Bay City, Matagorda County
After the 1865 Emancipation Proclamation, many of the more than 100 slave who once farmed cotton and sugar cane for John L. Thorpe remain on former plantation land, forming the Live Oak community. In 1867 Joseph Yeaman, a white schoolteacher helped organize the Grapevine church, serving as its first pastor. The first church building was a log cabin with a dirt floor. By 1895 the church was known as the Mission Home School, later becoming the Vine Grove Christian Church. The congregation continues to uphold the values and traditions of its founders. (1998)