Wilson Daily Times, 16 August 1943.

In 1943, First Baptist Church hosted hundreds of delegates to the Baptist Women’s Home and Foreign Missionary convention. On behalf of the church, Nannie Barber, Nancy Wilkins, and Rev. Fred M. Davis thanked their many supporters.

Jackson Chapel First Missionary Church celebrated its 150th anniversary last month with a banquet and anniversary worship service.

As the Wilson Times noted in an August 18 article:

“U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, whose grandfather, the Rev. Fred Davis, served as Jackson Chapel’s third pastor, has been a member since May 1955 and knows the church’s history by heart.

“‘I’m the oldest member in Jackson Chapel, not by age but in terms of membership. … There’s no member at Jackson Chapel who can say they’ve belonged longer than I have,’ Butterfield said. 

“The church was founded in 1872 by Andrew Joshua Jackson, who was born into slavery in Virginia and became a minister after he was freed. 

“Jackson Chapel’s congregation first met on Barnes Street, where Wilson Chapel is now, and its current location at the corner of Nash and Pender streets was built in the 1910s. While in Wilson, Booker T. Washington laid the building’s cornerstone.

“Throughout its history, the church has been a voice for East Wilson.

“‘Through the years, Jackson Chapel has been the epicenter of civic activity and spiritual activity in East Wilson,’ Butterfield said. ‘During the Depression, during the war, during the civil rights era, it was Jackson Chapel that stood tall and strong and helped lead the civil rights movement. It has been a spiritual force and a political force in Wilson County.'”