DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Providence Church and Cemetery has to say — and friends, this one's worth pulling over for. Now, out here in Anderson County, the land itself has a way of telling you what it needs. And back in the mid-1800s, what this farmland area needed was a center.
A place to gather the children, bury the dead, and lift a hymn or two. On March 20, 1858, a man named W. T.
Miller put ink to paper and deeded eight acres right here — over to trustees Lemuel Mullins, who served as Chairman, along with D. Capp and Wm. Webb — for, as the deed itself put it, 'school purposes and burial ground.' Then W.
M. Hardy came along and added a half-acre just to even out the north line. Two gifts.
One vision. Now here's where it gets interesting. The local residents didn't sit around waiting for somebody else to do the work.
Freemasons among them, they donated labor and materials, fenced the churchyard cemetery, and raised up a two-story structure. Two stories. And every floor had a purpose.
Downstairs: Providence School and Providence Missionary Baptist Church — the second missionary Baptist church in all of Anderson County, mind you. Upstairs: Providence Lodge No. 400, A.F. and A.M., which would later become Elkhart Lodge. Education, worship, and fellowship, stacked right on top of one another.
Practical as a Texas sunrise. Things hummed along until 1900, when a tornado had other ideas. The building took damage, and the school was discontinued.
But the church? The church was not done. The present one-story building was salvaged and repaired using the original materials — nothing wasted, nothing surrendered — and regular church services continued right on through 1935.
And the cemetery is still out there. Still receiving the community's beloved. Some of those graves belong to settlers who arrived during the Republic of Texas days — folks who, before this place was ever built, had been holding school and worship right there in their own homes.
Think on that a moment. In 1958, Providence celebrated its centennial — July 4th through the 18th — with nightly church services. Fourteen nights of gathering on the same ground those eight acres made possible a hundred years before.
And they still come back. Every first Sunday in June, the annual homecoming draws folks in for a morning service, followed by dinner on the ground. Same land.
Same purpose. Different century. Some places earn their name.
Providence didn't have to try very hard.
What the marker says
On March 20, 1858, W. T. Miller deeded eight acres of land here "to trustees Lemuel Mullins, Chairman, D. Capp and Wm. Webb, for school purposes and burial ground." W. M. Hardy added a half-acre to even north line. These gifts met a pressing need for a central place to educate the children in this farmland area. Local residents (including Freemasons) donated work and materials, fenced the churchyard cemetery, and built a two-story structure to house the Providence School and Providence Missionary Baptist Church downstairs, and Providence Lodge No. 400, A.F. & A.M. (later to be Elkhart Lodge), upstairs. Providence was second missionary Baptist church in Anderson County. After tornado damage to building in 1900, school was discontinued. The present one-story building was salvaged and repaired with original materials, and regular church services continued through 1935. The cemetery, still used for burials, has some graves of settlers who arrived in the Republic of Texas days, and for years held school and worship in their own homes. Providence celebrated its centennial July 4-18, 1958, with nightly church services. The annual homecoming is held the first Sunday in June, with morning service followed by dinner on the ground. (1973)