As settlers gradually transformed No Man's Land from a dangerous frontier into small farming communities, churches became central to religious life, social organization, and early education. During the second half of the 19th century, Methodist, Baptist, and other congregations spread through the region, often served by circuit riders who traveled by mule, oxcart, or on foot from church to church, leading baptisms, weddings, funerals, and revivals while often farming for their own support. Early services were held with practical frontier methods, including baptisms in creeks or rivers and marriages performed whenever a preacher was available, and rough-cut church buildings commonly doubled as the first schoolhouses, where children of all ages studied together with few supplies. Among the most notable preachers in the region was Joseph Willis, born enslaved in 1762 in the Carolinas to Agerton Willis and a woman who was Native American and a slave. After gaining his freedom in 1787 but losing most of his inheritance, Willis devoted his life to Baptist ministry, traveled through Mississippi and into Louisiana, overcame resistance to his ordination, and in 1812 established Calvary Baptist Church in Bayou Chicot. Known as Father Willis and remembered by many as the first Baptist preacher west of the Mississippi and the founder of the first Baptist church west of the river, he preached for years in the Opelousas and Atakapa regions, established many churches including Occupy Baptist Church No. 1 and No. 2, and persevered through isolation, danger, and threats on the road until late in life.