Staff Reports
New Zion Missionary Baptist Church will celebrate their 159th anniversary at 2p.m. Sunday, May 19. The theme is “The Indispensable Church” from Matthew 16:18.
The church is located at 5057 FM 3001, near Jefferson.
The New Zion Missionary Baptist Church was organized during the year of 1865. It came out of the White Baptist Church that was located on the Slaughter place which was later called (Wheatly field) located four (4) miles west of Jefferson, Texas or five (5) miles down the road from its current location.
The settlers saw the need to start their own place for worship. The Black people came two and a half (2 1/2) miles up the road and built their church in the woods behind the Holt family property and named it New Zion Baptist Church. It was an old log cabin in the woods behind the Holt property. Later, they felt it was too far back and moved it closer to the road.
The first New Zion Cemetery is located on Holt Place 500ft from the main road, FM 2208, between two residences on Holt Farm. The use has since been discontinued and undisturbed.
Some of the founding members decided to go Northwest while others went Southeast. Those who went southeast named their church home ‘Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church’ and those who went northwest continued to use the name ‘New Zion Missionary Baptist Church’ and built the church where it stands at present.