Directions:


about 8 miles east of Fairfield, Freestone County, TX; 1 1/2 miles north of Hwy 84 on FM 1364 in the Turlington Community.





The Antioch Baptist Church was organized in November of 1873. The Rev. John Webb was the first pastor and the first to be buried in the Antioch cemetery. Bro. Webb passed away in 1877. The story goes, that Mr. John Dunbar was not expected to live, and the family asked Bro. Webb to pick a place for him to be buried. He did, and built an arbor like structure over the plot. Mr Dunbar got well, but in the meantime, Bro. Webb died and was buried in the place he had picked for Mr. Dunbar. This was the beginning of the Antioch Cemetery.


There have been no records found with information about the thirty years following Bro. Webb's death. The information we have was given by the late Luther Richardson and others.


We believe these are some of the charter members: Rev. John Webb; Rev. and Mrs. J. W. Richardson; Mr. and Mrs. John Dunbar; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hill, Sr.; Mrs Martha Robertson; Mrs. Lizzie Alford; Mrs. Amanda Koonce; G.W. Koonce; N.M. Martin; L.O. Henry; L. M. Wells. Mrs. Laura Hill played the organ for the church.


The first church building was a plain box building with one door on the north side and one on the south side. There were two iron wood-burning stoves, one in each end to furnish heat.


The church building also served as a school building. Mrs. Laura Hill and many others taught here through the years. Mr. George Fryer taught his first school in the summer of 1902. The late Malley Woods taught here in 1903 and 1904. It was used for a school building until 1908, when the Turlington school was built. (This school was located near Sugar Hill and has often been confused with the Mt. Zion School.)


The first church building was replaced by another building in 1905 or 1906. The men of the community and church would haul their cotton to Oakwood to market and would bring lumber and material back for the church building. The structure, as was the first building was a plain box building with two doors in the west end and one on the south side of the building......





The front of the church was remodeled in 1952. Sunday school rooms were added in 1956 and more in 1961. The church auditorium was again replaced in 1965 and in 1973 a steeple and fellowship hall were added. Many concrete crosses were made and placed at the cemetery around 1975 by Clint Mullen and Houston Flowers to mark many of the grave sites that were not marked but were known by Mr. Mullen. The Antioch Cemetery Memorial is held the last Saturday in June each year. Business Meeting/Devotional will begin at 11:00am followed by a pot luck dinner.


Contact Linda Mullen for more information: [email protected].





by Mrs. Clifton Anderson, Mrs. A.J.Emmons and Helen Starnes


Freestone County History Book, Vol I, page 82, 83