First Baptist Church

First Baptist Church is a Tennessee historical marker in Gallatin., Sumner County.

290 E. Winchester St., Gallatin.

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In 1865 the Reverend Robert Belote founded Union Church in a log cabin at this site. It is the oldest known African American congregation in Sumner County. African American leaders Columbus Johnson, Emanuel Wallace, and Reubin Carr, trustees of the Freedmen's School, purchased the property for $125.00 on November 20, 1866. Under the pastorate of the Reverend Peter Vertress the name changed to First Baptist Church. Continued: During Reconstruction the church building was used as a church on Sunday and a Freedmen's School during the week. From 1920 to 1922, while an African American high school was being built, the first high school classes for African Americans in Sumner County were taught here.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1838 · Kentucky (T.G. Bradford, 1838) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1844 · Kentucky (H. S. Tanner, 1844) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1862 · Johnson's Kentucky & Tennessee (1862) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1864 · Kentucky And Tennessee (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1865 · Military map showing the marches of the United States Forces 1863-1865. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

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