St. James A.M.E. Church

Starting in 1875 twenty-seven families from Dallas County, near White Rock, moved to Denton County and settled in “Freedman Town” nearly two and a half miles from the courthouse, what we know today as “the Square.” Some of the residents of Freedman town established “Quakertown,” a few blocks east of the downtown square.

At the start the townspeople first meet weekly to have prayer and class meetings, switching from house to house. Once Reverend M. P. Lambert served as minister in the group and Reverend J.V.B Goins Served as pastor, they were able to organize to become the Saint James African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The First Charter members were Jim Crawford, Dicy Crawford, Jerry Crawford, Ford Crawford, Jim Hall, Giles and Ester Lawson, Arthur and Harriet Cochran, M.P. and Sallue Lambert, Henry and Charlotte Maddox, Jim and Mattie Holt, Emily Russell, and C.R. Hembry. In the 1890’s the church was moved to a new location on Oakland Ave. under the leadership of Reverend D. Hill.

The church served as a place of gathering for the community where holidays were spent and celebrations were hosted. Outside of the church women often held fundraisers on the lawn by selling fried fish dinners, ice cream and pies, while the children played on the playground. In 1913 the church served as a classroom when the Fred Douglass School was burnt down, and even held the school’s graduation ceremonies.