The “Unsung Hero” of Old North Baptist Church

[Rvaughn]

Someone might find this interesting, a little historical information about an early preacher at one of the oldest Baptist churches in Texas.

To Elders Isaac Reed and Robert G. Green go the credit for organizing the Union Baptist Church (now called Old North Baptist Church) four miles of north of Nacogdoches, Texas on May 6, 1838. To Elder James L. Bryant goes the, the, well…inattention? That may not be so much the fault of historians as it is the lack of information about James L. Bryant. All we know of him fits in a five-year window, mostly from the minutes of the Union Baptist Church. So, what do we know about Elder Bryant? From whence came he?[i.] Where did he go? Where was he born, and when did he die? We may not be able to answer these questions satisfactorily, but perhaps we can mine and discover small bits of gold.

J. L. Bryant was possibly the first pastor of Union Church, though that position is traditionally ascribed to Isaac Reed.[v] The compilation of the First Book of Church Minutes 1838-1872 gives Isaac Reed as pastor from 1838 to 1847 (page iv). This conclusion seems to originally come from that given by A. J. Holt in . Isaac Reed’s name does not appear again in the Union minutes after the first entry (First Sabbath in May 1838, p. 1) until February 1840.[vi] On the other hand, the name of James or J. L. Bryant appears July 1838, August 1838, September 1838, January 1840, February 1840, March 1840, April 1840, May 1840, June 1840, July 1840, August 1840, October 1840, January 1841, February 1841, April 1841, May 1841, and June 1841 – every recorded conference minute from July 1838 through June 1841, except December 1839.[vii] In July of 1838, “James L. Bryant commemorated the Lord’s supper on sabbath.” According to S. F. Sparks, Elder Bryant also baptized the first candidates – some 20 in all.[viii] These facts suggest he may have been the pastor rather than Isaac Reed.

J. L. Bryant is the preacher “called out” by Elder Daniel Parker. In two different publications – one private and one public – Bryant incurred the wrath of Daniel Parker. In church conference Saturday May 11, 1839, the Union Church prepared and approved [url-https://archive.org/details/jstor-30243073]a letter to her sister Hopewell Church[/url] in Nacogdoches County, warning against “some who trouble you” and might “bring you into disorder.” These some are “Elder Bryant together with the members composing what is called a church, in Sparkes.s Settlement north of Nacogdoches.” The manner of address suggests that “Elder Bryant” is the shepherd of the congregation in the Sparks Settlement (Union Church), and shows that Parker identifies these people as “Seperate Baptist.” When the Union Association, with which Parker and his Pilgrim Church identified, convened in October 1844, the circular included “the disorder of the Union Baptist church of Nacogdoches county, which church holds a number of members who were baptized by a Mr. Bryant, a man who had no ordained or legal authority to administer the ordinances of the gospel.”

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[i.] I found three men named James Bryant in the 1830 census in the general vicinity of the Mount Zion Association of Separate Baptists – two in Lincoln County and one in Marion County. One of the two in Lincoln County seems to be in Lincoln in 1840 and Franklin in 1850, so he can probably be discounted. “Our” James L. Bryant might be one of the other two. This assumes, of course, that he was already in that area by 1830 – which we actually do not know for sure.
[v] At least one other reader interpreted Parker’s words and actions to mean Bryant was the pastor of Union. “Sometime later, Hopewell Baptist church had some trouble with Union Baptist Church pastored by Elder Bryant of the Separate Baptist order.” – Authorized Church Constitution Versus Direct Authority, Mark W. Fenison, 2013, p. 146.
[vi] To be fair, there are several conferences either not held or not recorded between May 1838 and February 1840. However, of those in the record – June 1838, July 1838, August 1838, September 1838, December 1839, January 1840 – the name of Isaac Reed is not mentioned. The minutes only specifically state he was chosen as pastor in February 1842. No specific mention of choosing as pastor is noticed again until December 1844, when David Lewis was chosen. However, the 1844 minutes of the Sabine Baptist Association lists Lemuel Herrin as pastor, suggesting he might have been chosen in the previous year (1843).
[vii] J. M. Carroll writes, “Concerning Elder Bryant, we could learn very little. He seems to have become a member, soon after its organization, of Union (Old North) Church and to have assisted Pastor Reed in some of the official work of that church. The only definite record we find of him is in the minutes of Parker’s Pilgrim Church.” (A History of Texas Baptists, p.113) Apparently Carroll means any definite record other than the minutes of the Union Baptist Church.
[viii] “,” July 1, 1908, The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, pp. 77-78.

