Salem Baptist Church, Livingston Parish, Louisiana
File prepared by D.N. Pardue



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From the book entitled "The Free State - A History and Place-Names Study
of Livingston Parish" by the members of the Livingston Parish American
Revolution Bicentennial Committee in cooperation with the Livingston 
Parish Police Jury and the Louisiana American Revolution Bicentennial
Commission, 1976.  Reprinted by permission.  Dedicated to the memory of
Reuben Cooper and Raymond Riggs.

SALEM BAPTIST CHURCH, located on La. Hwy. 63 in the Oldfield community,

was organized on Sept. 11, 1854, constituted on the articles of faith

of the Mississippi River Baptist Association.

     The first building was located near the site of the present church,

west of middle Colyell Creek, but later the members met in each other's 

homes or in the Roughman School.  In 1886 a building was erected on the

present cemetery hill, and it served for 22 years as a church and school

until a tornado blew it down.  After this storm, a school house was built

near where the present parsonage stands.  Church services were held in the

school until another building was built at the south end of the cemetery

in the summer of 1909.

     That fall another storm wrecked the newly constructed church building

shortly after the first revival had been preached in it.  The conference

of June 30, 1910 voted to move the church from the cemetery area to a 

new location, which it was decided would be near the school.  This new

building was contracted to Silas and Nolan Wascom, and was a frame, one-

room house about 26 by 40.

     In March 1943, the first services were held in the two-story building

with which most Oldfield community residents are familiar, but in 1949

the church voted to turn the two-story building around and built the 

auditorium which was used until 1971.

     In recent years a new parsonage was constructed and then a new

educational building.  The latter serves as a temporary sanctuary, as

the two-story Sunday School building and frame sanctuary were removed

when the present educational building was completed. -- Mrs. Willie

Higginbotham and Mrs. Maria C. Rosemann.

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