County Line Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Back in 1856, the Reverend Jesse G. Thomas and a few determined souls came together and organized a church out here in what would become Bell County, Texas.

They called it Eanon Baptist Church, though you'll sometimes see that spelled Enon, and it sat about two miles southeast of where we're standing now, right up close to the line dividing Bell and Milam Counties. That location wasn't an accident. This congregation grew out of something simpler and warmer first: the meetings that area Baptists had been holding in the home of John and Amanda Craddock.

Amanda's family name was Childers before she married, and their home was the seed ground for all of it. A church born around a kitchen table, more or less. Now, things were going along just fine until the Civil War arrived, and it did what the Civil War did to so many things across this state.

It led to the decline of the church. But here's what you need to know about the people of southeast Bell County: they don't quit easy. Come 1868, residents reorganized.

Pulled it back together. And somewhere near the end of the 1800s, the members moved the original church building to the Mud Springs community, which folks today know as the Joe Lee community. That building stood until a storm destroyed it, and after that, it was replaced.

The name had changed somewhere along the way too, from Eanon to County Line Baptist Church. And more than a hundred and fifty years after Reverend Thomas and those others first organized it, County Line Baptist Church is still out here, still serving as a spiritual leader in southeast Bell County. Some things, it turns out, are built to last even longer than the buildings that hold them.

What the marker says

In 1856, the Rev. Jesse G. Thomas and others organized this church. Initially named Eanon (Enon) Baptist Church, it was originally located near the line separating Bell and Milam Counties (2 mi. SE). The church grew out of the meetings which area Baptists held in the home of John and Amanda (Childers) Craddock. Although the Civil War led to the decline of the church, residents reorganized in 1868. Members moved the original church building to the Mud Springs (now Joe Lee) community near the end of the 1800s. The building was later replaced after being destroyed by a storm. Today, more than 150 years after its founding, County Line Baptist Church continues to serve as a spiritual leader in southeast Bell County. (2008)