Churches

(Submitted by Willie Barton)

Pleasant Grove Primitive Baptist Church - May 1885

Elder William Wallace Barton, along with his brother-in-law, Elder W.J.
McCormick, was instrumental in organizing Pleasant Grove Primitive Baptist
Church in May 1895. It was located in the Boldo Community and was a wooden
structure built in a thicket of oak trees. The name they gave their church most
likely came from the pleasant surroundings.

Charter members were:
William Wallace Barton and wife, Nancy Elizabeth Harden Barton
Napoleon Bonaparte William and wife, Kissie Mitchell Williams
Alexander Gardner Williams and wife, Susan Jane Banks Williams
Alfred Carol Barton (son of William Wallace & Nancy Barton)
Betsy Banks
Fannie Chappell

Some early members (and the year they joined):
William Norris 1891
D. B. Lewis 1897
Martha Barton 1891
William Hubbard 1897
Malinda Parker 1898
John A. Barton 1898
Wallace Barton 1895
Margaret King 1898
Louanna Haywood 1899

Pleasant Grove Primitive Baptist Church joined the Mt. Zion Association in 1895
and in 1898 hosted the 75th annual associational meeting. William Wallace
Barton continued to serve as pastor of that church until his health failed him.
He died in 1919. His son, Alfred C. Barton, was church clerk for many, many years.