DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give you every word it earned. Somewhere in Corsicana, Navarro County, a story begins not with a building but with people — a group of former slaves, led by a man named Simon Perry, who in 1868 organized what they called the second African Baptist Church. Think about that for just a moment.
The ink on emancipation was barely dry, and these men and women were already building something that would outlast almost everything around them. They found a home on Fourth Avenue. They raised a sanctuary.
And then 1886 arrived. A storm — the marker doesn't soften it — destroyed that sanctuary on Fourth Avenue. Gone.
Now, a lesser congregation might have scattered. But these members did something else entirely. They purchased new property.
They constructed a new building. And they kept going. They kept going so well that by 1918 they completed the present structure — a building still standing when that marker was written.
Then came 1929, and a name change. The congregation decided the old name no longer told the whole story. They wanted the world to know what they'd always been: independent.
So the church became the First Independent Baptist Church of Corsicana. And if you want to measure the reach of what Simon Perry started back in 1868, count the congregations that grew from this fellowship — Wilgo, Harmony, and Sixth Avenue Baptist churches, all three of them seeded by members of this one church. One storm.
One piece of property. One name that finally said exactly what they meant. That's a long way from 1868.
What the marker says
A group of former slaves, led by Simon Perry, organized the second African Baptist Church in 1868. Following an 1886 storm that destroyed the sanctuary on Fourth Avenue, the members purchased this property and constructed a new building. In 1918 they completed the present structure. The church name was changed in 1929 to reflect the congregation's independence from other religious groups. Three area Baptist congregations, Wilgo, Harmony, and Sixth Avenue, were started by members of the fellowship.