Following emancipation, many African American congregations were founded in east Texas in the 1870s as freedmen sought their own places of worship in their own communities. Established in the Judson community in 1870, Sherman Chapel Missionary Baptist Church was organized with support from Reverend Daniel Sherman. In its early years, the church building was shared with Pleasant Hill Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, later named Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, until each congregation could construct a sanctuary. The first location was on Freedmen's Ridge near Omega in northeastern Gregg County, a community formed after the Civil War for emancipated slaves. In the early 1940s, the congregation briefly relocated to a site one-quarter mile north of here known as in the pines. After a fire destroyed the building in 1945-46, the congregation began searching for a new home. In 1947, land was purchased on State Highway 26, later renamed Highway 259, and construction of a sanctuary began. The church marked the building's completion on March 9, 1952, when it began its annual church anniversary celebration. In the 1980s, the sanctuary was rebuilt on the same lot because of the widening of the highway. For more than a century, its members have nurtured, educated, and fostered spiritual growth in the community with leadership and support, and through decades of change the congregation has remained a spiritual beacon for area families.