OUR HISTORY

 

Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church started 88 years ago.  It was started by Carrie Pittman in a three-room house on Missouri Avenue in the East End in 1926.   Before I go any further I want to tell you a little more about the community that St. Paul was born out of.  It was very small and poor community about a mile from here off of Broadway.   In this community people cared about one another, they helped one another and if you were child in that community you could count on being disciplined by almost any adult and count on get another when your parents found out.  They didn’t have much but they had one another, they had a hope and a belief.

 

                The people who organized St. Paul were Carrie Pittman, Mitty Jeffries, Ethyl Lee, Carolyn Holiday, Mrs. Fukery,   Mrs. Underwood, Albert Lee, Abe Jeffries, Scott Johnson, E. Thompson, and Mr. Harbor.  The first Pastor was Reverend Leroy Killion,

those people prayed together and worked together and helped others to come to Christ. 

 

                In the Spring of 1928, we joined the Woodriver District Association.  In the fall of 1948 because of flooding down in East End, they had a basement built here at 801 Gold Street.   In 1952 St. Paul By-laws and Charter was recorded in Edwardsville also in 1952 the Health Unit was organized in the Woodriver District Association by the First Lady Mrs. John C. Oliver.   Between 1953 – 1958 they had the sanctuary built were we are now.  They continued to pray and work together.  Around about 1970 the church caught on fire and was rebuilt.  The mortgage was burned in May of 1973.   Through the years these are the Pastors we had Reverend Leroy Killion, Reverend Bell, Reverend Taylor, Reverend Mason, Reverend Robinson, Reverend Coleman, Reverend Winston, Reverend Thomas J. Malone, Reverend Van Lee Tiner , Pastor Anthony Hinton and our current pastor, Reverend A.D. Siddell

 

                In the year of 2004, under leadership of Pastor Hinton, Arthur J. Givens went home to be with the Lord.  He was one of the oldest members, Head of the Deacon Board, and he was a wise man.  He use to leave with us nuggets of wisdom and one of the ones I most remember is when he said,  “ You can lie to everyone else, but what will you tell yourself?”  We can’t get pass that and it gives us all food for thought.