Pleasant Hill Baptist Church - Hallsville - Within a few months of the 1865 notification of the Emancipation Proclamation, former slave families began to settle in the area later known as the Pleasant Hill community. Led by Brother Ned Jacobs, several community members held prayer meetings in private homes. In 1871 the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church was established under a brush arbor with the Rev. George Pritchett as pastor. In the absence of other public gathering places, the church became a focal point for community pursuits such as reading and writing lessons and economic and political meetings, as well as the church's own gatherings.