“Although the Primitive Baptist Church no longer exists in Wells, the church building still stands as a reminder of its history.”
It now has:
“The Primitive Baptist Church congregation no longer exists in Wells. Due to damage in 2012, the church building no longer stands.”
This marker is located on FM 1247 in Wells, Texas, at the location where the church building used to stand.
Original Marker Text:
Primitive
Baptist Church
of Wells
Alabama native Francis Marion Sessions is
credited with the organization of the Primitive Baptist Church of Wells. Prior
to his 1890 arrival in the town, Primitive Baptists traveled to Angelina County
to worship in the Old Sand Hill Primitive Baptist Church. Although a formal
organization date for the Wells church is unrecorded, Sessions and others began
meeting in their homes and in the public schoolhouse and in 1918 purchased this
school building and property for use as a permanent place of worship.
Early leaders in the church included members
of the Childers, Wilson and McAdams families. Often in attendance at the
monthly services were residents of Angelina, Nacogdoches and Trinity counties.
Hymns were sung in special arrangements without the accompaniment of musical
instruments, a tradition in rural America known as sacred harp singing. The Old
School Primitive Baptist Church, as it came to be known, often served as a
gathering place for area harp singers.
Sessions’ death in 1930 was followed by that
of other older members of the church, and the congregation eventually ceased to
meet. Although the Primitive Baptist Church no longer exists in Wells, the
church building still stands as a reminder of its history.
Marker is Property of the State of Texas (1984.2012)
Francis Marion Sessions, who is mentioned on the historical marker, at Find-a-Grave
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