Boswell Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in the rural Boswell community of Walker County, on the twenty-sixth of November, 1881, nine people walked into a log schoolhouse and decided they were going to build something that would last. Nine.

Not a crowd by any measure. But they had a purpose, and they had the Reverend T.E. King ready to serve as their first pastor, and sometimes that's all a community needs to get moving.

They held their services right there in that schoolhouse, making do, the way folks in those parts always made do. Then 1883 came along, and they didn't just make do anymore. A frame chapel went up, built right here on land that Phillip J.

Ellisor donated. From a borrowed schoolhouse to a church of their own, in just two years. For many years after that, Boswell Baptist Church was the center of community life out here.

Many prominent preachers and church leaders served within those walls. It was the kind of place a community gathers its meaning around. Then World War II passed through the world, the way it passed through everything, and the congregation began to decline.

By 1950, the congregation had disbanded. The church was quiet. But here's the part worth holding onto.

The site never went entirely still. Every year, people come back for an annual homecoming. Nine people started this in a log schoolhouse, and the ground they built on still calls folks home.

What the marker says

On Nov. 26, 1881, nine residents of the rural Boswell community met in a log schoolhouse (.25 mi. S) to organize this Baptist church. The Rev. T.E. King served as the first pastor and services were held in the schoolhouse until 1883. That year a frame chapel was built here on land donated by Phillip J. Ellisor. The Boswell Baptist Church was the center of community activity for many years, but declined after World War II. Although the congregation disbanded in 1950, the site is still used for an annual homecoming. Many prominent preachers and church leaders served here. (1981)