Members of New Providence and Gum Branch Baptist churches under John L. Hart's leadership began Hartsville Baptist, the first church in town, on November 16, 1850. A union Sunday school met on the site as early as July 1849. John L. Hart donated the land on which the congregation built a sanctuary in 1851. Rev. J. W. Burn served as first pastor for many years. The church joined Welsh Neck Association in 1851, and the SC General Assembly chartered the congregation in 1853. By 1906 the name had changed to First Baptist Church. Dr. E. V. Baldy, pastor in 1909, served as first president of Coker College. New congregations established by this church are Fourth Street in 1906, Eastside, now Emmanuel, in 1926, Lakeview in 1944, South Hartsville in 1951, West Hartsville in 1952, and North Hartsville in 1959. The congregation completed the present sanctuary in 1964.