St. Clair County Missouri
Churches
Concord Baptist Church
Southwest Lowry City
Partial history taken from Lowry City Centennial Book 1871-1971:
The people of the community met at Barnett School house on February 25, 1872
for the purpose
of organizing a Baptist Church. This organization was under
the leadership of R.D. Lawler
and Deacon M.D. Dunning. The organization
consisted of 14 charter members as follows:
William L. Walton, E.S. Walton,
C.B. Wilkinson, S.S. Wilkinson, T.E. Wilkinson, J.B. Bell,
L.L. Bell, S.E.
Wilkinson, M.C. Wilkinson, J.A. Mahan, J.W. Cline, M.J. Wilkinson,
Nancy
Baker and Wm. H. Baker.
At the March meeting a majority of the members decided they would call the
church Concord.
R.D. Lawler was chosen as the first pastor and A.B. Walton
church clerk, T.E. Wilkinson,
church treasurer.
In July 1872, the church asked for admission into the Tebo Baptist
Association and sent
four messengers to represent the church. On November
23, 1872 the first building committee was appointed. On October 25, 1879 the
subject of building a church was taken up and discussed.
A special meeting
was called on October 29, 1879. It was voted to locate the church on the
southwest corner of T.E. Wilkinson’s farm. On March 20, 1880 the subject of
building a
church was taken up anew. In April 1882 the church rescinded the
act of selecting a church
site two years before and made another selection
more suitable for the building. The site
selected was on the Tandy Bourland
farm.
In February 1882 the church granted 13 members letters of dismission for the
purpose of
organizing a new church at Lowry City.
Concord Church was dedicated July 27, 1883. Elder J.W. Williams preached the
dedication
sermon. J.W. Freeman offered the prayer and J.B. Murphy delivered
the charge to the church.
Submitted by: Mary Zeiler