Douglassville Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Out here in Cass County, there's a congregation with a story that's quiet on the surface and something else entirely underneath. The Douglassville Baptist Church.

Organized in 1869, by fourteen charter members and two elders. Fourteen people. Two elders.

And something worth building toward. Now in that era, congregations of all faiths generally held their services in school buildings. No steeple, no pews of their own, just a borrowed room and whatever faith they carried in the door.

But that didn't last long. By 1870, just one year on, the congregation raised up its first church building with volunteer workers. A frame chapel, with a spire reaching skyward the way a spire ought to.

That little chapel had some life in it. Storms came, as storms do in Texas, and that building took damage. They rebuilt it.

Then in 1948, they didn't tear it down or leave it behind. They relocated the whole structure to join the present building, where it became the fellowship hall. A chapel that weathered storms and kept on servin'.

Now here is the part that ought to stop you a moment. This church has never had more than fifty resident members. Fifty.

And yet, out of those doors, out of that congregation that could fit in a modest room, have come numerous ministers, teachers, and business leaders, spread across Texas and the nation. Fourteen people started it. Storms tested it.

And something about that small, stubborn fellowship just kept on giving the world more than anyone might have counted on.

What the marker says

This church was organized in 1869 by 14 charter members and two elders. Services of all faiths were generally held in a school building in that era. The congregation erected its first church building in 1870 with volunteer workers. That frame chapel with spire, once storm-damaged and rebuilt, was relocated in 1948 to join the present building as a fellowship hall. This church has never had more than 50 resident members, but has furnished Texas and the nation with numerous ministers, teachers, and business leaders.