DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Little Bethel Baptist Church. Fannin County.
A hundred years of showing up. Now let me take you back to where it started. April 14, 1912.
A community called Stall Cup, just outside of Ladonia. That's where Little Bethel Baptist Church was established. And the reason it mattered from day one was simple: at that time, there was no nearby church for African Americans living in southeast Fannin County.
None. So Little Bethel filled that space, and it filled it with purpose. Now, nothing worth having comes without its trials.
Around 1932, Deacon John Marshall made a call. The roads leading to Stall Cup had gotten so poor that the church's membership was suffering for it. So he moved Little Bethel.
Picked it up, in a manner of speaking, and brought it into Ladonia proper. That decision kept the congregation together. Then came another test.
The church building burned down. The marker doesn't linger on it, and neither should we, but it happened, and the people of Little Bethel responded the way they always seemed to respond: by coming together. In 1938, several members purchased the current property, and a new church building was constructed to replace what had been lost.
That building is still standing. Little Bethel Baptist Church, established in the community of Stall Cup on April 14, 1912, and still serving Ladonia and the surrounding communities one hundred years on, with charity, leadership, and spiritual guidance. Some institutions talk about endurance.
Little Bethel just keeps living it.
What the marker says
Little Bethel Baptist Church was established in the community of Stall Cup, outside of Ladonia, on April 14, 1912. At that time, there was no nearby church for African Americans living in southeast Fannin County. Around 1932, Deacon John Marshall moved Little Bethel to Ladonia because poor road conditions were affecting the church's membership. In 1938, several members purchased the current property and a church building was constructed to replace the previous structure that had burned down. For 100 years, the Little Bethel Baptist Church has served, and continues to serve, Ladonia and surrounding communities with charity, leadership, and spiritual guidance. (2012)