Cedar Grove Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Falls County. Now settle in, because this story starts at the very beginning, and I mean the very beginning of freedom itself. On August 20, 1865, newly emancipated Black men and women gathered together on Colonel Ruben Buhl's plantation on the Brazos River, two and a half miles northeast of where we're talking about right now.

They came together to form a congregation. Sixteen charter members, that's what they had, sixteen souls who named their fellowship Buhl's Quarters Baptist Church. They met in a log cabin, and they had the Reverend Joe Moore as their first pastor.

A people, newly free, building something that would last. Now the Brazos River is a beautiful thing, but it is not a patient neighbor. That river flooded the area often, and by 1885, the congregation had decided enough was enough.

They moved one mile west to higher ground, land donated by Colonel Edward J. Gurley. They put up a frame building there and named it Rock Dam Baptist Church after the new site.

But how do you call the faithful to worship when you've got no bell? Well, according to local tradition, a man named Mose Wells, Brother Mose Wells, took care of that. He blew a bugle.

Regular services, special services, you name it, Mose Wells put that bugle to his lips and the community knew it was time. Then in 1890, Colonel Gurley gave the church a bell, a proper bell, and that bell announced activity at the site from that point forward. Also in 1890, the membership rolls were showing close to a hundred people, and the congregation made another change.

They looked around at those venerable trees shading the sanctuary, the cedar groves standing watch over the place, and they renamed it Cedar Grove Baptist Church. By 1924 membership had grown to two hundred and fifty, driven primarily by sharecroppers coming to work the surrounding farmland. A community growing, rooted in that land.

But then the land itself started to go. By the early 1940s, the ground around the church was being stripped for gravel beds. The very earth beneath their history, hauled away.

So in 1945 the congregation acquired a new site, right here in Satin, and in 1946 they built a new church under the leadership of the Reverend Hogan Guy. And when they built that new church, they brought something with them. That 1890 bell, the same one Colonel Gurley gave them all those years before, rang out once again.

Some things, you just don't leave behind.

What the marker says

Newly emancipated blacks assembled on August 20, 1865, to form a congregation at Col. Ruben Buhl's plantation on the Brazos River (2 1/2 Mi. NE). The sixteen charter members named their fellowship Buhl's Quarters Baptist Church and met in a log cabin with the Rev. Joe Moore as their fist pastor. The Brazos River area often flooded, and in 1885 the congregation moved one mile west to higher ground donated by Col. Edward J. Gurley. The frame building there was named Rock Dam Baptist Church after the new site. According to local tradition, members were called to regular and special services by a bugle blown by brother Mose Wells. In 1890 Col. Gurley gave the church a bell that announced activity at the site. In that year the church listed almost 100 members, and the name was changed to Cedar Grove Baptist Church after the venerable trees shading the sanctuary. By 1924 membership had grown to 250, due primarily to the influx of sharecroppers on the surrounding farmland. By the early 1940s, however, land around the church was being stripped for gravel beds. In 1945 the congregation acquired this site in Satin and built a new church in 1946 under the leadership of the Rev. Hogan Guy, still using the 1890 bell.