Chalk Hill Community Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Out in Rusk County, there's a little place called Chalk Hill, and the story of its community church is the kind of story that reminds you what a town is actually made of. Not lumber.

Not brick. Something harder to name than that. Worship services began about 1917, right there in the Chalk Hill schoolhouse.

No grand sanctuary, no steeple pointing at the sky. Just neighbors gathering in the same room where the children learned their letters, making do with what they had. And for a few years, that was enough.

But a schoolhouse is a schoolhouse, and a community with its eye on something lasting kept working toward something more. By 1921, a church building had been erected. The materials didn't come from some wealthy benefactor writing a check from far away.

They came from donations solicited right there among the citizens of Chalk Hill. Neighbor by neighbor, dollar by dollar. Then 1925 rolled around, and the women of Chalk Hill decided the new building needed a piano.

Now, they didn't wait around for someone else to make that happen. They sold baked goods and quilts until the piano was purchased and carried through those doors. I'd have liked to hear the first notes played in that room.

The building that community built and paid for and furnished has welcomed the Baptist, the Apostolic, the Methodist, and the Presbyterian denominations through the years. Four traditions, one roof. Owned by the community, not by any single congregation.

That last part matters. The building continues to serve as a spiritual and social center of the Chalk Hill area, and when you think about what it took to raise it, well, that seems exactly right.

What the marker says

Worship services began about 1917 in the Chalk Hill schoolhouse until a church building was erected in 1921. Materials for the community church were purchased through donations solicited from the citizens of Chalk Hill. In 1925 the women sold baked goods and quilts to purchase a piano for the church. Through the years the structure has served the Baptist, Apostolic, Methodist and Presbyterian denominations. Owned by the community, the building continues to serve as a spiritual and social center of the Chalk Hill area. (1996)