Leigh (Antioch)

Harrison County, TX

Status: Located

Year Established: Unknown

Council of Governments: ETCOG

Public History: Among the African American community in Leigh, the Reverend James H. Patterson, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church from 1873-1889, encouraged his congregation to buy land, build homes and fund schools and other community enrichment. Several decades later, Leigh Community Center and Health Unit was founded as a continuation of that same idea. As early as 1936, a group of residents led by Antioch school principal Uriel Rosborough Weisner (1891-1979) suggested establishing a community center and health unit. During World War II, Antioch leaders and residents from nearby black school communities, including those of Annie Glade, Carver, High Ridge, Lake Chapel, Pleasant Hill and Smithsonia, furthered plans by the original group. The Leigh Community Center and Health Unit was established on May 13, 1943. U. R. Weisner served as the first director. After World War II ended, the group purchased a building formerly owned by Longhorn Ordnance Works and moved it to Leigh. The community pitched in to update the building. The front of the building provided community space, and the back was devoted to health center operations. The building was dedicated in May 1947. Doctors came at regular intervals to provide immunizations, prenatal and pediatric care, tuberculosis screening, and health classes. Later, Red Cross instruction and dental services were offered. The center sponsored Christmas community outreaches, leadership conferences and annual fairs. Most significantly, in the 1950s after the health unit found contamination in area well water, they identified uncontaminated water sources and eventually assisted in the creation of the Leigh Water Supply Corporation. The organization’s work continues to benefit the Leigh community. (2022)

Community History: Leigh, also known as Antioch, is at the intersection of Farm roads 134 and 1999, fourteen miles northeast of Marshall in northeastern Harrison County. The community is on a site said to have been the location of a large Indian village. In the early 1840s, J. J. Webster built a plantation home, Mimosa Hall, a mile southwest of the site; Webster’s descendents occupied the house until 1984, when the property was sold. The community of Antioch, which had a predominantly Black population, was founded before 1900 and was centered around the Antioch Baptist Church. In 1900 the forerunner of the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway built through Antioch, and Rev. James Patterson built a restaurant and a general store on land adjoining the railroad. Residents of Blocker, three miles to the northeast, moved to the railroad community. Antioch was renamed Leigh in 1901, after the wife of John W. Furrh, who owned much of the land on the railroad, and that same year the Leigh post office opened. In 1904 Leigh had one school with five White students and four schools with 297 Black students. By 1914 the community had a population of fifty, three general stores, two cotton gins, a drugstore, a blacksmith shop, and telephone service. After attaining a peak population of 126 in the 1920s, Leigh declined to 100 in 1930, when it had a church, two schools, and three businesses. The railroad was rerouted to the north in the 1950s. By 1978 Leigh had two churches (St. Paul’s Episcopal and Antioch Baptist), a community center, the Antioch Cemetery, and a number of dwellings. From the 1930s to 2000 the community’s population was estimated at 100.

Cemetery: Antioch