First Baptist Church History

When freedom came in 1865, former slaves quickly established two important institutions: churches and schools. Reverend Moses Johns and a small group of believers organized the Colored Baptist Church Zion in 1866 and erected a sanctuary on property located on Guadalupe Street where Tuttle Lumber Company now stands. Rev. Johns was born in Tennessee in (ca1814 –ca1890). His wife Nancy was born in 1824 or 1825 in Tennessee, also. The 1870 and 1880 Federal Census records show Rev. Johns and his wife living in Guadalupe County. Rev. Johns and his wife had three sons: Isaiah, Aaron, and Abraham. In the late 1860s and 1870s, Moses Johns performed a number of marriage ceremonies, uniting newly freed slaves in Guadalupe County. He signed the marriage licenses as follows: “Moses Johns Minister ordained Baptist C.”. Rev. Johns served the congregation until 1873 when Rev. L. Stephens was called to lead the church. According to oral history accounts, the local Ku Klux Klan burned the sanctuary on Guadalupe Street in ca1873 in an attempt to capture a black man who was thought to have been hiding in the church. Oral history accounts suggest that the nineteenth century pulpit still used in the present sanctuary was rescued from that fire....