Shoal Creek Baptist Church was founded in 1866 by 10 Negro women who had been excommunicated, dismissed, or excluded from Indian Creek Baptist Church, the church of their masters. These 10 women decided to start their own church, since there was not a church nearby for Negroes to worship. On the shoals of Indian Creek in a brush arbor, the 10 women worshipped God and fellowshipped with one another
. But they were not alone: the babbling creek, the rustle of animals scurrying through the brush, the chirp of insects and the songs of the birds joined in their worship to the God of all Creation. They called their new church Shoal Creek Baptist Church. The following year, 1867, Indian Creek Baptist Church conference decided to separate the remaining Negro members from their congregation. The only church for Negroes was Shoal Creek Baptist Church. Indian Creek Church helped organize the fledgling Negro congregation. G. Woolsey, who was the pastor of Indian Creek Baptist Church, was the first pastor of the church for Negroes. Woolsey preached at Indian Creek on Sunday mornings and conducted services at Shoal Creek in the evenings. Jeff Lawson was called in 1867 to pastor Shoal Creek Baptist Church. During his 13 years of leadership, the first deacons were ordained: J. M. Walker, Steven Walker and Andrew Colvin. The congregation moved about a mile up Indian Creek, where a log church was built. After several more moves and several more pastors, Shoal Creek moved to its current location, not far from Indian Creek, around 1893 under the leadership of Rev. R. H. Elliott.
