History

The history of Friendship Baptist Church started back in 1874 when The Missionary Baptist Church was organized. It originally met at the old Lick Springs School which was located on the present day Country Club Road just north of Sloan Creek. Thomas Milton Phelps and his family came from Alabama to Collin County in the 1860's, probably after the War Between the States when he was about ten years old. Between 1870 and 1880, he married Josephine Newsom who was born in Texas. In 1909, they donated one acre of land for a new church building. This early church was located on the Gabriel Fitzhugh survey and is no longer standing.

There were fifteen charter members of the new church. The church then moved to the southwest corner of Country Club Road and Old Stacy Road which is now a white brick building, housing the Immanuel Lutheran Church. The name of the Church was changed to Friendship Baptist Church in 1914, according to the Church history. Percy Barksdale and Donnie (Watson) Barksdale attended Friendship Baptist Church her whole life starting in 1902 and they were married in 1935. Ada’s mother, Donnie Barksdale, had fond memories of the many church activities including ice cream socials for the congregation to interact. There was also singing on Sunday afternoons and all day dinners on the ground on Sundays.

Lloyd Watson told a story that as a boy he was walking up the hill on Stacy Rd. to go home and the minister of the Church stopped and asked him if he was lost, meaning “are you spiritually lost?” And he replied “No, I’m not lost. I just live up the hill a little ways.” A move even further south on Country Club Rd. led the congregation to a beautiful new building on a hilltop in 1998.  This Fairview church has had three locations, all of them moving further south on Country Club Rd. from 1874 to the present. They have had many members through many generations that have attended this endearing church.