Mount Zion Baptist Church and Jonestown Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Wise County, there's a story that starts with a single deed and just keeps going, keep your ears open, because this one runs all the way to the present day. In 1833, an early settler by the name of Andrew Jackson Jones put pen to paper and deeded four acres of land.

Not for himself. For a church and a cemetery. Four acres, set aside.

And if you want to know how old that community truly is, the earliest marked grave in that cemetery dates from that very same year, 1833. The ground was receiving the faithful before the ink on that deed had barely dried. Now, the congregation built their first church, and for a good long while it stood.

But in 1893, that first building burned. Just, gone. You can imagine what that does to a community.

Everything they'd gathered in, everything they'd worshipped under, reduced to ash. But here's what you need to know about the members of Mount Zion Baptist Church: they did not scatter. They walked over to the nearby Jones School and held their services right there, meeting together year after year, keeping that congregation alive through sheer stubbornness and faith.

That went on all the way until 1909, when they finally erected a one-room church building of their own again. One room. But theirs.

And that lumber, those boards that went up in 1909, those boards had more life left in them than anyone might've guessed. Because in 1950, the congregation used that very same lumber to construct the present building. Same wood, new walls.

There's something about that I find quietly remarkable. The membership has also supported mission work since 1902, and to this day, annual brush arbor meetings remain a tradition. From a four-acre deed in 1833 to a building made of century-old lumber.

Mount Zion Baptist Church just keeps going.

What the marker says

In 1833 early settler Andrew Jackson Jones deeded four acres of land to be used for a church and cemetery. The earliest marked grave in the cemetery dates from that year. After the first church building burned in 1893, the members of Mount Zion Baptist Church met in the nearby Jones School until 1909 when they erected a one-room church building. In 1950 the lumber from the 1909 structure was used to construct the present building. The membership has supported mission work since 1902, and annual brush arbor meetings are traditional.