Freestone County, Texas
Churches




Stewards Mill Harmony Community Church
at Stewards Mill, Texas


The church is located on FM 2547 near its intersection with FM 833 north of 
Fairfield at the community of Stewards Mill. The Stewards Mill Church is a 
134-year-old, white frame building that conducts non denominational services 
at 8 a.m. each Sunday. For Christmas gatherings, the church is lighted with 
kerosene lamps and heat is provided by a pair of wood burning stoves. 

On October 11, 1876, Rev. Thomas Joell Bonner and Rev. W. L. Patterson 
organized an Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church called Harmony. George 
Washington Steward donated land and building materials to build the church.
Samuel Manahan, nephew of Washington, was a carpenter and helped build the 
Church.  He also built the pews that are still being used in the Church.  

The Associate Reformed Presbytery of Texas was organized at Harmony Church 
in 1877. 

Presbyterian ministers: Thomas Joel Bonner; W. L. Patterson; W. H. Millen; 
David Pressly; J. R. McCormick; J. R. McCoy; J. Walter Simpson; J. Meak White; 
W. R. Hall, Jr.; Frank McElroy; Charles B. Yeargan; W. R. Hall, Sr.; W. L. 
Loessin; Lyndon L. McCutchen. 

Ruling Presbyterian elders (between 1876 and 1954): Henry Baldree, R. A. 
McBride, William Bonner, Jr. , J. L. Bonner, W. B. Robinson, I. H. Bonner, J. P.
Robsinson, G. T. Bradley, T. H. Robinson, R. A. Jones, C. A. Bonner, C. B. 
Robinson, W. W. Steward, W. K. Bonner, Roger Steward, J. C. Thornton, O. P. 
Hagen. 

The wooden structure was shared by members of three denominations, the 
Presbyterians using it two Sundays a month and the Baptists and Methodists 
using it the other two.  For a while the Baptist congregation worshipped in 
its own sanctuary about a quarter mile west of the Stewards Mill Store.  

While the denominations and preachers rotated, the congregation remained 
almost the same with most of the people attending each week. Regardless of the 
denomination providing the preacher, Sunday School was held each Sunday with 
the same teachers. Regular services were held at the Stewards Mill Church until 
1954 and then the building was only used regularly for the Homecoming service 
on the third Sunday of October each year. Since 2004, a non-denominational 
service is held each Sunday inside the Stewards Mill Church.