In 1867, on the heels of the Emancipation Proclamation, four African American Baptist ministers, led by the Reverend Jacob Fontaine, founded what would become known as the St. John Regular Missionary Baptist Association. The organization still exists today with the same mission: spreading the Christian gospel. In 1893, the association purchased 306 acres of land four miles north of Austin to use for its annual encampment meetings. Fourteen years later, it established on the site an orphanage and school that offered practical industrial training as well as coursework in the arts and humanities to African American men and women. But since a fire destroyed the orphanage in
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