Rich In Spirit

African-American History Month: Meridian’s Cumberland Presbyterian Church offers spiritual growth through fellowship, sermons, gospel singing, Sunday School in Bosque County

MERIDIAN – Much of the African-American contribution to Texas history is relayed only through verbal histories, and seldom documented – but a long and proud legacy, paved with hardships has undeniably shaped today’s Lone Star State.

During African-American History Month in February, our country pays tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society. African American society was kept separate through years of entrenched cultural norms and the use of Jim Crow laws – state and local laws enacted between 1876 and 1965 mandating segregation in all public facilities. The same can be said of those with African-American heritage in Bosque County.

For many African-Americans in Bosque County, their roots lay with ancestors coming to Texas as slaves with their slave owners from Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi and the Carolinas. They primarily set up cotton plantations along the Brazos River at Kimball Bend, Smith Bend, Coon Creek, Allen Bend and Rock Springs. The largest African-American community was the Sadler Colony at Rock Springs near Valley Mills, and it has the most documented history.

It was founded by James B. Sadler, a former slave from Tennessee who migrated to Texas with his owner and possible father John Kincaid Sadler. The preview by Bertha Sadler Means to a booklet about James B. Sadler says “Caught up by the spirit of freedom from slavery, the Rev. James B. Sadler founded and built the first Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Texas, so that his people might be able to worship and govern themselves of their own choice." Means is the church founders’ granddaughter.

Churches played a significant role in Texas’ African American culture, with many serving as anchors for the communities around them. Having the church in their midst, kept that community together longer than other African American communities. Most black Presbyterian churches separated from the “white” Presbyterian churches after the civil war, when slaves became freedmen. Through the churches, the first “colored” schools were established, to assist the congregation in learning to read the scripture.

Born in 1885 in Meridian, Ella Robinson dedicated her life to her church, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Meridian, which J.B. Sadler helped establish in 1879. It was shortly after the abolition of slavery and the former slaves started buying land, building homes for their families, schools and churches. Many of the charter members were women, including “Mother of the Church,” Sister Maria Robinson, Ella’s mother-in-law.

Miss Ella as she was fondly known, worked in the H.J. Cureton family for about 20 years, and worked for Mary Wallace and Mrs George Brooks for 32 years, retiring in 1973 and was a music teacher. She married her husband John H. Robinson at the Meridian Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1906. A cook by occupation, working in the Meridian College kitchen until it shut down in 1927, John was one of Maria Robinson’s ten children.

Through her eloquent and descriptive writing in her journals and articles, Ella documented and supplied valuable insights Meridian’s African American community’s history. Her journals, writings and newspaper clippings were donated to the Bosque Collections upon her death, just a month after her 99^th birthday in 1984.

“All would gather there on Sunday under the shade trees, in the wagons filled with children and tubs of good food that was raised in their gardens,” Ella Robinson’s church history states. “They would spend the whole day singing and shouting and greeting each other.”

Showing the community’s focus on education, a school house was built first, and it was also used for church services on Sunday, alternating between the Cumberland Presbyterian and the Baptist congregations.

“Many of the people couldn’t read nor write,” Miss Ella’s account states. “They progressed, and the first thing they had in mind was their children to be educated and have a place to worship God.”

For decades, Miss Ella was an active board member of the Woman’s’ General Board of Missions for the Texas Cumberland Presbyterian Church and attended many general Texas assemblies.

The Bosque Collections boxes contain everything from Woman’s’ General Board of Missions programs throughout the years, a handwritten account of a 1942 Christmas pageant, religious clippings, newspaper clippings about Miss Ella, and copies of the Cumberland Flag.

After a long convalescence, Miss Ella wrote a letter to the editor of the Cumberland Flag, from her then home the Meridian “Geriatric Center.” It shows her skill with words to express her thoughts.

“It has been sometime since you’ve heard from me. I’m like the awaking earth at Easter, which reminds me that it is true, nothing ever really dies, it is just born anew,” her letter states. “For Nature in her Springtime dress reveals kind Mother Earth awakening from her winter sleep to give spring’s children new birth.

