DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say — and this one's got some staying power to it. We're talking about a congregation that's been through a tornado, a fire, two different towns, and more than a hundred years of Texas Sundays. Pull up a chair.
It starts not in Temple at all, but in a little Bell County town called Birdsdale — about one mile west of where Temple stands today. On November 21, 1874, a congregation came together and organized under the name Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. Twenty people signed on as charter members.
Twenty. And leading that small but determined flock was the Reverend Anderson Clark, born in 1829, a man who would live all the way to 1925 — long enough to see just about everything that happened next. A small sanctuary went up on land donated by a man named A.J.
Flakes. Now, you'd think that'd be the beginning of something steady and settled. And you'd be wrong.
Because two years after that sanctuary was built — two years — a tornado came through and destroyed it. Just like that. The kind of welcome that makes you wonder what you signed up for.
But this congregation wasn't going anywhere. Well — actually, they were. In 1881, the city of Temple was created, and the members of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church looked at that new town rising up just down the road and made a decision.
They voted to move. They voted to rename themselves. And just like that, Pleasant Hill Baptist Church became the First Baptist Church of Temple.
By 1882, they had a frame church standing on the corner of North Main Street and Barton Avenue. Thirteen years later, in 1895, that frame church gave way to something more permanent — a brick and stone structure. Solid.
Built to last. Except. In 1938, fire destroyed the 1895 building.
Tornado, then fire — this congregation had seen it all. But they did what they'd always done. That same year, 1938, they relocated to this very site and built a new sanctuary.
Same year. No long pause, no wringing of hands. They moved and they built.
Over the years, additional buildings were added to serve the growing needs of the congregation, and through all of it — Birdsdale to Temple, frame to brick to new — the church remained instrumental in local missionary activities, serving this community for over a hundred years. Twenty people in a little town called Birdsdale, gathered on a November day in 1874. That's where it started.
What they built — and rebuilt, and rebuilt again — is still standing right here.
What the marker says
Originally known as Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, this congregation was organized on November 21, 1874, in the small Bell County town of Birdsdale (about one mile west of present Temple). The Rev. Anderson Clark (1829-1925) became the church's first pastor, leading a charter membership of twenty people. A small sanctuary was built on land donated by A.J. Flakes, but was destroyed by a tornado two years after its construction. Following the creation of the city of Temple in 1881, the members of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church voted to move to the new town and rename their congregation First Baptist Church of Temple. A frame church was built on the corner of North Main Street and Barton Avenue in 1882. It was replaced with a brick and stone structure in 1895. After the 1895 building was destroyed in a 1938 fire, the congregation relocated to this site and built a new sanctuary that same year. Additional buildings have been added over the years to serve the growing needs of the congregation. Instrumental in local missionary activities, this church has served the community for over 100 years. (1988)