Mount Zion C. M. E. Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. November 2, 1870. A meeting of the East Texas Methodist Conference is underway in Carthage, and out of that gathering, something takes root.

Methodist Bishop Enoch M. Marvin and five former slaves sit down together and found a congregation. Think about that for a moment.

Five people who had lived their lives as the property of others, now founding a church on their own terms, in their own name. That is not a small thing. That is an enormous thing.

The congregation they started that day would be called Mount Zion C. M. E.

Church. And they did not wait for a fine building to begin worshiping. They held their early services in a brush arbor, open to the sky, the wind, whatever weather Panola County cared to send their way.

Then, in 1881, the members purchased land for their first sanctuary. A place of their own, permanent, planted in the ground. Over the years, the church facilities were enlarged and modified as the congregation kept on growin', kept on needin' more room, more space to hold what they were building.

Worship, outreach, educational programs, more than a century of service to the community. You know, some stories start with a grand institution and slowly fade. This one started with five former slaves and a brush arbor, and it just kept goin'.

What the marker says

Methodist Bishop Enoch M. Marvin and five former slaves founded this congregation on November 2, 1870, during a meeting of the East Texas Methodist Conference in Carthage. Early worship services were held in a brush arbor. The members purchased land for their first sanctuary in 1881. Church facilities were enlarged and modified over the years to meet the needs of the growing congregation. Mount Zion C. M. E. Church has served the community with a variety of worship, outreach, and educational programs for more than a century.