“So it is with me, after living in bed for six months with a broken limb, I can spring out of bed and stand on my two feet and walk again, and be resurrected from the sick bed to begin life anew and greet the Easter season. As I look out of my window, see the budding of the trees, blooming of the flowers, green grass peeping out from Mother Earth, singing of the birds tells me spring is here.”

Her mother-in-law, former slave Maria married former slave Peter Robinson Sr. Pete had been taught to read and write by his former owner Ridley Robinson and became one of the first African American teachers at the Meridian school for African Americans.

Peter hauled the lumber from Waco the build the Bosque County Courthouse, and also hauled the lumber for the community’s school/church and their own home. Besides his work, the family farmed with a team of oxen named Broad and Buck. The family’s orchard and beehives supplied fruit and honey to sell. With the proceeds they bought cows, chickens and turkeys. Pete also played the fiddle at many country dances. Maria worked as a cook, doing laundry and helped doctors with birthing.

“Pete was ‘telligent and ‘liable and de good man. He played de fiddle all over the country and I rid horseback with him miles and miles to dem dances,” Maria’s oral history says. She was interviewed in Lubbock at the age of 104. She lived to be 108 according to her obituary.

“He larns more and gits to be de county’s fust cullud trustee and de fust cullud teacher. He gits ‘pinted to see after de widows in time of war and in de ‘construction days. Fin’ly he is sent to Austin, de capital of Texas, to be rep’sentive.”

The original Meridian Cumberland Presbyterian church suffered extensive storm damage in June 1915 and was rebuilt closer to town. But because of World War I and the Great Depression, services were held in a lodge hall before the church could be rebuilt. The current church was rebuilt again when FM 174 was constructed in 1948. It now sits on FM 174 outside Meridian.

Ten Bosque Museum Docents enjoyed a field trip to Meridian on a June 2024 afternoon that included a tour of the historic Cumberland Presbyterian Church, learning more of the history of this church and its congregation

A member of the church since moving to the area in 1961, Jean Carter, now 86, is the congregation’s oldest member. As with many of small rural churches, the older generations slowly died off and young people were leaving for economic reasons. By the 1940s, the African American settlements in Bosque County disseminated. According to the 2024 census about 1.5 percent of the Bosque County residents are African American. Another 10 percent combines two or more races.

Carter told the Bosque Museum docents she raised her children in the church, and that it holds a very special place in her heart. Assisting Carter with the tour was her close friend, Vivian Pollard. While not a member of Cumberland Presbyterian, Pollard has long family ties to the congregation since childhood and has visited it often. The two women were happy to share their knowledge of the congregation, which now has only about a dozen members, having recently lost two longtime pillars of the church.

“The church exterior is a classic country white clapboard with red steps, metal roof, and a bell tower. Inside, each side of the red-carpeted isle leading to the altar had beautiful wooden pews, some looked to be very old,” Museum docent Bryan Davis said describing the church. “To the right sat a piano, and behind the pulpit chairs for the pastor and church leaders with seats for a choir behind. On the walls around the altar hung vintage religious paintings of Jesus and angels, many looked to have dated to the early years of the church.

“Walking to the fellowship hall behind the sanctuary, the walls were lined with the photos of early church founders, leaders, and group photos of the congregation in years past," Carter said. "In the fellowship hall, an old upright piano harkened to days gone by and it wasn’t hard to imagine the wonderful music that was surely played here celebrating happy occasions such as weddings, reunions, and baptisms, as well as saying goodbye to loved ones gone to be with the Lord.

"A small church office off the fellowship hall held old church Bibles, books, and church history. The hosts said they both remember when the church had no air conditioning or bathrooms, ‘just an old outhouse out back.’”

Carter and Pollard both recalled Ella Robinson, longtime leader of the congregation. Sunday school is still held weekly at the church, but worship service is conducted only on the fourth Sunday and led by Rev. Judith Hatter of Waco. While the beautiful little white church with the inviting terra cotta colored steps leading up to the double entry doors remains in open, only has a few active members and usually only a handful of them still attend services still. But its building stands for maybe a lesser known but nevertheless rich legacy in Meridian and Bosque County.

Carter and Pollard said they miss the days when the old church bell could be heard clanging on Sunday mornings, signaling the start of worship at Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Their dream is that it will be heard again one day.