This historic post oak once played an important role in the religious life of early Texans, for it was under its spreading branches that the settlers secretly met and worshipped.
 
Under Mexican rule, religious freedom was denied those of a faith other than Catholicism, the state religion. Consequently, until the defeat of the Mexicans at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, Texans of other faiths were forced to meet in secret.
 
As early as 1832, settlers in the Nacogdoches area met and worshipped under this historic post oak tree, which was somewhat removed from the settlement but which had nearby a good spring of water.
 
In 1835, a 10-acre site around the tree was donated for use as a graveyard and church site by Dr. John M. Sparks, son of Richard Sparks, the last alcalde of Nacogdoches. The first use of the graveyard came when a child from a passing wagon train was buried.
 
Immediately after word of Santa Anna's defeat reached the settlers, Elder Isaac Reed, a Missionary Baptist who had come to Nacogdoches from Tennessee in 1834, preached the first Baptist sermon in the shade of this tree. In October of that year, the settlers erected a log schoolhouse near the tree and named it “Liberty School House” to commemorate their battle for freedom from Mexican rule. This is said to be the first Protestant school in Texas.
 
On the first Sunday in May 1838, the first Baptist Church in Texas was organized in the log schoolhouse. Old North Church, as it is now known, originally was called Union Church to signify a union of the Primitive Baptists. Although it was built by Baptists, other denominations have never been refused use of the building for religious purposes.
 
Before the end of 1838, a log church building was erected which served its members until 1852, when the present frame building was erected on the same foundation stones. In 1933, the church building was reoriented to face the historic oak.
 
A storm in the 1930's nearly destroyed the tree, but it hid its wound with a new crown of branches and leaves. Decay that began those seventy years ago was revealed in 2005 when Hurricane Rita brought the old oak down for the final time.