Hopewell Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Somewhere in Smith County, in the shade of a post oak grove, a story took root that's still growing today. It starts in early 1857, when the Reverend J.

S. Bledsoe rode out to the Hopewell community and began preaching right there among the trees. No walls, no roof, just the reverend and whoever showed up to listen.

Something about that grove must have suited people just fine, because by 1858 the Hopewell Baptist Church was formally organized, thirty members strong, with Bledsoe himself as first pastor. Thirty people. That's it.

Remember that number. A man named Harvey Yarborough decided this congregation deserved a proper home and deeded ten acres near his own home to the church. And in 1859, on that very ground, a structure went up.

A real building. Something you could point to and say, there, that's ours. Then came Reconstruction, and this is the part that asks you to sit up a little straighter.

The members of Hopewell didn't pull inward. They sponsored formerly enslaved people in the formation of their own churches. That's a choice.

That's a community deciding what it stands for when the weight of history is pressing down on everybody. The decades rolled on, as decades will. In 1973 a new brick building was dedicated, and in 1994 a modern educational building was erected right alongside it.

And here's where the math does the talking for you. In 1998, the congregation marked its one hundred and fortieth year of continuous worship services. Continuous.

Not interrupted, not relocated, not started over. The same thread, running all the way back to a man preaching in a post oak grove. Thirty members became one hundred and forty years of unbroken faith.

That grove picked a good reverend.

What the marker says

In early 1857 the Rev. J. S. Bledsoe began preaching in a post oak grove near the Hopewell community. By 1858 the Hopewell Baptist Church was organized with 30 members and the Rev. J. S. Bledsoe as first pastor. Harvey Yarborough deeded 10 acres near his home to the church and in 1859 a structure was erected on the site. During Reconstruction, members sponsored ex-slaves in the formation of their own churches. In 1973 a new brick building was dedicated and in 1994 a modern educational building was erected. In 1998 the congregation marked its 140th year of continuous worship services. (1998)