Mount Tabor Baptist Church was one of the missionary churches in Caroline County, Virginia which was founded within the fifteen years immediately following the Civil War. Like most of the African American churches in that period, the members began services under a brush arbor. Afterwards they worshipped in the white congregation of Mount Hermon Baptist Church in the community.
In 1872, an immigrant from Germany, Mr. Charles Alexander Shuman, recognized the adverse conditions under which his colored friends were striving to serve God and desired to do something about it. A Deacon, merchant, and landowner in the community, he gave his African American friends the first acre of ground upon which to build the first church. Having helped to establish the church, he was also instrumental in selecting a name for it. He chose a name from the 89th Psalm which reads, “the north and the south thou has created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.” As membership increased by the souls that were being saved, the church was soon in a position to purchase two more acres of land. Before the turn of the century, three buildings have been erected, the third being the edifice in which the congregation now worships.
A kindred bond still exists between the two churches today; Mt. Tabor and Mt. Hermon.
In 1872, an immigrant from Germany, Mr. Charles Alexander Shuman, recognized the adverse conditions under which his colored friends were striving to serve God and desired to do something about it. A Deacon, merchant, and landowner in the community, he gave his African American friends the first acre of ground upon which to build the first church. Having helped to establish the church, he was also instrumental in selecting a name for it. He chose a name from the 89th Psalm which reads, “the north and the south thou has created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.” As membership increased by the souls that were being saved, the church was soon in a position to purchase two more acres of land. Before the turn of the century, three buildings have been erected, the third being the edifice in which the congregation now worships.
A kindred bond still exists between the two churches today; Mt. Tabor and Mt. Hermon.
