DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in Anderson County. Now settle in, because this story starts the way the best ones do — not with a building, but with people.
In the 1870s, folks from the Beulah community and the South Sycamore area began gathering together, this historically African American congregation finding its footing before it even had walls. They held prayer meetings and church services under an arbor — just an arbor, open sky above them — on the land of Jimmy and Moriah Nixon. Think about that.
No steeple, no pews, no roof to keep the weather off. Just faith, and the land, and each other. Then came the early 1880s, and Mount Moriah Baptist Church was erected — named in honor of one of those founding members, Moriah Nixon herself.
Rev. Burgess stepped in as the first pastor for the newly organized congregation, and something lasting had taken root. Right next to the church, a school went up that taught grades one through eight, reading and writing and arithmetic — the fundamentals that open every other door.
And the reach of this community kept growing. In 1938, a Mt. Moriah church member named Hattie Jamerson, along with John Henry Sims, who lived in the community, helped establish Henry High School within the Elkhart Independent School District to serve African American students in grades seven through twelve.
Now, the church had a pastor in that era who left a mark that the marker takes care to measure precisely. The Reverend W. A.
Alexander served for thirty-three years — 1914 to 1947 — the longest-serving pastor in the church's history. Under his leadership in 1937, the church mission auxiliary was established. And it was during the tenure of his successor, Reverend G.
H. Wilson — who served twenty-two years, from 1947 to 1969 — that the mission formed Star Light Band in 1951. They later renamed it Youth Mission, and its purpose was straightforward and serious: address the spiritual training of young people within the community.
Now, I want to stop here and acknowledge something the marker does not let pass quietly. On January 4, 1946, a tornado destroyed the original church. The very building that had stood since the early 1880s — gone.
But the congregation built a new structure in its place, and that structure has continued to serve the area ever since. The storm could take the walls. It could not take what those founding families had built.
And that might be the whole story right there. Descendants of those early members still worship at Mt. Moriah today.
The Sunday school, the choir, the youth mission — members who have given years upon years to those ministries. The legacy those early families left, meeting under an arbor on the Nixon land, has carried forward generation by generation. Some stories don't need embellishing.
They just need to be told.
What the marker says
The first members of this historically African American Church congregated from the Beulah community and the South Sycamore area in the 1870s, often holding prayer meetings and church services under an arbor on the land of Jimmy and Moriah Nixon. In the early 1880s, Mount Moriah Baptist Church was erected, named in honor of one of the founding members, Moriah Nixon. Rev. Burgess was the first pastor for the newly organized congregation. Although the original church was destroyed by a tornado on January 4, 1946, a new structure was built in its place where it has continued to serve the area. The church mission auxiliary was established in 1937 under the leadership of the Reverend W. A. Alexander, who was the longest-serving pastor of the church for 33 years (1914-47). Reverend G. H. Wilson served for 22 years (1947-69), and during his term in 1951 the mission formed Star Light Band (renamed Youth Mission) to address the spiritual training of young people within the community. A school built next to the church taught grades one through eight, with a curriculum focused on basic reading, writing and arithmetic. Hattie Jamerson, a Mt. Moriah church member, and John Henry Sims, who lived in the community, helped establish henry high school within the Elkhart Independent School District in 1938 to serve African American students in grades seven through twelve. Several church members have served in Sunday school, church choir, youth mission and other ministries for many years. Descendants of early members still worship here, continuing the legacy that the early families left for future generations.