History of the Oakland Cumberland Presbyterian Church

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The Oakland Cumberland Presbyterian Church is located on CR 2653 between Hwy 11 and CR 4738.  The site predates the creation of Hopkins County as an entity, as it was founded in 1882 when Willis and Nannie Stewart migrated to the area from Rising Star, Alabama. 

After their original church was burned, the Stewarts fled the turbulence of the reconstruction in Alabama and bought 301 acres near present-day Sulphur Springs. In 1880 Willis purchased the deed for the land, and after a period of two years, he was able to raise enough money to bring his family out to Texas.

They constructed a two-room dogtrot house for them, their seven children and Willis’s mother. They also made a one room cabin for their two former slaves Abraham and Chloe, and a log barn and log shed. 

Willis, who was a church elder back in Alabama, had a practice of nightly Bible study, and once word spread of the religious services, neighbors promptly joined. In 1883, traveling Presbyterian minister Rev. Felice Johnson baptized baby Mollie Bagget in the Stewart home. By 1884 nine more people had been “converted to Christ” in the home, according to records. 

In 1884 Stewart began to hold services at the Oakland school, and membership grew to 80 members, according to the register. H.F. Young deeded two acres of land to construct a new church, which cost $400 to erect. It was completed in 1896, and its register read 120 members. 

Built on pier and beam foundation, the rural Texas church was unique. “Small boys, hogs, dogs, and other varmints often wandered under the church during services causing one preacher to stop his sermon and… get whatever was making that noise out from under the church.” 

In 1944, the church experienced a loft fire during the middle of a well-attended service caused by a wood burning stove. Church members put the fire out themselves by climbing up to the loft on a bench and hauling buckets of water from a nearby cistern. The roof, which sustained heavy damage, was lowered from fourteen feet to eight feet. During the remodel, a covered porch was added to keep out hogs, dogs, and small boys. 

Although the church no longer serves more than 100 parishioners as it did at its peak, it still hosts regular services and is one of the oldest standing structures in Hopkins County, before Hopkins was a county. 

By Taylor Nye

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