HIDDEN HISTORY OF A NORTH TEXAS FREEDMEN’S COMMUNITY

by Lillie Miller

Most drivers heading through Melissa on Highway 5 pass a small church that’s easy to overlook amid the rapid growth transforming Collin County. But this church is one of the oldest surviving pieces of Black history in the area. St. Paul Baptist Church was once the heart of a small but enduring Freedmen’s community in Melissa, Texas.

Melissa’s story is part of a much larger Texas story. Following Emancipation, formerly enslaved people across Texas began establishing communities where they could live, work, worship, and raise families independently. Historians now commonly refer to these settlements as Freedom Colonies. Hundreds once existed across Texas, though many have been lost over time.

By 1873, the Houston and Texas Central Railway had completed its route through the area and laid out the original townsite that became downtown Melissa. At nearly the same time, formerly enslaved families were building a community just south of the new town. Black families worked local farms, supported businesses, and helped shape the daily life of the growing railroad town from its earliest years. They built their own church, school, and burial grounds: spaces of safety, dignity, and self-determination in a segregated society.

At the center of the community was St. Paul Baptist Church. The congregation was organized in 1872 by Rev. Jefferson Sherley, a respected preacher whose leadership in the area dates back to at least 1865. Early worship services were held outdoors beneath a brush arbor or a large Bois d’arc tree. Newly emancipated families gathered in the open air to build a church community from almost nothing.

By the 1880s, the congregation accomplished something remarkable for Black Texans of the era: it purchased land for both a church and a cemetery. After worshipping outdoors for many years, the church bought land for a permanent building in 1885. In 1888, members purchased two acres for what became St. Paul Cemetery, one of the earliest documented Black cemeteries in Collin County. A small schoolhouse was built just south of the church, providing education for Black children in the community. In an era when Black land ownership was difficult and often uncertain, building these community institutions on owned land represented extraordinary permanence and determination.

Like many Freedom Colony churches across Texas, St. Paul Baptist Church served many purposes at once. It was a sanctuary, a school, a meeting place, and the center of community life. Families gathered there for worship, funerals, celebrations, picnics, and education. In many early Black communities, the church became the strongest institution people could truly call their own.

Today, organizations such as the Texas Freedom Colonies Project, founded by Dr. Andrea Roberts, are helping document and preserve the stories of these historic settlements across Texas. Researchers have identified hundreds of former Freedom Colonies, many now hidden beneath modern development or remembered only through cemeteries, churches, and family histories.

Melissa’s Freedmen’s community faced enormous hardships over the years. One of the greatest came on April 13, 1921, when a devastating tornado tore through the town. The Black community was hit especially hard. St. Paul Baptist Church, the schoolhouse, and at least seven homes were destroyed. Many families lost nearly everything. Some relocated to McKinney to begin again, while others stayed and rebuilt. Many victims of the storm were buried in unmarked graves in St. Paul Cemetery, reflecting the scale of the community’s loss.

Despite the devastation, the community endured. Leaders such as Jeff Clayton helped rebuild both the church and the school. A portrait of Clayton still hangs prominently inside the church today. Over time, the schoolhouse was abandoned as Black education across Collin County was consolidated at E. S. Doty School in McKinney, formerly Frederick Douglass School. That building still stands today as the Holy Family School. Melissa’s Black schoolhouse sat unused for many years and was eventually demolished around 1960. Until shortly before its removal, desks and a chalkboard remained inside, quiet reminders of the generations it once served.

Much of the original Freedmen’s community has disappeared over time. Its spirit endures in family stories, public records, and in St. Paul Cemetery. The cemetery remains active today and is lovingly cared for by the descendants of the church’s founders, continuing a legacy of stewardship that began more than 150 years ago.

Texans who know of historic Black settlements in their own communities can help preserve that history by sharing and documenting it for future generations. Learn more or share a historic community at the Texas Freedom Colonies Project::

www.thetexasfreedomcoloniesproject.com/