After the Texas Revolution ended in 1836, settlement in this area expanded, and the creation of Wood County in 1850 encouraged further growth. By 1871, the community of Sodom had developed here, and that year the Rev. John Branham founded St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in the home of Pinkney and Bettie Brooks. Its charter members were Mandy Hall, Mariah Lee, Mary Garrett, Ellis Lee, Willis Oliver, and Bettie Brooks. In 1873, when the town was renamed Mineola and gained two new rail lines, church members built their first sanctuary at the corner of Harris and Stone streets. Early baptisms took place in a creek near present Wren Street, and the congregation grew over the following decades. In 1897, it bought this site and built a new sanctuary. Later, under the leadership of the Rev. T.B. Johnson, who served from 1914 to 1941, the church remodeled its early sanctuary. In 1958, the congregation replaced it with a larger structure. The Rev. Johnson also served as moderator of the East Texas Baptist Association, as did the Rev. Lawrence W. Pryor, pastor from 1945 to 1949, who was also president of the Baptist Training Union Congress. These men and other pastors, including the Rev. Charles Colquitt, who served for more than 41 years, helped establish the congregation as a long-standing Mineola institution. Numerous deacons, deaconesses, junior deacons, trustees, and other leaders also helped sustain its role as a place of worship, education, service, and fellowship and as a tie to area pioneers in the Mineola community.