Withlacoochee Missionary Baptist Church
As you cross the historic Lanier Bridge and park at Green Swamp - West Tract, you may notice a church located adjacent to the parking area. There actually used to be a settlement in that very spot in the 1880’s. The settlement had a post office and a church. It was established on August 24th, 1886.
The church, the Withlacoochee Missionary Baptist Church, wasn’t the original structure, but nearby was where the original church once stood.
At the Cummer Cypress Company town called Cumpresco, men worked in the sawmills and most everyone attended the Withlacoochee Missionary Baptist Church.
The settlement lasted into the early 1900’s before vanishing after the church burned down. The current church, which was originally a store, was actually transported from Richland to its current location.
The church, the Withlacoochee Missionary Baptist Church, wasn’t the original structure, but nearby was where the original church once stood.
At the Cummer Cypress Company town called Cumpresco, men worked in the sawmills and most everyone attended the Withlacoochee Missionary Baptist Church.
The settlement lasted into the early 1900’s before vanishing after the church burned down. The current church, which was originally a store, was actually transported from Richland to its current location.
As time would have it, this little Green Swamp church has preserved on. The congregation also moved several times along River Road to be closer to Dade City, but later returned to the current location near the Green Swamp in the late 1970s.
Timeless, generation after generation the same songs of the faith passed down by those men and women 122 years ago: The Old Rugged Cross, Shall We Gather at the River, Blessed Assurance.
Next to the church is the Withlacoochee Cemetery, some of the Green Swamps earliest settlers are laid to rest there. From what I see the cemetery is an active cemetery which recent folks being buried there.
Fivay.org. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved 2023, from https://fivay.org/
Timeless, generation after generation the same songs of the faith passed down by those men and women 122 years ago: The Old Rugged Cross, Shall We Gather at the River, Blessed Assurance.
Next to the church is the Withlacoochee Cemetery, some of the Green Swamps earliest settlers are laid to rest there. From what I see the cemetery is an active cemetery which recent folks being buried there.
Fivay.org. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved 2023, from https://fivay.org/
