Birdville Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Birdville Baptist Church, up in Tarrant County. Now, some congregations come roaring into existence with fanfare and a full house. This one had a quieter origin: five names on a charter and a whole lot of faith.

J. Boone, S. Elliott, J.

Freeman, W. Giddens, and R. Pickett.

Late in 1853, those five souls organized what would become one of this county's enduring houses of worship. Five names. That's it.

That's the foundation. Then came the lapse. And here's where the story earns its texture; because from 1856 to 1864, the congregation simply went quiet.

Eight years. Now the marker doesn't say why, and I won't pretend to know. What I do know is that when a church goes silent for eight years, the world outside those walls is rarely standing still either.

But silence, it turns out, wasn't the end of this story. When the congregation came back together, ten members reorganized (ten) at Fossil Creek, and they called themselves the United Baptist Church. Ten people deciding that whatever had scattered them wasn't going to be the last word.

That reorganization held. The congregation kept going. And then, in 1917, they took one more step and adopted the name we know today: Birdville Baptist Church.

From five founders in 1853, through an eight-year silence, through a ten-member comeback at Fossil Creek, all the way to a name that's been carried forward ever since. Not a bad run for a congregation that once went quiet for nearly a decade.

What the marker says

Organized late in 1853 by J. Boone, S. Elliott, J. Freeman, W. Giddens, and R. Pickett. After an 1856-64 lapse, ten members reorganized as the United Baptist Church at Fossil Creek. In 1917 congregation adopted present name. (1971)