Joseph Willis was the first Baptist minister to preach the Gospel west of the Mississippi River. Between 1804-1805, he arrived in Bayou Chicot, Louisiana, where he began evangelizing and meeting with believers. This group did not establish an official church because Willis was denied ordination due to his mixed race heritage. Once ordained, he chartered Calvary Baptist Church on November 13, 1812. The church's original site is 1 mile north of its current location at Vandenburg Cemetery. The congregation moved in the mid 1800s and is the oldest existing Baptist church west of the Mississippi River. Members of Calvary helped form several Louisiana Baptist churches, the Louisiana Baptist Association in 1818, and the Louisiana Baptist Convention in 1849.