.m., Sunday evening worship at 7 and Wednesday prayer meeting at 7:30 p.m.  Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church History Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson CountyTXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |