Gum Spring Presbyterian Church (New Danville)

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. There's a spring out in Gregg County, a modest little thing with a gum log curb around its mouth, and that spring gave its name to one of the more quietly consequential churches in all of East Texas. Gum Spring Presbyterian Church.

And if you think a spring and a log and a name are small things to build a story on, well, just hang on. The Reverend J. M.

Becton organized the church on October the seventh, 1850, and right from the start there were families putting their names to something that intended to last. The 1850 roll reads like a founding document: Mr. and Mrs. Meshack Barber, S.

S. Barnett, Mrs. T.

C. Barnett, Mr. and Mrs. C.

W. Scott, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Sloan, Nancy Sloan, Mr. and Mrs.

T. W. Templeton.

Names on a page, yes, but also names on a community. Now, there had already been a log church on the grounds since 1849, and here is where the story takes a turn. On December the thirty-first, 1857, that log church burned.

The last day of the year, and the building was gone. But this congregation was not the kind to leave a hole in the ground where a church used to be. They built a new structure in 1858, and that building did more work than most.

It housed the Danville Masonic Lodge No. 101. It housed the Danville Masonic Female Academy from 1858 all the way to 1873. And that academy, right there under that same roof, is the parent institution of Lon Morris College.

A country church building carrying a college inside it like a seed. In 1874, the congregation moved on, and when they did, they became the First Presbyterian Church of Kilgore. A spring, a gum log, a burned church, a new one, a school, a college, a city congregation.

That is one long trail for one little spring to set in motion.

What the marker says

Named for nearby spring with gum log curb; organized Oct. 7, 1850, by the Rev. J. M. Becton. The 1850 roll: Mr. and Mrs. Meshack Barber, S. S. Barnett, Mrs. T. C. Barnett, Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Scott, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Sloan, Nancy Sloan, Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Templeton. Log church of 1849 burned on Dec. 31, 1857; present structure, built in 1858, housed Danville Masonic Lodge No. 101 and (1858-73) Danville Masonic Female Academy, the parent institution of Lon Morris College. Moving in 1874, congregation became the First Presbyterian Church of Kilgore.