St peter baptist biography

The story of Saint Peter Baptist Church is one of resilience, faith, and community—a legacy that began over 197 years ago with a remarkable man named Dudley Brooks. Born into slavery, Brooks earned his freedom in an extraordinary way: by saving the life of his master’s wife. Once free, he settled in what was then called Scranton (now Pascagoula), working as a ship caulker. But his journey didn’t end there. With unwavering determination, he saved every penny he could to return to Louisiana and buy his wife’s freedom from his former owner. And he succeeded. Together, they built a life on Market Street, back when it was little more than a dirt road.

In that modest home, something beautiful began. Brooks gathered a small group of worshippers, and from these humble meetings, the First Free Mission Baptist Church was born. Reverend George Washington became its first pastor, and though their numbers were few, their faith was mighty.

As more people joined—many of them formerly enslaved—the Brooks’ home could no longer hold them all. So, they moved their services outdoors, beneath the sprawling branches of a massive oak tree at the 1000 block of Market Street (now Canal Street). Families were assigned their own tree roots as pews, which they kept polished and clean. A small ship’s bell hung from the branches, ringing not just to call people to worship but also to signal when someone in the community had passed away. Can you imagine that? A single bell, marking both life’s celebrations and its sorrows.

The congregation kept growing. People came from nearby towns, even traveling by boat from Gautier just to worship together. In fact, the New Era Baptist Church in Gautier started as a mission of St. Peter Baptist. According to local historians, families would make the journey by boat, spend the entire Sunday in fellowship—worship, a shared meal, and more worship—before sailing back home under the night sky. There’s something deeply moving about that dedication, isn’t there?

Money was tight, but faith was abundant. Somehow, the congregation scraped together $250 to buy a small plot of land—200 feet by 60 feet—and built their first church. It was simple, just one square room with a plain pulpit. They replaced the old ship’s bell with a larger one, hanging it in the same oak tree. That bell still rests in the tree today, though the land now sits behind the current church building. It’s not ours anymore, but any member can visit, touch the bark, and feel the weight of history.

For years, this story was passed down orally—Brooks and the early congregation couldn’t write. But the church’s age isn’t just folklore. The 1819 deed for that original plot of land, recorded in 1885 by county recorder William Denny, names it as the property of the First Free Mission Baptist Church. The handwriting is cursive, the kind people called “long hand” back then. Holding that document, you can almost feel the ink pressed into the paper by hands that believed in something bigger than themselves.