Mount Calvary Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Way back in 1892, a woman named Ellen Grimes walked up to her employer and asked a simple question. Could her community use a house as a church?

A church for African Americans in Keltys. Now, that took something. That took the kind of quiet courage that doesn't make a lot of noise but moves mountains all the same.

And her employer said yes. Mount Calvary Baptist Church was born. The first pastor to stand before that congregation was the Reverend J.

James, leading a people who had a place to gather, a place to worship, a place to be. Over the years that congregation didn't stay in one spot. They moved through four different buildings, each one a new chapter, a new testimony to how long and how hard they had been holding on.

Then in 1948, the Angelina County Lumber Company deeded land for the church site, giving the congregation ground of their own to stand on. And they have been standing on it ever since. Mount Calvary has poured itself into community outreach programs and mission work that reaches all the way to Africa.

All the way to Africa. From a borrowed house in Keltys to a mission that crosses oceans. The marker put it plainly: Mount Calvary Baptist Church continues to serve the Lufkin area as it has for more than a hundred years.

Ellen Grimes asked a question in 1892. The answer is still ringing.

What the marker says

Mount Calvary Baptist Church was founded in 1892 when Ellen Grimes asked her employer for the use of a house as a church for African Americans in Keltys. The church's first pastor was the Rev. J. James. The congregation has occupied four different buildings. In 1948 the Angelina County Lumber Company deeded land for the church site. The congregation supports many community outreach programs and mission work in Africa. The Mount Calvary Baptist Church continues to serve the Lufkin area as it has for more than 100 years. (1996)