First Baptist Church of Bells

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passin' it along. Way back in 1879, a congregation came together in Grayson County with a name that suited the land: Bell Plain Baptist Church. They didn't gather in some grand hall.

They gathered at the home of a man named J. A. Lindsay, which is about as humble a beginning as a church can have.

The first services were conducted in the Bailey Junction Schoolhouse, led by the Reverend Isaac Reed. A borrowed schoolhouse, a borrowed pulpit, and the kind of faith that doesn't wait for perfect conditions. That's how this thing started.

Now, 1884 came around, and the schoolhouse burned. Gone. You might think that would be the end of the story, but the members of this congregation were not the kind of people who took a sign like that and quit.

They built themselves a proper sanctuary, on property donated by a man named A. T. Wilson.

They worshiped there under the name Baptist Church of Christ. And for a while, things were good. Then about 1896, high winds destroyed that structure.

Not fire this time. Wind. Texas can take things from you in more ways than one.

But here is the part worth remembering: later that very same year, that congregation built again. Same year the wind took it, they were back at work, and they built a chapel at this very location. The present sanctuary was completed in 1954.

Three buildings, two disasters, one congregation that never once stayed down. Bell Plain Baptist Church, known today as the First Baptist Church of Bells. The land tried twice to stop them, and twice they just built something better.

What the marker says

Originally known as Bell Plain Baptist Church, this congregation was organized in 1879 at the home of J. A. Lindsay. The first services were conducted in the Bailey Junction Schoolhouse by the Rev. Isaac Reed. In 1884, soon after the school building burned, the members constructed a sanctuary on property donated by A. T. Wilson. They worshiped there as the Baptist Church of Christ until about 1896, when high winds destroyed the structure. Later that year the congregation built a chapel at this location. The present sanctuary was completed in 1954.