[Tim Bonney]

Danial Parker rings a bell, though I can't remember why. My knowledge for Texas Baptist history is scant.

Am I reading correctly that Parker criticized the new pastor because he started a church without someone's permission? (Whose? The Association?)

[Tim Bonney]

Now I remember, wasn't Danial Parker part of the anti-missionary movement? I'm thinking he preached in Indiana around the time some Baptist associations were forming there. One of my previous pastorates joined the "Union Missionary Baptist Association" to remove itself from an anti-missions association that formed under Parker's leadership, if I'm remembering right. (That is really digging into some old brain cells!)

[Rvaughn]

Yes, that is the same Daniel Parker. They formed the Pilgrim Church in Illinois in 1833, and moved to Texas, arriving in Austin's Colony January 1834. Was the previous pastorate you mention in Texas? If so, what church was it? There were two Union Associations formed in Texas in 1840, one was missionary (the Independence Church where Baylor started was in it) and the other was started by Daniel Parker and others?

[Sandy]

https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/te ... th-church/

It's been a while back, but when teaching 7th grade at a Christian school in Texas affiliated with San Felipe association, we did a three day field trip for our Texas History class that included some of the Baptist origins and roots in Texas and the Old North Church was one of the stops. It was always interesting to explain to students that some Baptists don't like other Baptists for various reasons which have worked themselves into their modern existence. It gets very interesting when you go down to Independence, Texas where the history of the Texas Republic, the state of Texas and the Baptists all merge together into a very interesting story.

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

[Sandy]

[Rvaughn]

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

[Rvaughn]

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

Actually, there are several churches in the Brazoria County-Fort Bend County area that mention the Sunday School at San Felipe in their church histories. That may just be their claim to some connection with the origins of Protestant churches in Austin's Colony without any real documentation. The church I served as youth pastor back in the 1980's in Brazoria county connected its founding to a Sunday school that met on the banks of Oyster Creek in 1836. So did three other Baptist churches in the association.

It's been a long time since I started teaching in the Christian school in Houston where I had the students from the Primitive Baptist church. I don't recall whether the church they helped start was "in fellowship" with any other church or group of churches. I remember having a conversation with their Dad about Primitive Baptists and their connections. I must admit it seemed complicated to me at the time and I didn't really get the differences. A few summers before that, while working along the West Virginia-Kentucky border selling books door to door, I had encountered a lot of Primitive Baptists of different associations along with a lot of "Old Ragerlars" as they called themselves, all very similar in the way they expressed themselves but very careful to distinguish themselves by association from other churches. Not being critical with my observation, it just seems to me that there is a lot more separation on the finer points of doctrine than you'd find among just about any other group of Baptists with the possible exception of the IFB's.

[Rvaughn]

[Tim Bonney]

[Rvaughn]

[Tim Bonney]

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

The Christian Gospel for Americans looks very intriguing. Unfortunately, I have a couple of books on the reading list that are for professional development reasons and want to get to Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia and the Richest most Destructive Industry on Earth
by Rachel Maddow.

Realizing that there are various degrees of thought when it comes to predestination and the direction that it can be carried toward making God the creator or author of sin, there are a lot of places that it can go with regard to personal behavior, attitude and what the church looks like as well. There are groups within the Wesleyan and Arminian branches of the church that major heavily on personal holiness and push hard on spiritual movement both personally and in the gathered body. Pentecostals run along those lines as does the Church of the Nazarene. And if you didn't check the sign on the door before you went in, you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart from the Freewill Baptists, some of them. On the Calvinist side, there's nothing more planned in advance and lacking in spontaneity than a Presbyterian church service. I've never been in a Primitive Baptist church, but the Old Regular Baptists that I went to a couple of times in West Virginia were quite Presbyterian, very solemn, even the "upbeat" songs, none of which I was familiar with, were sung without accompaniment and with the avoidance of all physical movement. It was almost as if church were deliberately meant not to be a happy or joyful experience.