Collins Academy

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Church Makes Candlelight Tour

Historic Union Baptist Church has been selected as a Tour Home by the Historic Jefferson Foundation (HJF) and will be presented to the public by HJF docents starting on Thursday, December 3. Tours will commence at 3 PM on December 3rd and Thursday, December 10 and cease at 7 PM on these evenings. On Friday and Saturday evenings starting on December 4 and ending on December 12, tour times run from 4 PM to 8 PM. Tour days are Thursday-Saturday over the two-week run of Candlelight.

Union Baptist will be on the annual tour along with the Dotson-King House at 312 N. Walnut; the Heron House located at 307 N. Owens Street; and the Culberson House at 403 N. Walnut.

The Health & Safety Plan may be found at the event website at https://Jeffersoncandlelight.com and includes distancing, the wearing of masks, and the use of hand sanitizing stations provided by HJF. HJF docents will present site information outside each structure with no talking inside and groups limited to 10 members.

As an extra safety measure while in the sanctuary, a brief history narrative mixed with Christmas carols traditionally sung by black congregations will be delivered by members of the Pleasant Hill Quilting Club via a continuously looping video. Flo Stevenson, Oteria McDaniel, and Lawanda Warren with the Club and Mike Gannon of Collins Academy shot, edited, and published the video in mid November. It can be viewed at https://youtu.be/VA7L_6bYVL8 .

The simple and neat Christmas decorations pictured here were installed by Mary Tessi of Jefferson with help from Shirley Reiman of the House of the Seasons.

(L to R) Oteria McDaniel, Lawanda Warren, & Flo Stevenson are video- recorded by Mike Gannon on November 9 inside the sanctuary of Union Baptist Church.

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The Story of Jefferson, Texas

Virtual Field Trips

Because of the loss of face-to-face enrichment opportunities with students, Collins Academy staff is building high quality virtual field trips that are available to anyone at any time.   The Story of Jefferson, a backbone history of how steamboat navigation made Jefferson important to the settling of Northeastern Texas and all points to the West is available for viewing and expansion.  It is aligned to the Social Studies TEKS for Grades 6-12.

It is hoped that the information presented in the central story will inspire the development of additional strands of history that weave together to present a more factual and complete history of Jefferson and Marion County. In this sense, this virtual field trip serves as a spring board for individuals and groups to conduct their own ancillary research to build and publish their strand of history that expands the message and detail of the central story presented.

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A Living History Network

The Living History Center at Union Baptist Church seeks to establish a network among descendants of historic African American communities in Marion and surrounding counties.  The purpose of the network is to discover, develop, and tell the histories of these communities while preserving and maintaining the sites and structures that make these places visible and relevant.  African Americans founded “freedom colonies” across Texas from 1866-1930.  They included places like Mount Carmel, Judea, Corinth, Bethlehem, Union and New Zion in Marion County.

Our goal is to highlight the contributions of African Americans to the fabric and culture of the community.  We want to include their roles in establishing surrounding freedom colonies, their persistence in fighting for enfranchisement, resisting racial violence, and building independent communities through churches.  Deliverable outcomes of this project will be: 1) heritage conservation capacity building among diverse elders and youth, 2) public education, 3) and immersion enrichment of cultural landscapes showcasing freedom colony heritage.

Marion County

Tyler Chapel was located in the Lodi area off Willie Reed Road near the Kitchens Creek Crossing. It was constructed around 1900 and was active until the 20’s or 30’s.  John Tyler, a circuit preacher, built and maintained it.  If you are any family member know of this church or want to help with its discovery, please call (903) 665-2900 to arrange an appointment.


What church is this?
Does it have a congregation or a cemetery?
What was its role in community solidarity?
Does it have a cemetery?

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Harrison County

The breeze from the pine and hardwood blew cold over the final resting places of the original members at the “Old Canaan Baptist Church” cemetery, founded in 1870.  The “Old Canaan Cemetery” is located deep in the woods off of Highway 43 South, about 1.5 miles past Interstate 20, where the original Rosenwald school, Canaan Elementary, once stood.  When the school was burned by arsonists and the church was threatened, it was moved by the congregation to its current location, 419 Canaan Church Road.   The New Canaan Cemetery, is nearby.

Students and professors of archaeology and anthropology from Texas Tech University and Stephen F. Austin University along with interested individuals circle in prayer around one of the broken grave markers at “Old Canaan Cemetery.”  They came to explore and document the cemetery for the Texas Historical Commission.


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