W. M. Harris

William  Mercer Harris served as pastor of the Washington church from  June 1887 to December 1891. In 1888 the church voted to pay all monies into a common fund, which was then to be distributed by the treasurer. On September 2, 1889, the church organized a Woman's Missionary Society with Mrs. W. M. Pope as its first president. In 1890 the church sent $2,745.49 to the convention.

William Mercer Harris was born in Penfield, GA, about 1865, attended Mercer High School in Penfield and Emory College in Oxford, GA, and was ordained by Elberton First Baptist in March 1887. His first pastorate was Washington First Baptist from 1887 to 1891, when he was called to Adams Street Baptist, Montgomery, AL, where he served until 1893 when he was called to Greenville, AL, and on page 475 in RILEY's

history we find these words, "A strong, vigorous, forceful preacher, and enjoys an excellent opportunity for the display of his gifts in Greenville." In 1896 he was called to First Baptist Church of Galveston, TX, and sustained the loss of his church in the hurricane of 1900.

On October 7, 1898, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, being its fiftieth annual session, met at Waco. The large assemblage of the year before, and the consequent extensive interest in matters which had become notorious, brought together an overwhelming number of people, not of messengers only, but of many others. The experience of the body at San Antonio, and the agitation which had prevailed during the year, suggested the precaution of a large and wise Committee on Credentials. On this important committee was placed Rev. A. B. Vaughn, a recent and valuable accession to the ranks of the Baptist ministry of Texas. He had been called to the pastorate of the church at Nacogdoches by reason of his pastoral reputation in his native state, Georgia. The Convention proceeded with the utmost care toward organization, so as to prevent complications. Rev. W. M. Harris, pastor of the First Church, Galveston, preached a timely and appropriate sermon from the text: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword." "On earth, peace."