Oak Grove Baptist Church
Joe Thoms, Sr., a slave harness-maker, founded
Oak Grove Baptist Church during the Civil War at his nearby log cabin, which burned in 1869. The congregation then met here, on land owned by John J. Robinson, a white farmer, in a grove of oaks they called the “bush arbor.” In 1870, Joe Thorns, with Deacons Ambrose Tolliver, Frank Walker, Ed Redd, John Williams, Charles Brock, Spot Mallory, and Ambrose Thoms, built a small frame church here. The third church replaced it in 1894, when Robinson donated the land. A great-great-grandson of Joe Thoms became pastor in 1982.
Marker is on Oak Park Rd (County Route 634) west of Lillards Ford Road (County Route 607), on the left when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
